The Detroit History Podcast - Season 5, Episode 2- The Ford Hunger March

Season 5, Episode 2- The Ford Hunger March

10/10/22 • 26 min

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On a cold winter day in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, some 3,000 or more people met at a park on Detroit's southwest side. They hoped to march to Ford Motor Company's Rouge Plant to present a list of demands to Henry Ford. By modern day standards, those demands weren't all that extravagant. A few demands they asked for: the right to organize, an eight hour day, and a couple of 15 minute breaks on the assembly line. Dearborn police and Ford security met the group at the Dearborn/Detroit border. A riot broke out, with the Dearborn Fire Department opening its hoses on the marchers. Harry Bennett, Ford's security chief, drove into the crowd and began firing. Four people died in the melee, another shortly thereafter. 90 years later, the event has not been forgotten. The Detroit History Podcast microphones were at a 90th anniversary commemoration this past spring. We explain what happened. And George Baier, formerly of the J.J. and the Morning Crew, reads from Harry Bennett's autobiography.

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Season 5, Episode 1- Joe Louis, The Punch of Detroit

Joe Louis may have been the most famous person to come out of Detroit. He arrived here in the mid-1920s as part of the Great Migration, that influx of African-Americans who came north to escape the Jim Crow South. When he took up boxing as a teenager, there was no stopping him. He became heavyweight boxing champion of the world for 12 years, from 1937 until 1949. His bout against Max Schmeling, not long before World War II, had Louis carrying the entire weight of the free world on his shoulders. We tell his story with Dr. Stuart Kirschenbaum, a former boxing commissioner and friend of the Louis family; Joe Louis Jr., the boxer's son; and Marcy Sacks, an Albion College professor who explores the topic of race as it relates to Louis's career.

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Season 5, Episode 3- The 1863 Civil War Riot

Smack in the middle of the Civil War, Detroit experienced a riot that was characterized as "the most brutal and bloody riot that ever disgraced any community." A local bar owner, Thomas Faulkner, who was thought to be African-American (he wasn't) went to trial in March, 1863 on sexual assault charges. The accuser was a 10-year-old white girl who later recanted her story. A riot broke out as Faulkner was being escorted to the jail house following his conviction. Two people died. It also set local African-Americans fleeing into the wood and across the Detroit River to Canada. We tell the story with the help of historians Martin Hershock and Ken Coleman.