The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford

Epilogue

epilogue henry ford transformed the United States and the world by revolutionizing the way we make things. But the man so responsible for reconstructing industrial production also transformed human relations. As he observed , “Power and machinery, money and goods, are useful only as they set us free to live. They are but means to an end.” He hoped the success of the fmc would demonstrate the soundness of his approach, which “looks toward making this world a better place in which to live.”¹ When Ford invited African American men to work for the fmc, he looked to them as good strike insurance, but he also envisioned his revolutionary policies for hiring black workers as a way to “do some good.” He hoped to transform their lives in positive ways, just as he had changed the lives of many others . As he told Samuel S. Marquis, the head of his Sociological Department , “All that man needs is an opportunity that has some hope in it, some promise for the years to come.”² African Americans took the keys Ford offered, opened the door to economic opportunity at the fmc, and walked into a new era. The right to walk through that door on an equal basis with whites had eluded black Americans since Emancipation. When Henry Ford rejected the notion that better jobs were for white men only, he raised black expectations about what was possible in America. Black workers in the twenties held positions at the fmc as electricians, bricklayers, crane operators, diamond cutters, and tool-and-die makers. They were included in apprenticeship programs at the Ford Trade School. Henry Ford’s American Plan for black workers, incorporating them into his open-shop movement on an equal basis, was their best deal in American industry at the time. And black Ford workers, their families, and the black community were grateful. A corner had been turned in the larger, ongoing black freedom struggle. The initial bond between Henry Ford, black Ford workers, and the black community was tied to their mutual aspirations. Ford expected loyalty and allegiance from his black workers as well as the larger com- 252 epilogue munity, thus reducing the threat of unionism. African Americans were anxious to prove that they were worthy of inclusion in Henry Ford’s newage industrial jobs, demonstrating their allegiance to both Ford and the American way. The work for most was hard. As speedups increased during the twenties, the Rouge became a hellhole. White workers who could often quit to pursue less arduous employment, but the racially restrictive polices at other auto companies left black workers with few alternatives. Black Ford workers, noted for making the extra effort, allowed the fmc to capitalize on the broader industry’s restrictive racial policies and hire the best black workers. A key consideration for Ford was the high incidence of marriage among his black workforce, an important guarantee of stability and loyalty. Black Ford workers bore the direct, physical costs required to fulfill their part of the arrangement. Known as “Ford mules,” they had high rates of tuberculosis, pneumonia, and general ill health. But the benefits of work at the fmc were also personal and political. Ford wages took black workers and their families to a higher level of status, and the prosperity of black Detroit was yoked to the circulation of Ford dollars. Black workers made the extra effort without complaint not just because employment at the fmc was the best job in town. A Ford badge was worn with pride for the milestone it represented and the respect it garnered from the black community. But a job at the fmc was only a first step on the road to fuller inclusion . A second step was made when, in 1923, black Detroiters turned out in large numbers to support Frank Murphy for judge on Detroit’s Recorder’s Court. African Americans were drawn to Murphy because he championed the rights of excluded blacks and Catholic immigrants and invited them to participate in the political process. The election not only demonstrated the willingness of black Detroiters to exercise their democratic rights as citizens; it also initiated a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship between Frank Murphy and the black community. For the next decade, participation in Frank Murphy’s “new deal” coalition greatly expanded black expectations for equal treatment. The experience provided an opportunity for African Americans to use the tools of democracy to push back restrictions and open up...