Ford Strikers Riot

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The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph was taken on April 3, 1941.

Ford Strikers Riot is a 1941 photograph which shows a strikebreaker getting beaten by United Auto Workers (UAW) strikers. Photographer Milton Brooks captured the image and it won the first Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1942.

In the image, workers were picketing at the Ford Motor Company and a man clashed with the union men who were picketing. The man was a strikebreaker and the photo shows him being beaten by striking United Auto Workers (UAW) strikers. The image has been called a portrayal of the struggle in America between capital and labor.

Background

The image was taken in

Rouge Plant of the Ford Motor Company during a worker strike action on April 3, 1941.[1][2] In its 40 year history, Ford Motor Company had never been closed as a result of a worker strike. The workers defied the company, the state police, and the strike breakers.[3]

The image was captured by

photo journalists outside the Ford factory gates. Brooks described what happened, "I saw a man pick a fight with some of the pickets." Brooks took only one photograph and he said, "I took the picture quickly, hid the camera... ducked into the crowd... a lot of people would have liked to wreck that picture.[5]

Description

The image shows

The Times
 of Shreveport, Louisiana described the scene by saying, "strikers rain blows on a man who shields himself with his coat in an early morning outbreak of hostilities".[7]

Reception

The image won the first Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1942,[6][3] juried by Herbert Brucker, Richard F. Crandell, and Roscoe B. Ellard.[8] The new photography category had 109 entries. The jury selected 11 finalists, deliberated, and concluded: "This brutal picture [...] sums up much of the labor history of 1941."[9] The Los Angeles Times, at the time, referred to the photograph as a "dramatic picture of a gang in action".[10] The award was accompanied by a prize of US$500 (equivalent to $9,000 in 2023).[11]

In Carol Quirke's 2012 book Eyes on Labor, she stated that photography plays a partisan role for both employers and employees, and that this image portrays the struggle in America between capital and labor.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Finley, Nolan (August 23, 2023). "The Detroit News at 150: A timeline". The Detroit News. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  2. ^ "Michigan labor history: Organizing in tough times". The Detroit News. September 3, 2016. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9783598301841
    .
  4. ^ "Obituary of Milton E. (Pete) Brooks". Detroit Free Press. September 6, 1956. p. 29. Archived from the original on January 29, 2024. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-3-643-10844-9
    . Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  6. ^
    Smithsonian Magazine. Archived
    from the original on October 2, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  7. ^ "Fists Fly in Tussle Outside Ford Plant". The Times. April 4, 1941. p. 10. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  8. The Pulitzer Prizes. Archived
    from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  9. ISBN 978-3-643-96495-3
    .
  10. ^ "'Ford Strikers Riot,' Pulitzer Prize News Picture of 1941". Los Angeles Times. May 17, 1942. p. 80. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  11. ^ "Pulitzer Prize Awards". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 5, 1942. p. 15. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  12. doi:10.1093/jahist/jau088. Archived
    from the original on June 7, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
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