Ford Hunger March

On March 7, 1932, in the midst of the Depression, unemployed autoworkers, their families, and union organizers braved bitter cold and gathered at this bridge, intent on marching to the Ford Rouge Plant and presenting a list of demands to Henry Ford. Some three thousand hunger marchers paraded down Miller Road. At the Dearborn city limit, police blocked their path and hurled tear gas, and the marchers responded with rocks and frozen mud. Near Gate No. 3, the demonstrators were bombarded by water from firehoses and a barrage of bullets. In the end, five marchers were killed, nineteen were wounded by gunfire, and numerous others were injured by stones, bricks, and clubs. Newspapers alleged the marchers were communists, but they were in fact people of all political, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.

Dearborn, Michigan · United States