| The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford Contributor(s): Bates, Beth Tompkins (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1469613859 ISBN-13: 9781469613857 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $37.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Political Science | Labor & Industrial Relations - Business & Economics | Industries - Automobile Industry |
| Dewey: 305.896 |
| LCCN: 2012007161 |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.15 lbs) 360 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Chronological Period - 1920's - Geographic Orientation - Michigan - Cultural Region - Great Lakes - Cultural Region - Midwest - Locality - Detroit, Michigan - Topical - Black History |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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 realize 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Bates, Beth Tompkins: - Beth Tompkins Bates is professor emerita at Wayne State University and author of Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1945. |