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((Short description|1937 violence against union organizers in Dearborn, Michigan, USA))
((Use mdy dates|date=October 2023))
((Infobox civil conflict
| image = Labor-Strike-Ford Motor Company-Walter Reuther fifth from the left-Richard Frankensteen sixth from the left - NARA - 195593.jpg
| caption = The confrontation began on the overpass, between Ford Service Department (left) and UAW organizers (right), with [[Walter Reuther]] fifth from the left and [[Richard Frankensteen]] sixth.
| date = ((start date and age|1937|05|26))
| place = [[Dearborn, Michigan]]
| coordinates = ((coord|42.3076|N|83.1558|W|display=inline,title))
| side1 = [[United Auto Workers]] Local 174
| side2 = [[Ford Motor Company]]
| leadfigures1 = [[Walter Reuther]]<br>[[Richard Frankensteen]]
| leadfigures2 = [[Harry Bennett]]
| howmany1 = 
| howmany2 = 
| goals = Distribution of leaflets promoting union membership to plant workers
| fatalities = 0
| injuries = 16
| effect_label = Outcome
| effect = 
| mapframe = yes
| mapframe-point = on
| mapframe-zoom = 12
))
The '''Battle of the Overpass''' was an attack by [[Ford Motor Company]] against the [[United Auto Workers]] (UAW) on May 26, 1937, at the [[Ford River Rouge complex|River Rouge complex]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan]]. The UAW had recently organized workers at Ford's competitors, and planned to hand out leaflets at an overpass leading to the plant's main gate in view of many of the 90,000 employees. Before the UAW organizers could begin, they were attacked by Ford's "quasi-military" security service and the Dearborn police.

In the aftermath, Ford Motor Company attempted to control the narrative by destroying news photographs onsite. The surviving photographs were published nationally as evidence of Ford's brutality, helping to turn public perception in favor of the union.<ref name=":1"/>

The incident was preceded by the 1932 [[Ford Hunger March]], in which [[Hunger marches|hunger marchers]] were attacked with gunfire from the Miller Road pedestrian overpasses. The site of that attack remained an entrance to the Rouge plant, and the overpass bears the logo of the United Auto Workers in addition to Ford's.

==Background==
[[File:Labor-Strike-Ford Motor Company-distant shot of large crowd - NARA - 195607.tif|thumb|The incident was at the pedestrian overpass at the [[River Rouge Plant]].]]
[[File:Labor-Strike-Ford Motor Company-men in physical altercation - NARA - 195594-NoArrows.tif|thumb|Frankensteen was attacked by Ford Service Department members.]]
[[File:Miller Road overpass wide view.jpg|thumb|The overpass was rebuilt and also has the logo of United Auto Workers on the left side (2023).]]
The [[United Auto Workers]] labor union was founded in 1935, and by 1937 it had attracted significant support. [[Strikes in the United States in the 1930s]] extracted major concessions from employers in multiple industries, although they often resulted in violence against strikers.

Though strikes resulted in major victories against employers nationally, the [[Ford Motor Company]] proved difficult to organize.<ref name=":1" /> Ford controlled the city government of [[Dearborn, Michigan|Dearborn]], and used its police department alongside the company's Service Department to violently intimidate Ford workers and union organizers. Workers were routinely surveilled inside and outside the plants, at the direction of [[Harry Bennett]], former boxer and personal associate of [[Henry Ford]]. At its peak, the [[Ford Service Department]] numbered 3,000 spies and thugs, and was described by ''[[The New York Times]]'' as "the largest private quasi-military organization in existence".<ref>((Cite book |last=Bates |first=Beth Tompkins |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofblackdet2012bate |title=The making of Black Detroit in the age of Henry Ford |date=2012 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]|isbn=978-0-8078-3564-7 |location=[[chapel Hill, North Carolina|Chapel Hill]] |chapter=Henry Ford at a Crossroads: Inkster and the Ford Hunger March |url-access=registration))</ref> 

