Union labor helped build Paducah, including the flood wall on which this mural appears. Unions in construction, business, industry and government helped create a large middle class in Western KY especially after World War II. The region's earliest unions date to the 19th century. In 1892, the American Federation of Labor chartered the Paducah Central Labor Council, an association of local unions. The next year, the CLC, the ancestor of the Western KY Area Council, AFL-CIO, sponsored the city's first Labor Day Parade, which became the annual end-of-summer procession featured on this mural. It is one of the oldest Labor Day parades in the country and for several years was the official KY State AFL-CIO Labor Day celebration. W.C. Young, a national labor an civil rights leader, appears above the "I" on the banner along with other local labor leaders. The Area Council during the presidency of Glenn Dowdy approved the mural.

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Show me all markers in:  Paducah, KY  |  McCracken County  |  42003  |  Kentucky  |  United States of America

Western Baptist Hospital
A Century of Library Service 1904-2004
Paducah Coca-Cola Bottling Company
Riverside Hospital at Fort Anderson
U.S. Marine Hospital Service
"Evening Roll Call"
Welcome to the Atomic City
Dawn of the Atomic Age
The "A" Boom in Paducah
Iron Horse Memorial

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