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Black Detroit and the Rise of the UAW
"Heretofore little has been known of the relationship between blacks and the unions in the automobile industry; this book fills the gap in a superior way." --FRANK FREIDEL, Harvard University.
How did the alliance between blacks and industrial unions evolve during the New Deal? In this original and challenging book, August Meier and Elliott Rudwick provide a vivid case study of the transformation in race relations between the blacks and organized labor in a major industrial city during the rise of the CIO.
With twelve thousand black workers at Ford's River Rouge plant and the presence of unusually active black advancement organizations, Detroit furnishes the perfect setting for such a study. The book first traces the growth of black involvement in the UAW during the New Deal. It then explores the interaction during World War II among union leaders, black workers, negro civil rights spokesmen, and federal manpower officials that brought blacks important gains in their struggle for job equality.
Two major events dominate the book. First is the Ford strike of 1941 in which Henry Ford used blacks as strikebreakers against the UAW. The second is the Detroit race riot of 1943 that epitomized the city's intense ethnic conflicts, yet also was a key event in the forging of a black labor alliance that would last for two decades.
"A wealth of detail lend[s] a reassuring note to the tone of social analysis." --BENJAMIN QUARLES, Morgan State University.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Aubust Meier, University Professor of History, and Elliott Rudwick, Professor of History and Sociology, both at Kent State University, are authors of CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, and other leading works on the black experience.
How did the alliance between blacks and industrial unions evolve during the New Deal? In this original and challenging book, August Meier and Elliott Rudwick provide a vivid case study of the transformation in race relations between the blacks and organized labor in a major industrial city during the rise of the CIO.
With twelve thousand black workers at Ford's River Rouge plant and the presence of unusually active black advancement organizations, Detroit furnishes the perfect setting for such a study. The book first traces the growth of black involvement in the UAW during the New Deal. It then explores the interaction during World War II among union leaders, black workers, negro civil rights spokesmen, and federal manpower officials that brought blacks important gains in their struggle for job equality.
Two major events dominate the book. First is the Ford strike of 1941 in which Henry Ford used blacks as strikebreakers against the UAW. The second is the Detroit race riot of 1943 that epitomized the city's intense ethnic conflicts, yet also was a key event in the forging of a black labor alliance that would last for two decades.
"A wealth of detail lend[s] a reassuring note to the tone of social analysis." --BENJAMIN QUARLES, Morgan State University.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Aubust Meier, University Professor of History, and Elliott Rudwick, Professor of History and Sociology, both at Kent State University, are authors of CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, and other leading works on the black experience.
- GenresNonfictionLabor
289 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 18, 2018
In this 1979 labor and civil rights history August Meier and Elliott Rudwick sought to answer the question of how African-Americans went from being generally suspicious of unions and pro-management, as a result of being employed as strikebreakers, discriminatory practices of white craft unions, and racism by white workers, to being amongst the most pro-union of workers. They argue because of the UAW's strong engagement with the NAACP, the Urban League, and black clergy that eventually black workers switched sides, which seems like somewhat of a weak argument. Still, the history they present in the critical years of 1937-43, starts with Ford's racial paternalism which actually saw his company at the forefront of hiring black workers, engaging with black clergy, and hiring black replacement workers during any strikes, and the UAW leadership realizing that they would need to be strongly committed to anti-racism and engage with issues important to African-Americans if they were to build a multiracial union that could stand together against divide-and-conquer tactics.
Sometimes this meant walking the line of standing up for black workers even when racist white coworkers mistreated them, such as 1943 when white workers engaged in a wildcat strike against black hiring, which saw the UAW push for government intervention to have the strike ended and the ring leaders fired. In the 1940 strikes, still, even with the engagement of black community leaders, which had endorsed the UAW's efforts, a sizeable majority of black workers did not support the UAW-CIO, instead supporting the AFL union favored by Ford. However, after the UAW's victory, black workers quickly became very supportive of the UAW as it engaged with issues important to black workers, such as fights against police brutality, housing discrimination, and job discrimination. Ford quickly abandoned its policies of racial inclusion, so made the UAW push even harder against racial discrimination.