The most extreme example of Ford's repression was the [[Ford Hunger March]] (or Ford Massacre) of 1932, which was planned as a peaceful march from Detroit into Dearborn, ending at the Rouge Plant employment office on Miller Road. The march was brutally suppressed by Bennett, his forces, and the Dearborn police, with five marchers killed and dozens injured by machine gun fire.<ref>((Cite book |last=Sugar |first=Maurice |url=http://archive.org/details/fordhungermarch0000suga |title=The Ford Hunger March |date=1980 |publisher=[[Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute]] |isbn=978-0-913876-15-2 |location=[[Berkeley, California]] |pages=29–38 |chapter=Depression in Detroit |url-access=registration |accessdate=))</ref> 

Ford's history of brutality against union organizers was accompanied by an understanding of the power of its workforce. The Local 174 chapter of UAW organized a [[Sitdown strike|sit-down strike]] against the [[Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Company]] of Detroit in early December 1936, which impacted production at the Rouge plant.<ref>((Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Irving |url=http://archive.org/details/turbulentyearshi0000bern |title=Turbulent years; a history of the American worker, 1933-1941 |date=1970 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |location=[[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] |pages=523 |url-access=registration))</ref> Local 174 gained members rapidly after its success at Kelsey-Hayes, and planned to organize the workers at the much larger Rouge plant. Tactics developed at Kelsey-Hayes were used at the [[Flint sit-down strike]] later that month, which resulted in major gains in membership and national recognition for the UAW.<ref>((Cite book |last=Fine |first=Sidney |authorlink1=Sidney Fine (historian) |url=http://archive.org/details/sitdowngeneralmo0000unse |title=Sit-down: the General Motors Strike of 1936-1937 |date=1969 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-32948-9 |location=Ann Arbor |pages=131–132 |url-access=registration))</ref>

==Conflict==
UAW Local 174 planned a leaflet campaign titled, "Unionism, Not Fordism", at the pedestrian overpass above Miller Road at Gate 4 of the [[River Rouge Plant]] complex. The leaflet campaign was planned for the shift change, when many of the plant's 90,000 workers would be present.<ref name=":1">((cite news |last1=King |first1=Gilbert |title=How the Ford Motor Company Won a Battle and Lost Ground |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-ford-motor-company-won-a-battle-and-lost-ground-45814533/ |access-date=30 January 2024 |work=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |date=30 April 2013 |language=en |archive-date=2 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002052031/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-ford-motor-company-won-a-battle-and-lost-ground-45814533/ |url-status=live ))</ref> Miller Road and the overpass were both considered public property, and Reuther held a permit for the leaflet campaign from the city of Dearborn.<ref name=":2">((Cite web |last=Hansen |first=Curtis |date=2005 |title=The Battle of the Overpass |url=https://reuther.wayne.edu/ex/exhibits/battle.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201210907/http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/ex/exhibits/battle.html |archive-date=February 1, 2016 |accessdate=October 1, 2023 |work=[[Walter P. Reuther Library]]))</ref>

The leaflets to be distributed by the UAW demanded a work day plan of six hours for ((US$|8|1937|round=0)), in contrast to the [[eight-hour day]] for ((US$|6|1937|round=0|long=no)) then in place. The leaflets cited the success of the organizers at [[General Motors]], [[Chrysler]], and [[Briggs Manufacturing Company]], and promised that the UAW would "End the Ford Service System".<ref name=":1" /><ref>((Cite web |date=June 14, 2013 |title=(30587) UAW Organizing, Flyer, Battle of the Overpass, 1937 |url=https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/10494 |accessdate=October 1, 2023 |website=Walter P. Reuther Library))</ref>

