October Calendar 2025

David Hamilton Jackson was a labor activist and an advocate of free press. He played a key role in St. Croix’s labor rights movements in the early 1900s, when the island was part of the Danish West Indies. He started the first free press newspaper, sought better conditions for the Black working class in the islands, was influential in gaining local support for the sale of the islands from Denmark to the United States, and played a strong role in the development of the U.S. Virgin Islands. He is remembered each year on David Hamilton Jackson Day, a Virgin Islands public holiday since 1981. The holiday is November 1st and is also called Liberty Day. Liberty Day is a celebration of free press in the islands which Jackson himself designated in 1915 when he published the first free press newspaper in St. Croix, The Herald.