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 to march to the Ford Rouge Plant and present a list of demands to Henry Ford. About three thousand hunger marchers paraded down Miller Road, but 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 hit with 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. Although newspapers alleged that the marchers were communists, they were in fact people of all political, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.

Melvindale, Michigan · United States