On Saturday, March 7, Metro Detroiters will gather to remember the historic Ford Hunger March and five workers who were murdered during a peaceful demonstration on that date in 1932.
The five workers who lost their lives – Joe Bussell, Joe DiBlasio, Coleman Leny, Curtis Williams, and Joe York -- were among hundreds who had earlier marched seven miles from downtown Detroit to the Ford River Rouge plant to petition for jobs, health care, housing, and unemployment relief. Instead, they were met by bullets fired by plant guards in a confrontation that some are comparing to the recent shootings of anti-ICE demonstrators in Minneapolis and other cities.
At 1 p.m., there will be a short remembrance ceremony with speakers and the Detroit Labor Song Singers at the Hunger March memorial in Fort Street Bridge Park (Oakwood and Fort), followed by a walk in the footsteps of the original marchers on Miller Road to the UAW Local 600 hall (10550 Dix, Dearborn).
U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib and Detroit City Council member Gabriela Santiago-Rivera will attend. River Rouge singer Don “Doop” Dupre and the labor rock group Tony Paris and Sugarburn will perform starting at 2:30 p.m. A silent auction and 50/50 rally will raise funds for the Downriver Delta maintenance fund for Fort Street Bridge Park. Food and refreshments will be served.
The Ford Hunger March occurred in the third year of the Great Depression, when Detroit’s unemployment rate had topped 50 percent, home evictions were rampant, and hospitals were reporting malnutrition-related deaths. Led by the recently organized Unemployed Councils, marchers stepped off in downtown Detroit early on the morning of March 7, 1932. At Fort and Oakwood Streets, they turned north to the Ford Rouge factory, a mile away in Dearborn. Dearborn police tried to block their way, but the marchers continued to the plant, where gunshots took five lives and injured dozens more.
No one was ever brought to justice for the killings. Local media blamed “reds” and “agitators” for provoking the violence. The march would become a catalyst for organizing Ford workers, but it would take another nine years, including another confrontation with Ford guards at the1937 “Battle of the Overpass,” and a 1941 strike, before the Ford Motor Company recognized the United Auto Workers as bargaining agent for Rouge workers and signed the first union contract.
The Michigan Labor History Society, which offers guided labor-history bus tours of metro Detroit, with a stop at the Ford Hunger March memorial, is one of several groups sponsoring the March 7 event. Others include Downriver Delta, Fort-Rouge Gateway (FRoG), Friends of the Rouge, MotorCities National Heritage Area, River’s Edge Gallery, the Sugar Law Center, University of Michigan Center for Labor and Community Studies, and the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University.
The Day’s Activities:
1 p.m. Gathering at Ford Hunger March Memorial “March On!” in Fort Street Bridge Park, Oakwood and Fort Streets, Detroit
1:30 p.m. March up Miller Road to Dix and then to UAW Local 600, 10550 Dix, Dearborn
2 p.m. Doors open at Local 600
2:30 p.m. Program with brief remarks, music by Don “Doop” Dupre and Tony Paris and Sugarburn
Food, Refreshments
Silent auction, 50-50 Raffle