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

Dr. Felicia George explains how number lotteries in the citys Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods in the 20th century, although illegal and rife with exploitation, also raised some Black D

Dr. Jesse Chanin describes how the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) gained power and influence in a region hostile to unions from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s by building trust in the community

Dr. Jay Cephas considers two Depression-era murals in Detroit and their contrasting messaging about workers, labor, and power. Diego Riveras famed Detroit Industry murals, commissioned by Edsel Ford

Dr. Say Burgin explains that contrary to the common belief that white activists were purged from the Black freedom movement in the mid-1960 and 1970s, Black-led organizations in Detroit including th

Dr. Max Fraser shares the often overlooked story of the hillbilly highway, the route nearly eight million poor, rural, white Americans took in the 20th century from economically depressed areas in t

Rachel Shteir shares how Betty Friedans early experience as a labor reporter for the Federated Press informed her later work as a famed womens rights activist, author of The Feminine Mystique, and c

Dr. Stephen Silvia explains how the UAW built a cooperative relationship with workers councils and unions at foreign automotive companies, but has nevertheless struggled to organize those companies

Dr. Matthew Lassiter shares stories uncovered in Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era, a collaborative digital exhibit creat

In the second of a two-part series, Dr. Robert Cherny recounts how immigrant Harry Bridges successfully led the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) for four decades beginning i