Ford and Detroit: from the foundry floor to machinist jobs (Detroit, MI, 1910–1930s)

SUMMARYFord and Detroit: from the foundry floor to machinist jobs (Detroit, MI, 1910–1930s) [Connections: Tech & skilled labor, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDThe Henry Ford museum says Detroit's Black population grew from 5,741 in 1910 to 40,838 in 1920. By the end of World War I more than 8,000 Black workers were in Detroit's auto industry, 1,675 of them at Ford, and from the 1920s through the 1930s Ford was the city's largest employer of Black workers. Many were placed in "the dirty and dangerous blast furnaces and foundries at the River Rouge Plant," while others held skilled machinist, foreman or white-collar jobs. The page says Ford paid "equal wages for equal work" and recruited through Black ministers.
STATUS: no named individuals; workers described as free (wage workers). HOSTILE

WITNESSThis is the company's own museum

PATTERNSouthern metal workers came north and were sorted mostly into foundry heat

LENS (WW9)The same hands that ran the Southern forges poured the metal at the Rouge

OPENFord employment records by department, and the share of Black workers in skilled trades. The museum gives no split

SOURCEThe Henry Ford, "African American Workers at Ford Motor Company".