Tales from the Reuther Library
Latest Episodes
Organizing Your Own: The White Fight for Black Power in Detroit
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
Hillbilly Highway: Charting White Migration from Appalachia to the Industrial Midwest
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
Betty Friedan’s Labor Roots
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
The UAW’s Southern Gamble in Foreign-Owned Factories
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
Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence and Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era
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
Labor Radical Harry Bridges and the Cold War Ire of the US Government
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
Labor Legend Harry Bridges and the Pacific Coast Longshore Strike of 1934
In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Robert Cherny explains how the early life of Australian immigrant Harry Bridges prepared him to lead the groundbreaking 1934 Pacific Coast longshoremens and mar
Taming the Octopus: Eli Black and the Search for Social Responsibility at the United Fruit / United Brands Company
Dr. Matt Garcia traces the legacy of Eli Black, a former rabbi who, as CEO of United Fruit/United Brands Company in the late 1960s and early 1970s, attempted to instill corporate social responsibility
Toxic Debt: An Environmental Justice History of Detroit
Dr. Josiah Rector explains that since the 1880s a confluence of unregulated industrial capitalism and racist practices in housing and employment in Detroit created pollution and environmental disaster
Latinx Encounters: How Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans Made the Modern Midwest
Dr. Juan I. Mora examines three groups of Latinxs as they used postwar migration, temporary guest-worker programs, and agricultural labor to redefine migrant power, justice, and rights in the twentiet