Comparing the Flint Sit-Down Strike to the 2023 UAW Stand-Up Strike
Compelling Question: To what extent did the industrialization and urbanization between 1890s and 1930s create the need for progressive reform?
Background information:
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To provide background, students will read an article from the Library of Congress which summarizes the Flint, MI Sit-Down Strike
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The Flint, Michigan, Sit-Down Strike, Library of Congress Research Guides
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Day 1: Political Cartoon Analysis
Supporting Question 1
What were the working conditions of factory workers in Michigan prior to the strike? What does this show regarding the need to organize labor?
Sources:
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Date
- Identifier
- Language
- Subject
- Type
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"We'll Stay til We Win" cartoon
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Hand-drawn cartoon of a man in overalls sitting in a factory saying "we'll stay til we win"
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Domino Gadwell
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circa 1937
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LP000112_009_032e
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English
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Flint Sit-Down Strike
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drawing, cartoon
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Date
- Identifier
- Subject
- Type
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"Wall Street Banker" cartoon
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A drawing of a man pouring money into a trough for a large pig labelled "Wall Street Banker" with auto factories in the background.
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circa 1930s
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LP000112_009_032d
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Auto workers
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drawing, cartoon
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Date
- Format
- Identifier
- Language
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Flint Sit-Down Strike cartoon
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A man labeled "Jim Sloan" offers sit-down strikers, pictured in the Fisher Body Plant, an "alliance" depicted as a club.
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Circa 1937
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drawing, cartoon
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LP000112_009_032e
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English
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Format
- Identifier
- Language
- Source
- Original Format
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"Organize and Be a Winner"
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Political Cartoon illustrating a boxing match between a person labelled G. M. and another labelled Union Workers
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Political Cartoon
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LP000112_9_32
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English
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Pen-and-Ink drawing
Item sets
- Title
- extracted text
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Political Cartoon Analysis Worksheet
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Day 1 Analysis: Political Cartoons
Name______________________
Cartoon #______
What is the central idea or message in the document?
What inferences can be made regarding the workers’ struggles and the union movement?
What symbols do you notice? How are they used?
Which political cartoon did you find most interesting and why?
Item sets
Day 2: Correspondence Analysis
Sources:
- Title
- Description
- Date
- Source
- Subject
- extracted text
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Johnson to Kraus
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Letter from a former GM and Ford worker in support of the Flint Sit-Down Strike
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1937
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Henry Kraus Papers, Box 9 folder 27
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Flint sit-down strike
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United Auto Workers
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UAW
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Date
- Source
- Subject
- Text
- extracted text
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R.W. Ayers to UAW
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A letter from a union member to the union's leadership, 1937
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R. W. Ayers
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1937
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Henry Kraus Papers
Box 9
Folder 27 Letter to Union from Outsiders (3 of 4)
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Flint sit-down strike
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Auto Workers Uounion of America,
In as much as I do despise this statement it is surely time to do this shut down [I am now on the last leaf of my thoughts] unless this thing isn't settled soon + darn soon. [I shall loose everything I have] + God knows just where it all comes from [I shall be forced to stop my daughter from going to high school] Just fore the sake of this strike I just can't get the money to keep her in school any more fore she can't walk 5 miles to school. I have been a Uounion man fore 7 years + can say this much that it all is a hopeless job to my best judgement [I feel that this Organization has ____ more homes + families than all the good it will ever do fore any of them] I am not asking any help from this organization but I do think you might realize there is others that exist except just a handful of men that can't see fore them selves [I am 2 months behind on my car + furniture] When will any one ever get there breath on the lousy wages you will get when this is all over [my best advise is to get down to some settlement of some sort]
As a Uounion member, I am
R. W. Ayers
Mt. Morris Mich
R. R. #1 ______ Road
Item sets
Day 3
Supporting Question 2
How did the Flint strike affect men, women, and families?
Additional resources
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History Channel video clip from “The People Speak” Marissa Tomei performs the words of a General Motors employee during a 1930s labor strike.
