Jump to content

Black Workers at the Ford Motor Company, 1918-1947


Recommended Posts

Black Workers at the Ford Motor Company, 1918-1947

Warren Whatley / University of Michigan, Gavin Wright / Stanford University

 

aaford2.jpg

 

The Ford Motor Company has a unique place in the economic history of black Americans. On the eve of World War 11, Ford employed more than 10,000 black workers, a far larger number and a far greater representation than at any other firm in the automobile industry. Whereas other auto companies confined blacks to menial positions, only Ford had black workers on the assembly line and in other important production jobs. Because the wage levels in the auto industry were high even by the standards of other high-wage northern industries, Ford's black workers earned incomes which were well outside the normal range of black opportunities.

 

Rear more here.

 

Share Ford history here.

Edited by robertlane
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

While this was great for Ford, I wish we would eventually stop the we vs them attitude between white/black. My oldest has two other white kids in his class and my youngest has one. This is a private Christian school and you know what? THEY DON'T KNOW racism. All of them play together and if they fight, it's not race related.

Racism is definately a LEARNED thing. When my oldest was 5 or 6 he asked why his cousin from Toronto had "a darker wee wee" and we explained to him it was because Matao was black. Bizzarre story but true. Now at 16 his best friend is black and 2nd best is korean. My youngest's (12) best friend is Chinese. The funny part, or most telling is that on my oldest's BB team there is 5 black kids from various African countries and all have been in Canada less than 5 years, two of them this is there first year and they are excellent young men with positive attitudes and are generally enjoyable kids to drag around to games etc. Two of the teams they play are 90% black from "black" neighborhoods are act disgracefull. Hats on backwards and saggy pants with arrogant attitudes, continually throwing racial slurs. The difference is night and day between these kids and it's obvious it's not the colour of skin that causes the attitude, but the atmosphere they grew up in.

I can appreciate the hardships blacks have endured in North America, but every race/colour/creed have had their hardships and have moved on.

 

Racism will only stop when those who go out of their way to find it stop. In other words, I didn't buy a white car instead of a black one because I'm a racist, so stop looking for something that's not there or "inventing" racism at every opportunity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

A Ford Co-worker doing research for his master thesis found that when Ford Motor hired blacks that it reached out to the local ministers as a means of the typical sociological control that Henry craved over his workers. It appears also that this could have affected the education and age levels that the authors speak of concerning hiring. One of the intended or not affects was that potential radicals and unionists could be removed prior to hiring, or at least minimized. It also had the effect of making a powerful group within the black community even more powerful, since they now had a lot of power as many people in the community owed them their livelihood.

 

Typical of many things about Ford and his policies they accomplished a great deal and were good for many many people, but the motives were not always altruistic. It's well known that hirings of blacks and immigrants who spoke little of the language included the hope that it would make organising harder as it put further differences between fellow workers. Ultimately, it didn't stop the labor movement, rather only delayed it.

 

Given the differences in history between the US and Canada a one size fits all view about race, i.e. North America, is likely to miss issues that are country and geographically specific. It can also lead to the view that all groups in the US have gotten past their particular hardships when that is not the case. Even today there is still an underbelly of hostility over the Civil war and reconstruction within the south.

Edited by Langston Hughes
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...