"GREEN, JOHN PATTERSON (2 Apr. 1845-1 Sept. 1940), the "Father of Labor Day," was born the son of John R. and Temperance Green, free blacks of Newberne, N.C. His family moved to Cleveland in 1857. John left school in 1859 to support his family, studying on the side and publishing Essays on Miscellaneous Subjects by a Self-Educated Colored Youth in 1866. He attended CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL (1866-69), and in 1870 graduated from Union Law School, moved to South Carolina, and was admitted to the bar. Green returned to Cleveland in 1872 and was elected Republican justice of the peace, the first black elected to office in Cleveland. He held the post for 9 years (1873-82). In 1881 he won election to the Ohio House of Representatives. He was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1890, there introducing the bill that established Labor Day as a state holiday; the U.S. Congress made it a national holiday in 1894.” - Encyclopedia of Cleveland History