What’s the real history of Black Friday?

3 min read

1 day ago Leo S

Originally written by Leo S. 🙏🏽 on his Facebook page. Republished here in 2025

Black Friday has become one of the busiest shopping days each year. We all love big sales and great deals, but when did it start, how is its date determined and, above all, why is it called Black Friday?
It is celebrated the day after Thanksgiving, American national holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, since 1941, which means that the date of the holiday shifts each year.

Actually the history of Black Friday started much earlier than you may think: the day after Thanksgiving has been the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season since the late 19th century when President Abraham Lincoln designated the Thanksgiving holiday as the last Thursday in November.
However, the day after Thanksgiving wasn’t called Black Friday then, because this name was originally associated with September 24, 1869.
At the time, two speculators, Jay Gould, and James Fisk created a boom-and-bust in gold prices.
A stock market crash followed as prices fell 20%, and the disruption in gold prices sent commodity prices plummeting. Corruption in Tammany Hall allowed the two to escape without punishment, but that incident has no connection to the current shopping holiday beyond the name.

Back to our Black Friday, in 1905, Canadian department store Eaton’s began the first Thanksgiving Day parade by bringing Santa on a wagon through the streets of downtown Toronto.
In 1924, the Eaton’s parade inspired Macy’s Department Store to launch its famous Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. Macy’s wanted to celebrate its success during the 20s, and the parade boosted shopping for the following day.
In 1939, during the Great Depression, Thanksgiving happened to fall during the fifth week of November, with retailers warned they would go bankrupt because the holiday shopping season was too short, and thus they petitioned President Franklin D. Roosevelt to move the Thanksgiving holiday up to the fourth Thursday.
Unfortunately, by this time it was late October, and most people had already made their plans.
Some were so upset that they called the holiday “Franksgiving” instead, and only 25 states followed Roosvelt’s move.
Texas and Colorado celebrated two holidays, which forced some companies to give their employees an extra day off.
In 1941, Congress ended this confusion, and It passed a law that made Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November, no matter what.
The modern term “Black Friday,” in reference to the day after Thanksgiving, can be traced to the city of Philadelphia in the 1950s. The city’s police officers called the day Black Friday because of the chaos created by the descent of enormous crowds of shoppers in the downtown area, a dark day for those charged with maintaining order on a day of overcrowding, traffic jams, accidents, and other issues.
It was, in fact, in the 1950s, when people began calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving, essentially giving themselves a four-day weekend. Since stores were open, as were most businesses, those playing hooky could also get a head start on their holiday shopping. That’s as long as the boss didn’t see them!
Rather than try to determine whose pay should be cut, and who was legitimately sick, many businesses started adding that day as another paid holiday.
In 1966, the Black Friday name became popular in print: that’s when a story appeared in an ad in The American Philatelist, a stamp collectors’ magazine.

However, in 2014, an internet meme created a false myth about Black Friday and slaves. It falsely claimed slave traders gave discounts at auctions on the day after Thanksgiving.
But this is a bullshit!