In Tuesday’s session (“The Henry Ford and Labor History”) Michael Smith, Director of the Walter Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, will trace a century of dramatic confrontations of labor and management at Ford Motor Company. Professor Smith, who directs the Graduate Department of Archival Administration at Wayne State University, will not only analyze Ford labor history but also will discuss effective approaches to archival research. In this session, Steve Babson, program specialist at the Labor Studies Center at Wayne State University and author of Working Detroit, will speak to contemporary labor issues at the Ford Rouge Plant, such as the automation and the internationalization of production. Following this seminar, participants will visit sites marking two historic labor conflicts in metropolitan Detroit: the route of the Ford Hunger March (1932) and the location of the Battle of the Rouge Overpass (1937). The tour will continue to Hart Plaza in Detroit, site of

The Picket Line, April 3, 1941
Courtesy of the Walter Reuther Library