Overview

In the 1920s, Henry Ford hired thousands of African American men for his open-shop system of auto manufacturing. This move was a rejection of the notion that better jobs were for white men only. In The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford, Beth Tompkins Bates explains how black Detroiters, newly arrived from the South, seized the economic opportunities offered by Ford in the hope of gaining greater economic security. As these workers came to realise that Ford's anti-union """"American Plan"""" did not allow them full access to the American Dream, their loyalty eroded, and they sought empowerment by pursuing a broad activist agenda. This, in turn, led them to play a pivotal role in the United Auto Workers' challenge to Ford's interests. In order to fully understand this complex shift, Bates traces allegiances among Detroit's African American community as reflected in its opposition to the Ku Klux Klan, challenges to unfair housing practices, and demands for increased and effective political participation. This groundbreaking history demonstrates how by World War II Henry Ford and his company had helped kindle the civil rights movement in Detroit without intending to do so.

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9781469613857

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Offers a more realistic view of the tensions that existed within the union . . . [and] highlights the role Black organizers played in the UAW drive at Ford.--Against the Current An engaging book, lucidly presented and approachable to anyone with a curious mind.--SpeedReaders.info Recommended. All academic levels/libraries.--Choice [This] very readable study will be of enormous interest to historians of the urban and industrial Midwest, to scholars interested in racial formation in the region, and to those who study African American experiences.--Middle West Review Black Detroit includes some remarkable and complicated stories [that explore] changing attitudes and realities within the city in a masterful manner. . . . It is an important addition to the Detroit Story.--American Historical Review Combines the broader political, social and economic life of Detroit with the experiences endured at the Ford Motor Company, as African Americans quickened their pace on the long and seemingly never ending march, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Junior, to be treated according to the content of their characters rather than the colour of their skins.--Labour History Beth Tompkins Bates delves further back than others have into the 1920s and extends her critical eye to community formation and the political activities of Detroit's blacks, many of whom were in the first wave of the Great Migration.--Historian Offers a clear and compelling account of Ford's motives for courting blacks.--Speedreaders.info A detailed and highly readable history of Ford's industrial goals, his controlling social vision for his workers, and his brutal response to unionization.--TriQuarterly

[This] very readable study will be of enormous interest to historians of the urban and industrial Midwest, to scholars interested in racial formation in the region, and to those who study African American experiences.--Middle West Review Black Detroit includes some remarkable and complicated stories [that explore] changing attitudes and realities within the city in a masterful manner. . . . It is an important addition to the Detroit Story.--American Historical Review Combines the broader political, social and economic life of Detroit with the experiences endured at the Ford Motor Company, as African Americans quickened their pace on the long and seemingly never ending march, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Junior, to be treated according to the content of their characters rather than the colour of their skins.--Labour History Offers a clear and compelling account of Ford's motives for courting blacks.--Speedreaders.info A detailed and highly readable history of Ford's industrial goals, his controlling social vision for his workers, and his brutal response to unionization.--TriQuarterly Offers a more realistic view of the tensions that existed within the union . . . [and] highlights the role Black organizers played in the UAW drive at Ford.--Against the Current An engaging book, lucidly presented and approachable to anyone with a curious mind.--SpeedReaders.info Beth Tompkins Bates delves further back than others have into the 1920s and extends her critical eye to community formation and the political activities of Detroit's blacks, many of whom were in the first wave of the Great Migration.--Historian Recommended. All academic levels/libraries.--Choice

In this book, Beth Bates offers a strikingly original account of the rise of what she calls 'civil rights unionism' in Detroit. Beginning with Henry Ford's forward-looking decision to open industrial jobs to black workers, she traces the making of the city's black community, the impact of the Great Depression, and the crosscurrents of politics that culminated in black adherence to the United Auto Workers union. Deeply researched and clearly written, this is a major contribution to twentieth-century American history. --Eric Foner, Columbia University

Beth Tompkins Bates delves further back than others have into the 1920s and extends her critical eye to community formation and the political activities of Detroit's blacks, many of whom were in the first wave of the Great Migration. -- Historian Combines the broader political, social and economic life of Detroit with the experiences endured at the Ford Motor Company, as African Americans quickened their pace on the long and seemingly never ending march, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Junior, to be treated according to the content of their characters rather than the colour of their skins. -- Labour History [This] very readable study will be of enormous interest to historians of the urban and industrial Midwest, to scholars interested in racial formation in the region, and to those who study African American experiences.--Middle West Review Offers a more realistic view of the tensions that existed within the union . . . [and] highlights the role Black organizers played in the UAW drive at Ford.--Against the Current Black Detroit includes some remarkable and complicated stories [that explore] changing attitudes and realities within the city in a masterful manner. . . . It is an important addition to the Detroit Story.--American Historical Review An engaging book, lucidly presented and approachable to anyone with a curious mind.--SpeedReaders.info Combines the broader political, social and economic life of Detroit with the experiences endured at the Ford Motor Company, as African Americans quickened their pace on the long and seemingly never ending march, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Junior, to be treated according to the content of their characters rather than the colour of their skins.--Labour History Beth Tompkins Bates delves further back than others have into the 1920s and extends her critical eye to community formation and the political activities of Detroit's blacks, many of whom were in the first wave of the Great Migration.--Historian Offers a clear and compelling account of Ford's motives for courting blacks.--Speedreaders.info A detailed and highly readable history of Ford's industrial goals, his controlling social vision for his workers, and his brutal response to unionization.--TriQuarterly Recommended. All academic levels/libraries.--Choice Black Detroit includes some remarkable and complicated stories [that explore] changing attitudes and realities within the city in a masterful manner. . . . It is an important addition to the Detroit Story.-- American Historical Review Recommended. All academic levels/libraries.-- Choice Offers a clear and compelling account of Ford's motives for courting blacks. --Speedreaders.info An engaging book, lucidly presented and approachable to anyone with a curious mind. --SpeedReaders.info Recommended. All academic levels/libraries. -- Choice A detailed and highly readable history of Ford's industrial goals, his controlling social vision for his workers, and his brutal response to unionization. -- TriQuarterly Black Detroit includes some remarkable and complicated stories [that explore] changing attitudes and realities within the city in a masterful manner. . . . It is an important addition to the Detroit Story. -- American Historical Review Offers a more realistic view of the tensions that existed within the union . . . [and] highlights the role Black organizers played in the UAW drive at Ford. -- Against the Current In this book, Beth Bates offers a strikingly original account of the rise of what she calls 'civil rights unionism' in Detroit. Beginning with Henry Ford's forward-looking decision to open industrial jobs to black workers, she traces the making of the city's black community, the impact of the Great Depression, and the crosscurrents of politics that culminated in black adherence to the United Auto Workers union. Deeply researched and clearly written, this is a major contribution to twentieth-century American history. --Eric Foner, Columbia University Bates moves beyond shopfloor politics and traditional labor history to explore the complex relationship between Ford Motor Company and its migrant African American employees. She challenges the image of black Detroit as a pliant and politically quiescent community and posits instead that the labor and work-oriented issues they faced were central to early civil rights activism.--Steven Reich, James Madison University

Author Information

Beth Tompkins Bates is professor emerita at Wayne State University, USA and author of Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1945.

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