March 7, 1932: The River Rouge Massacre

March 7, 1932: On a bitterly cold day, 5,000 unemployed auto workers started a march in Detroit, and headed for the Ford Motor Company's main assembly plant in nearby Dearborn.

They had a list of 14 demands that they wanted to present to Henry Ford himself. Among them were the rehiring of laid-off workers, providing money for health care, ending racial discrimination in hiring and promotions, providing Winter fuel for the unemployed, abolish the use of company spies and private police against workers, and giving workers the right to organize labor unions.

But when they got to the Dearborn City Limits, the Dearborn police firing tear gas into the crowd, and started hitting marchers with billy clubs. One officer fired a gun. The marchers scattered, grabbed whatever objects they could find, and started throwing them. Fire engines sprayed cold water from an overpass. Ford security guards joined the Dearborn police in shooting.

There were 25 people shot, and 4 of them died: Joe York, Coleman Leny, Joe DeBlasio, and 16-year-old Joe Bussell. Three months later, a 5th man, Curtis Williams, died from his injuries. Being black, he couldn't be buried next to the previous 4 victims.

What had been named the Ford Hunger March became known as the Ford Massacre, the River Rouge Massacre, and the Battle of the Overpass. Despite the fact that one more person died, and in a much bigger city, than in the Kent State Massacre of 1970, this killing isn't as well known, because there was no television to report it. Of course, Henry Ford had his thumb on the local media, so those who did report it didn't call it a "massacre": They blamed the marchers, and called it a "riot," as in the Detroit Free Press front page printed above.

It also was forgotten because, 5 years later, there was another clash between Ford workers and police -- official and private. This one would also be called the Battle of the Overpass.

It would take until 1941 before Henry Ford, by then age 78, accepted the United Auto Workers.

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March 7, 1932 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And there were no NHL games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.