- "Genora Dollinger Remembers the 1936-37 GM Sit-Down Strike"
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Date
- Source
- Original Format
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Strikes: Fisher Body: Flint, Michigan 1937 -In Front of Plant 1
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A line of auto workers with facial hair march at Fisher Body Plant holding a sign reading, "we shave when victory is ours"
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Detroit News Photographers
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1937
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Photo print
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Contributor
- Creator
- Date
- Identifier
- Language
- Source
- Subject
- Type
- Original Format
- extracted text
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Outline of women's strike activities
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A list of the activities of women in the labor movement of the 1930s with particular focus on the Flint Sit-Down Strike
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Dorothy Kraus
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Dorothy Kraus
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circa 1937
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LP001221_002_009
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English
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Women in the labor movement
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Notes
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Paper
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Language
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Flint Sit Down Strike (1936-37)
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A video from the UAW showing the Flint Sit-Down strike on film from the time.
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United Auto Workers
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English
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Date
- Format
- Identifier
- Language
- Source
- Subject
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"What the Women Did in Flint" article by Mary Heaton Vorse
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An article outlining the work women did to support the Flint Sit-Down Strike
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Mary Heaton Horse
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unknown
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Magazine article
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LP000112_009_027
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English
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Henry Kraus Papers, Box 9 Folder 27, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs
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Flint Sit-Down Strike
Item sets
Day 4
Supporting Question 3
What writings including poems, songs, and plays were created to inspire change?
Sources:
- Title
- Description
- Identifier
- Language
- Subject
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"The Union Men" song
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Lyrics to a song about union men fighting General Motors
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LP000112_009_030
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English
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Flint Sit-Down Strike
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Date
- Identifier
- Language
- Text
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Page 1: Letter to Homer Martin from Outsider
– A Challenge
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A letter from Gerald Schooley sending poems of support to striking GM workers
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2-10-1937
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LP000112_009_026a
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English
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Homer Martin, President and Ed. 801-5 Hoffman Building, Detroit, Michigan
[From] New Haven, Ind. Feb. 10, 1937
Dear sir:
I am sending a few verses which you may be able to use. I am a former Auto Worker, one of the Charter members of International Harvester Company Local and was sec'y treas. of ILU 18776.
I am keenly interested in your General Motors troubles and hope you will win out in every detail. I wish to congratulate you on the showing made to date as I realize that the odds are always against the laborer who attempts to better his position.
Yours Truly,
Gerald Schooley
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Date
- Identifier
- Language
- Related to
- Source
- Subject
- Text
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Page 2: Letter to Homer Martin from Outsider
– A Challenge
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A letter from Gerald Schooley sending poems of support to striking GM workers
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Gerald Schooley
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02-10-1937
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LP000112_009_026b
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English
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Henry Kraus Papers, Box 9 Folder 26, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs
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Flint Sit-Down Strike
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A Challenge:
Who are the Kings to-day
Ruling with scepters of steel
The brass-trimmed Monarch Machine,
The iron made God by the Wheel
With clang and clatter of gears
They measure the work of the hand
They say that their price is fair
and feed on the fat of the land
They steal from the mouth of the poor
To lay in the palm of the rich
Bestriding the whole universe
From temple of lowly ditch.
Woe to the shivering wight
Who ventures a faltering "nay"
His fate is a leper's fate
for a man was meant to obey
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Date
- Identifier
- Language
- Related to
- Source
- Text
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Page 3: Letter to Homer Martin from Outsider
– A Challenge
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A letter from Gerald Schooley sending poems of support to striking GM workers
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Gerald Schooley
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02-10-1937
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LP000112_009_026c
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English
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Henry Kraus Papers, Box 9 Folder 26, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs
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Stand not in the Monster's path
Lest be kick you in his stride
Fawn like a mongrel cur
Where is your manhood's pride?
Your body was made from clay
That your soul may find its place
Need it shrink and cower and hide
Like a school-girl in disgrace?
Clint not to your lowly state.
Arise in your Cause of Right
Man is not born to yield
To rule of insensate might
He is made in the image of One
who towers above it all
Are you willing the world should see
That mighty image fall?
Item sets
- Title
- Description
- Creator
- Date
- Identifier
- Language
- Source
- Subject
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J. G. Hodges to Homer Martin
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A letter from J. G. Hodges to UAW president Homer Martin, including a poem called "Toiler's Protest"
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J. G. Hodges
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January 10, 1937
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UP000112_009_027
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English
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Henry Krause Papers, Box 9 folder 27, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs
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Flint Sit-Down Strike
Item sets
