The Hunger March

Thousands of unemployed auto workers and union organizers gathered in bitter cold on March 7, 1932, near the Fort Street Bridge during the Great Depression, intending to march to the Ford Rouge Plant to present Henry Ford with a list of demands for jobs and better working conditions. Before they could get there, Dearborn police and Ford security confronted them with teargas and firehoses. The marchers responded by throwing rocks, and the violence escalated to police gunfire that killed five of the hunger marchers. Days later, thousands of people joined the funeral procession to nearby Woodmere Cemetery. The tragedy of the 1932 Hunger March helped spark the success of organized labor in America, and the United Auto Workers union was formed in 1935.

Dearborn, Michigan · United States