This book has been criticised for overemphasizing black leadership organizations like the NAACP and the Urban League, and underemphasizing black workers and radicals like the Communists who pushed hard for their inclusion. Reuther shared the goals of racial inclusion and pushed hard partly to take away the issue from the Communists. Research that came later does a good job of rectifying this misconception, like in "red" Local 600 that represented the Rouge complex.
Sometimes this meant walking the line of standing up for black workers even when racist white coworkers mistreated them, such as 1943 when white workers engaged in a wildcat strike against black hiring, which saw the UAW push for government intervention to have the strike ended and the ring leaders fired. In the 1940 strikes, still, even with the engagement of black community leaders, which had endorsed the UAW's efforts, a sizeable majority of black workers did not support the UAW-CIO, instead supporting the AFL union favored by Ford. However, after the UAW's victory, black workers quickly became very supportive of the UAW as it engaged with issues important to black workers, such as fights against police brutality, housing discrimination, and job discrimination. Ford quickly abandoned its policies of racial inclusion, so made the UAW push even harder against racial discrimination.
This book has been criticised for overemphasizing black leadership organizations like the NAACP and the Urban League, and underemphasizing black workers and radicals like the Communists who pushed hard for their inclusion. Reuther shared the goals of racial inclusion and pushed hard partly to take away the issue from the Communists. Research that came later does a good job of rectifying this misconception, like in "red" Local 600 that represented the Rouge complex.
July 9, 2025
Meier and Rudwick go into great detail about the labor attitudes of Black people in Detroit during the depression, the organizing drives that overcame pro-Ford sentiments, and the struggle between left-wing and racist factions in the union.
Even as overt anti-Black racism is less common among white Americans in the 21st century than it was during WWII, modern activists could still glean some interesting anti-racist tactics from the pages of this book. For instance, then president of the UAW requested aid from the New Deal war time labor programs and sided with the bosses in firing hate strikers that organized wildcat strikes against Black promotions. This, to me, seems to fall incredibly short of stamping out racist sentiments in the union, and siding with the boss is never a good long-term strategy. Firing racist wildcat leaders in the short-term is a good start and a necessary show of force against reactionary elements in the union, but only a long term strategy based around education and inoculation against the bosses’ attempts to divide workers on race will build the strength and solidarity of the union.
The most interesting part of the book was seeing how the leadership of the UAW navigated the contradictions between siding with the NAACP in housing and electoral issues, while remaining incapable of reining in racism among the white rank-and-file.
Ultimately though, it is worth noting that unions in the US lost to neoliberal reaction in the second half of the century, and failure to reckon with racism among their ranks, along with a decline in militancy, could have played parts in that.
Even as overt anti-Black racism is less common among white Americans in the 21st century than it was during WWII, modern activists could still glean some interesting anti-racist tactics from the pages of this book. For instance, then president of the UAW requested aid from the New Deal war time labor programs and sided with the bosses in firing hate strikers that organized wildcat strikes against Black promotions. This, to me, seems to fall incredibly short of stamping out racist sentiments in the union, and siding with the boss is never a good long-term strategy. Firing racist wildcat leaders in the short-term is a good start and a necessary show of force against reactionary elements in the union, but only a long term strategy based around education and inoculation against the bosses’ attempts to divide workers on race will build the strength and solidarity of the union.
The most interesting part of the book was seeing how the leadership of the UAW navigated the contradictions between siding with the NAACP in housing and electoral issues, while remaining incapable of reining in racism among the white rank-and-file.
Ultimately though, it is worth noting that unions in the US lost to neoliberal reaction in the second half of the century, and failure to reckon with racism among their ranks, along with a decline in militancy, could have played parts in that.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews