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Labor organizers work to integrate the United Auto Workers union.

1941

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RAC

While racism continues to directly impact Black workers who have moved North, organizing in Detroit begins to focus on building solidarity between white and Black auto workers.

The first organizing drive ends with union failure and racial tension. However, the second drive is successful for a number of reasons, including a shift in how Henry Ford is perceived by newly-arrived Black workers, a commitment to increasing the number of Black workers and organizers in the United Auto Workers (UAW), and a range of federal changes that establish protections for labor organizing.