Since 1894, Americans have enjoyed an extended weekend built on the backs of workers who fought for the American Dream. With East Texas’s history rich in the oil, timber, agriculture and manufacturing sectors, historian Dr. M. Rhys Dotson, talks about the significance of Labor Day in East Texas. …On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September the national holiday, which recognizes the American Labor Movement and achievements of American workers, but Labor Day began many years beforehand. “The origins go back to Manhattan and New York City where you had labor organizers coming together to advocate for workers’ rights,” Dotson said. …In the late 1880s, many states already adopted the holiday and the 1894 Pullman nationwide railroad strike which led to severe economic consequences for the U.S. pushed Cleveland to kick off the reconstruction of American labor law and resulted in the federal Labor Day holiday.