The Pullman neighborhood now celebrates Labor Day every year in style, heralding its place as the “Hometown of the American Labor Movement" and its role in a fight for fair wages and working conditions. The 2024 Chicago Labor Day Parade & Eddie Fest returns Saturday to the historic worker community industrialist George Pullman originally built for for the workers at his luxury sleeper train car factory. The Labor Day Parade will step off at noon at 103rd Street & Cottage Grove Avenue It will continue to 114th Street before turning north on S.
St. Lawrence Avenue to head to Arcade Park. Eddie Fest, named after the famous labor activist Eddie "Oil Can" Sadlowski from U.
S. Steel's erstwhile South Works mill on Chicago's Southeast Side, will take place from 1-4 p.m.
at Arcade Park and Pullman Park on the grounds of the Pullman National Historic Park. The parade will feature more than 100 floats representing unions, businesses, community groups and politicians. The South Shore Drill Team will perform.
"It will feature more of the local unions as well as partner organizations," Historic Pullman Foundation Communications & Membership Director Bart Darress said. Eddie Fest will include bounce houses, children's games, food trucks, craft vendors, a live band and a DJ. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts "There will be a big celebration with live music stages, five or six food trucks and tents," he said.
"There also will be an old-timey baseball game between the Lemont Quarrymen and the Blue Island Brewmasters. They play the same like it did in the 1880s with vintage uniforms and no mitts. There will be tons of activities and attractions with National Park Rangers.
There will be all kinds of old-time games like tug or war and croquet. The whole grounds will be covered with kids' bounce houses, games and activities." The Chicago Federation of Labor, the Pullman National Historical Park, the National A.
Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, the Historic Pullman Foundation, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Illinois Labor History Society, Friends of Labor, U.S. Rep.
Robin Kelly and Chicago 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale are organizing the parade and festival. "It's going to feature unions from all around the region," National A Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum David A.
Peterson Jr. said. "It's a big celebration.
" It will feature trolley rides around the neighborhood and reenactments of the famous labor organizer Mother Jones. People also can see an exhibition at the Pullman Exhibit Hall about the 130th anniversary of the Pullman Strike. "It's exactly how the legislation took off to start Labor Day.
It had been talked about before then but the strike was really the impetus and what put it over the top and got it signed," he said. More than a century later, the labor movement continues to face many of the same issues today, Darress said. "This is a celebration of the working people of America and it's a fun time," he said.
"You can learn about the importance of the historic Pullman neighborhood and what it means to America, to Chicago and to everyone who works. This is a really important place. This is where America's stories live.
".