At approximately 2 p.m., several of the leading UAW [[union organizer]]s, including [[Walter Reuther]] and [[Richard Frankensteen]], were asked by a ''[[Detroit News]]'' photographer, James R. "Scotty" Kilpatrick, to pose for a picture on the overpass, with the Ford sign in the background. While they were posing, men from Ford's Service Department came from behind and beat them.<ref name=":1"/><ref name="NewBattle">((cite news |last=Nolan |first=Jenny |date=August 7, 1997 |title=The Battle of the Overpass |newspaper=[[The Detroit News]] |url=http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=172 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130121123938/http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=172 |archive-date=January 21, 2013))</ref><ref>((Cite book |last=Norwood |first=Stephen H. |url=https://archive.org/details/strikebreakingin0000norw/ |title=Strikebreaking & Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=9780807853733 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=184 |url-access=registration))</ref> The number of attackers is disputed, but may have been 40.<ref name="Reuther">((Cite web |last=Chinery |first=Kristen |date=May 19, 2011 |title=Battle of the Overpass |url=https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/7647 |accessdate=September 30, 2023 |work=Walter P. Reuther Library))</ref>

Frankensteen had his jacket pulled over his head and was kicked and punched.<ref name=":1"/> Reuther described the attack:<ref>((Cite news |last=Hoffman |first=Bryce G. |date=May 24, 2012 |title=The Battle of the Overpass, at 75 |pages=B1 |newspaper=The Detroit News |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNEWS&docref=news/13EF896B53BD0638&f=basic |url-access=subscription |accessdate=October 2, 2023 |issn=1055-2715 |via=NewsBank))</ref>
((quotation|Seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms ... and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down the second flight. On the ground they beat and kicked me some more...))

One union organizer, Richard Merriweather, suffered a broken back from the beating.<ref name= "NewBattle"/>

==Aftermath==
The security forces mob attempted to destroy photographic plates, but the ''Detroit News'' photographer James R. Kilpatrick hid the plates under the back seat of his car, and surrendered useless plates he had on his front seat. News and photos of the brutal attack made headlines in newspapers across the country.<ref name=":1" />

In spite of the photographs, and many witnesses who had heard his men specifically seek out Frankensteen and Reuther, security director Bennett claimed — "The affair was deliberately provoked by union officials. ... They simply wanted to trump up a charge of Ford brutality. ... I know definitely no Ford service man or plant police were involved in any way in the fight."<ref name=":1"/>

The incident greatly increased support for the UAW and hurt Ford's reputation. The [[National Labor Relations Board]] pursued a case against the Ford Motor Company, bringing to light other violations of federal law committed by the company.<ref name=":0">((Cite book |last=Lewis |first=David L. |url=https://archive.org/details/publicimageofhen0000lewi_q8o6/ |title=The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |year=1976 |location=Detroit |pages=249–252 |url-access=registration))</ref> The Battle of the Overpass led to a series of actions against Ford by the UAW, culminating in a 1941 strike at the Rouge. The 1941 strike concluded with a signed contract between the UAW and Ford, the final such contract at the [[Big Three (automobile manufacturers)|Big Three automakers]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

==Legacy==
A rebuilt overpass stands at Gate 4 of the Rouge plant, along Miller Road.<ref>((Cite news |last=Creager |first=Ellen |date=June 1, 1990 |title=To See and Be Seen: Detroit has a proud heritage to show Mandela |pages=1F,3F |work=Detroit Free Press |id=((ProQuest|1823482421)) |quote=The bridge has been rebuilt a couple of times, and it's not much to look at now – workers use it to get from the parking lot into Gate 4.))</ref> It bears the logos of the United Auto Workers and the Ford Motor Company.

==See also==
*[[Ford Strikers Riot]]

==References==
((Reflist))

==External links==

* [https://reuther.wayne.edu/taxonomy/term/905 Records of the Battle of the Overpass] at the Wayne State University Walter P. Reuther Library
((commons category|Battle of the Overpass (Ford-UAW)))
((Portal bar|Organized labour))

[[Category:1937 labor disputes and strikes]]
[[Category:Manufacturing industry labor disputes in the United States]]
[[Category:Ford Motor Company labor relations]]
[[Category:Labor disputes led by the United Auto Workers]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1937|the Overpass]]
[[Category:Riots and civil disorder in Michigan]]
[[Category:Labor-related violence in the United States]]
[[Category:1937 in Detroit]]
[[Category:Walter Reuther]]
[[Category:Labor disputes in Michigan]]

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