Formation of the American Federation of Labor

*Labor Leader a Voter--Samuel Gompers...Casting His Ballot.* Between 1910-1924. National Photo Company Collection. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L. or AFL) was founded on December 8, 1886. Its predecessor, the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions (FOTLU), was formed by members of the Knights of Labor (KOL) and labor leaders including Samuel Gompers. Following the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, FOTLU and trade union leaders convened in Columbus, Ohio in December of that year. They announced the formation of the A.F. of L., with Samuel Gompers becoming its first and longest serving president.¹

In the following decades, the American Federation of Labor became the largest federation of labor unions in the United States. Unfortunately, it largely excluded unions with high percentages of minority workers with the notable exception of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Also, it was not particularly friendly toward industrial unions, leading those unions to leave the A.F. of L. and form the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). However, the two entities would eventually merge to form the AFL-CIO in December of 1955.

Print Resources

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are provided when available.

American Federation of Labor records, 1883-1925
Published/Created: 1883-1925
Finding Aid
Letterpress books containing correspondence of Samuel Gompers and William Green, presidents of the American Federation of Labor. Other letters are signed by James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank K. Foster, and John McBride.
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters records, 1920-1968
Published/Created: 1920-1968
Finding Aid
Part I consists of general correspondence, subject files, and personal papers of the brotherhood's founder, A. Philip Randolph, documenting the growth and functions of the union chiefly after 1940. Part II consists of correspondence and subject files of brotherhood officials Benjamin F. McLaurin (international field organizer), A. Philip Randolph (founder and president), and Ashley L. Totten (secretary-treasurer), and other subject files, financial records, and miscellaneous records.
American Federation of Labor: History, Encyclopedia, Reference book
Call Number: HD8055.A5 A42
Published/Created: 1919
Prepared and published by authority of the 1916 and 1917 American Federation of Labor conventions.
The American Labor Movement by Samuel Gompers
Call Number: HD8055.A5 G75 1941
Published/Created: 1941
An abstract of the testimony of the president of the American federation of labor before the United States Commission on industrial relations, in New York, May 21-23, 1914.
Rival Unionism in the United States by Walter Galenson
Call Number: HD6508 .G3 1966
Published/Created: 1966 [c1940]
History of early labor unions in the United States.
Workers in America [2 Volumes] by Robert E. Weir
ISBN: 9781598847185
Published/Created: 2013
Comprehensive reference book of major labor movements in the United States in two volumes.

Library of Congress Digital Resources

The following resources created and digitized by the Library of Congress can be used to find more information. There are also many research guides that can aid you in your research.

American Federation of Labor Records
Published/Created: 1883-1925
The records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years 1883-1925 and consist of letterpress volumes of correspondence of Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952), presidents of the organization, and by other officials including James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank Keyes Foster, and John McBride. Comprising approximately 172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm, the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters, bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles, communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising, boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Web Archive
Published/Created: 2002-2022
The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is the voluntary federation of America's unions, representing more than 13 million working women and men nationwide.
Business and Labor History: Primary Sources at the Library of Congress
This guide highlights those special collections at the Library that would be of interest to researchers studying business and labor history with an emphasis on personal and organizations papers and related resources.
This Month in Business History - January - Labor Leader Samuel Gompers Born
Samuel Gompers (Samuel Gumpertz) spent his early years as a cigar maker. The family immigrated to the United States in 1863 and settled in New York City. Father and son continued in the cigar trade and Samuel joined the Cigar Makers Local Union. In his mid-twenties Gompers was elected president of the local Cigar Makers’ International Union where he continued working his way up through the union ranks. In 1881, he helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions which became the American Federation of Labor (A. F. of L. or AFL). He became its first president and served as such for most of the rest of his life.
This Month in Business History - September - Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 at the behest of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union pushed other organizations to follow and by 1894 23 other states had adopted the holiday.
This Month in Business History - August - Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union Formed
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was founded on August 25, 1925 in New York City. The union was led by A. Philip Randolph and was the first predominately African American labor union.
Haymarket Affair: Topics in Chronicling America
On May 4, 1886, a bomb detonates near Haymarket Square in Chicago after police arrive to break up a rally in support of striking workers. This protest is one of a number of strikes, demonstrations, and other events held by workers and their supporters in Chicago from May 1-4 to advocate for an eight hour workday. The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

Internet Resources

The links below are for content openly available on the internet.

AFL-CIO External
Official site of the AFL-CIO.
American Federation of Labor (University of Maryland Libraries) External
In 2013 the AFL-CIO named the University of Maryland Libraries their official repository for records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), selected records of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and the merged American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). In terms of dates, it covers 1881 to 1955. More specifically it contains the George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archive which is approximately 40 million documents and the AFL-CIO Merger Oral History Project collection. It also includes staff oral histories that explore the history of the 1955 merger of the AFL and the CIO.
A related collection also held by the university are publications from the United Farm Workers which includes an incomplete run (circa 1960s and 1970s) of the English-language edition of El Malcriado, a newspaper published by the UFW.
American Federation of Labor Records (Wisconsin Historical Society) External
The Wisconsin Historical Society holds some records of the AFL from 1888-1955 including some papers of Presidents Samuel Gompers and William Green as well as other AFL officials and departments including AFL Economist Boris Shishkin, American Federationist editor Florence Thorne, executive secretary Catherine Bauer, the Office of Information and Research, and the head of the Mining Department James Lord. There are also general files on federal and state legislation, industry and labor developments, strikes and agreements, etc.
U.S. Department of Labor: Bicentennial History of the American Worker
E-book version of volume published in 1976 with each chapter about a different era and U.S. labor history.

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Notes

Weir, Robert E. (2013) Workers in America: A Historical Encyclopedia. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO), p. 25. Back to text

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