FORD Unemployed Hunger March of 1932
The FORD unemployed workers proceeded across the Baby Creek Bridge, and gathered at the corner of Fort Street and Miller Road. A dense throng around a waiting truck.
[The marchers numbered about 3000. They were led by progressive Union leaders Albert Goetz, Tony Gerlach, and William Reynolds from the Union and the Detroit Unemployed Council. -pdwa]
They were still in Detroit. Albert Goetz swung up on the truck and began to speak. He restated the purpose of their march: to have a committee present their demands to the FORD Motor Company. He called on the workers to form an orderly and disciplined march.
“We don't want any violence,” he said sharply. “Remember, all we are going to do is to walk to the FORD Employment Office. No trouble. No fighting. Stay in line. Be orderly.”
Goetz paused a moment. The crowd was silent. “I understand,” he continued, “the Dearborn Police is planning to stop us. Well, we will try to get through somehow. But remember, no trouble.”
A tremendous cheer greeted his remarks and the march began.
Eight abreast, singing and cheering, the marchers proceeded toward the Dearborn City limits.
50 Dearborn and FORD Police, in uniform, were lined up across the road. An Officer yelled, “Who are your leaders?”
“We are all leaders,” the marchers shouted back.
“Stop, or we’ll shoot,” threatened the cops, and immediately they fired large amounts of tear gas into the ranks of the marchers.
The marchers hesitated. Blinded and choked by the tear gas, they retreated. Some ran up a railroad trestle on one side of the road. The officers now came forward with their night sticks and attacked others as they were standing, some alone, and some in small groups.
The workers fought back. A group rescued one marcher from an officer on the trestle. One of the officers shot at the workers as they ran from the trestle…
The workers filled the air with a hail of stones. The police were pushed back, and when their tear gas ran out, the police turned and ran.
For almost a half-mile the marchers continued down the highway toward the plant. The police retreated before them.
Then they reached the first street intersection, where they were confronted with two fire engines equipped with ladders and hoses. The Firemen were frantically trying to make the hose connections. Before they succeeded, the workers reached them, and they joined the police in retreat.
This retreat was continued for another half-mile until the employment gate – Gate 3 of the plant, was reached.
At this point the Fire Department units made their water connections. About 30 feet above the road and extending across it was a bridge used for the passage of workmen into the factory without interference by traffic.
Stationed on the road below the bridge were a large number of police officers. From the top of the bridge the Firemen poured streams of icy water on the workers below. From the bridge and from the road below came a steady rain of tear gas bombs.
According to the marchers, it was at this bridge that the Dearborn Police were joined by a large number of FORD Motor Company private police, by a strong force of officers from the Detroit Police Department, and by the State police.
A regular siege developed. The workers, now grimy with sweat and dust, their eyes red from gas fumes, kept up a regular barrage of stones they had carried from the field.
The police drew their pistols. Suddenly they began shooting into the crowd. It was here that 19-year old Joe York was shot and killed, then Coleman Lenny, and Joe DeBlasio.
The police were shooting left and right. Besides the 3 fatalities, they were 22 workers known wounded by gunshot. Perhaps 50 more were hit, escaping to their homes or places of hiding for medical attention.
In the face of the downpour of icy water and the rain of bullets. almost all the marchers withdrew. It was then that the leaders of the Union and Unemployed Council decided to call off the demonstration.
A Union speaker mounted the back of a car and yelled that “the tear gas, clubbing and shooting were FORD’s bloody answer to the demands of the unemployed workers.”
Written by Maurice Singer - Heroic U.A.W. leader
on the FORD Hunger March
“Such of the FORD and Dearborn police as were injured appear, without exception, to have been injured by stones. There are among the police no injuries whatsoever by any bullet or firearm.”
“The acts of violence of the paraders consisted of the use of sticks and stones, apparently in defense of what they regarded as their right to parade, and demonstrate and in self-defense.”
“The injuries of the paraders were inflicted by FORD Company and City police. They consist of gunshot wounds almost without exception in the sides and backs of the paraders. We cannot too strongly emphasize the difference between the injuries sustained by the paraders and those admitted by the police...”
“As a matter of public policy, the Highways of the State, - and Miller Road, where this shooting occurred, was a State Highway - should be open to parades and demonstrations of this kind….the police provoked such violence…by refusing to accord them their right to parade on a State Highway…It appears the workers were peaceful until they were attacked...” -- Roger Baldwin and Walter Nelson, ACLU 1932
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