Tales from the Reuther Library

Dr. Russell Rickford discusses what drew a generation of Black Americans to Guyana in the 1970s, and the political limitations they encountered while establishing post-colonial cooperative settlements in the newly-independent small South American country. Rickford is an associate professor of history at Cornell University and author of A Proxy Africa: Guyana, African Americans, and the Radical 197...

Sociologists Thomas Gepts and Sarah Mason, PhD, discuss the six-week strike in 2022 of 48,000 UAW-represented academic workers across all 10 University of California campuses, explaining how differing strategies and organizing tactics employed at each campus yielded contrary results: at UC Berkeley, academic workers voted largely in favor of the new contract; at UC Santa Cruz they voted largely ag...

Dr. Lisa Fine explains how the working class, local unions, and sportsman’s organization collaborated throughout the twentieth century to preserve the ecosystems and waterways located Downriver, a collection of working class industrial, exurban, and rural communities south of Detroit along the Detroit River. Fine is a professor of history at Michigan State University and author of Downriver Detroi...

Dr. Cedric De Leon explains how, from the founding of the African Blood Brotherhood in 1919 through the 1963 March on Washington, Black workers linked racial justice to economic justice, challenging the American labor movement to become more racially inclusive in its fight for workers’ rights. De Leon is Professor of Sociology and Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author...

Host Dan Golodner and Katrina Rouan trade quips while reflecting on the progress that has been made during her first 18 months as the director of the Reuther Library as well as the goals and challenges that lie ahead for the archives. Prior to her appointment as the Reuther’s director, Rouan coordinated reference services and graduate student assistants in the Wayne State University Library System...

Dr. Michael Stauch explains how newly elected Detroit Mayor Coleman Young introduced “community policing” to the city in 1974, an experimental approach to law and order that included affirmative action hiring policies and neighborhood police stations to address community concerns about both police brutality and criminal activity in the neighborhoods. Despite these changes, tensions with the police...

Children’s book author and engineer Suzanne Slade describes the creative process she used to engage the next generation of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) with the stories of twelve women who worked behind the scenes on the Apollo lunar landing mission. Slade is the author of Women on a Mission: The Remarkable Heroes Who Put Men on the Moon . Related Resources: Wo...

John Fabian Witt recounts how in the 1920s and 1930s Charles Garland donated his million-dollar inheritance to the American Fund for Public Service, or Garland Fund, to support progressive causes and organizations he believed could challenge inequality and reshape capitalism and democracy in America. Dr. Witt is a Professor of History and the Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law at Yale U...

Dr. Jody Baxter Noll recounts the 1968 Florida Teachers’ Strike, in which 27,000 teachers across the state, amidst a shift in Florida politics toward a pro-business and suburban “Sunshine conservatism” reluctant to raise taxes for public education, submitted their resignations to gain collective bargaining rights and improved school funding. Noll is a Lecturer in the History Department at Georgia...

Karen Horting, Executive Director and CEO of the Society of Women Engineers, talks about SWE’s archives at the Reuther Library and shares how the 75-year-old organization leverages its history to advocate for the inclusion of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Related Resources: Society of Women Engineers 75th Anniversary SWE Archives Virtual Tour [Part 1] SWE Archi...

Dr. Martin Hershock recounts the violent three-day strike against General Motors supplier Federal Screw Works in 1938, when women from Detroit’s Polish community led the fight to preserve both their recently-recognized union and their neighborhood. Hershock is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and author of the article, “Seems to Me You Have Plenty of Nerve”: Polish Ame...

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO discusses the importance of understanding labor and legislative history when bargaining for better labor contracts for flight attendants today. Related Resources: Turbulent Romance: The History of the Association of Flight Attendants Related Collection...

Professor Michelle Adams describes the struggles to integrate Detroit’s highly segregated neighborhoods and schools in the 1960s, a federal judge’s ruling to alleviate that segregation by bussing students between the predominately Black schools in Detroit and predominantly white schools in the suburbs, and the Supreme Court’s subsequent 1974 Milliken v. Bradley decision that acknowledged the segre...

Dr. Beth Widmaier Capo discusses the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center and the role health practitioners there—including her mother—played in empowering women to understand their bodies and take control of their health in the 1970s. Capo is the Edward Capps Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at Illinois College, and author of the article, “The Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Cen...

John Miles Branch discusses the National Labor Relations Board’s policy to dismiss union petitions at charitable organizations in the decades following the Second World War, and the policy’s reversal in 1976 when the board acknowledged nonprofit institutions as a “third sector” of the economy linked with the nation’s commercial life. Branch is a Ph. D. candidate in U.S. History at Northwestern Uni...

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride reflects on the role the union’s history and archives play in current and future labor actions and organizing campaigns. Related Resources: AFSCME History Related Collections: AFSCME collections at the Reuther Library Episode Credits Interviewee: Elissa McBride Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller...

Dr. Keith Wunderlich shares the life and legacy of D.L. Holmes, athletic director of what is now Wayne State University from 1917 though 1958. With a meager budget and outdated equipment, Coach Holmes nurtured a generation of track and field Olympians and world record holders in Detroit, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religious background. Wunderlich is co-author of Coach of Champions: D.L. Hol...

Dr. Nick Juravich discusses the experiences of the first-generation of paraprofessional educators in New York City in the 1960s-1980s and their impact on the city’s educational system, community relations, and public sector unions. Juravich is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education . Related...

Roger Biles and Mark Rose discuss the legacy of Eddie Sadlowski, a charismatic and progressive Chicago steelworker who, unhappy with the United Steelworker of America’s closed-rank authoritarian leadership and tepid support for rank-and-file members, led a highly visible yet unsuccessful dissident campaign in the contentious election for the USWA’s presidency in 1977. Dr. Biles is a Professor Emer...

Dr. Anna E. Lindner discusses the rise and subsequent downfall of the West Central Organization in Detroit, a coalition of civil rights organizations, community groups, and church congregations that sought to bring attention to housing inequality and other social issues in the 1960s. Although founded with good intent, the group’s aggressive lobbying gained short-term results but turned local media...

Dr. Matt Kautz explores how evolving school disciplinary practices, changes in crime reporting, and political pressure in the decades following school desegregation led to the rise of student suspensions, expulsions, dropouts, and the school-to-prison pipeline in Detroit and other cities. Kautz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership and Counseling at Eastern Michigan University....

Dr. Justine Modica discusses the Worthy Wages movement centered in Seattle from the 1980s through the 2000s. Affiliated with SEIU, daycare directors and childcare workers in childcare centers and home-based daycares joined together to raise public awareness of the underfunding of daycare and lobby for increased state childcare subsidies, hoping to increase the wages and retention of skilled worker...

Dr. Lori Flores discusses food systems in the US and Northeast region specifically, illuminating how the nation has developed a growing appetite for both Latinx food and Latinx food laborers, who are often underpaid and under-nourished as they help grow, process, transport, prepare, and serve food across the country. Flores is an associate professor of history at Stony Brook University and author...

Dr. Harris Dousemetzis shares the extraordinary impact of U.S. President Jimmy Carter on gay rights in the 1970s and early 1980s, from instituting policies to prevent anti-gay discrimination of most federal employees to facilitating IRS nonprofit status for gay rights organizations and community centers, enabling them to receive federal funding for educational materials and health clinics, among o...

Reuther Library audiovisual archivist Mary Wallace has worn many hats over the past 27 years, from student page in the Reading Room to interim director and chief weather-spotter and safety monitor. As she prepares to retire in January 2025, Wallace reflects on the changes she’s seen at the Reuther and in the field, shares a few of her favorite collections and reference requests, and retells some o...