The Ford Hunger March, sometimes called the Ford Massacre, was a protest on March 7, 1932, in the United States by at least 3,000 unemployed auto workers in Detroit, Michigan, during the worst part of the Great Depression. The one-mile march began in Detroit and ended at the River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan. Dearborn Police and security guards working for the Ford Motor Company shot and killed four workers, with many others injured by gunfire. A fifth person died from their injuries five months later.
The march was supported by the Unemployed Councils, which was part of the Communist Party USA. It was followed by the Battle of the Overpass in 1937 and was an important part of a series of events that led to the unionization of the automotive industry in the United States.
Background
In the 1920s, the Detroit area became prosperous because the U.S. auto industry was successful. The industry, centered in Detroit, produced 5,337,000 vehicles in 1929, a time when many people bought their first cars. The 1930 U.S. census reported a population of 122,775,046. For comparison, in 2008, the U.S. auto industry produced 8,681,000 vehicles, and the U.S. population was estimated at 304,375,000. This means the U.S. auto industry made 50% more vehicles per person in 1929 than in the early 21st century, when foreign car makers increased competition.
On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, causing the Great Depression. Vehicle production in the country dropped sharply. In 1930, production fell to 3,363,000 vehicles. In 1931, production dropped further to 1,332,000 vehicles, just 25% of the 1929 level.
Because of this, unemployment in Detroit rose sharply, and the wages of those still working were cut. In 1929, the average annual wage for auto workers was $1,639 (about $30,700 in 2025). By 1931, wages had fallen 54% to $757 (about $16,000 in 2025). By 1932, 400,000 people in Michigan were unemployed.
Detroit had 113 suicides in 1927, which increased to 568 in 1931. In 1931, the welfare allowance was $0.15 (about $3.18 in 2025) per person per day. At that time, neither states nor the federal government provided unemployment insurance, and Social Security did not yet exist. Many banks closed, taking people’s savings, as every neighborhood bank in Detroit went out of business. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had not yet been created to protect people’s money. By 1932, foreclosures, evictions, repossessions, and bankruptcies were happening often, and many unemployed people felt hopeless.
The Hunger March
The Great Depression is said to be the reason many Ford workers lost their jobs. The Detroit Unemployed Council helped unemployed workers by preventing them from being forced out of their homes and connecting them with helping organizations. The Unemployed Councils and the Auto, Aircraft and Vehicle Workers of America planned a march on Monday, March 7, 1932, from Detroit to the Ford River Rouge Complex, the largest Ford factory in Dearborn. The main organizers of the march were Albert Goetz, a leader of the Detroit Unemployed Council, and John Schmies, the Communist candidate for mayor of Detroit. Detroit, led by Mayor Frank Murphy, who one historian called "slightly radical," allowed the march to happen with a permit. Dearborn Mayor Clyde Ford, a relative of Henry Ford and owner of a Ford dealership, did not grant a permit.
On March 6, William Z. Foster, secretary of the Trade Union Unity League and a leader of the Communist Party, gave a speech in Detroit to prepare for the march. The marchers planned to deliver 14 demands to Henry Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company. These demands included hiring the unemployed, providing money for health care, stopping unfair treatment based on race, giving winter fuel to the unemployed, ending the use of workers who spy on others and private police against workers, and allowing workers to form unions.
On March 7, a group of about 3,000 to 5,000 people gathered near the edge of Dearborn, about one mile from the Ford plant. The Detroit Times described the day as "one of the coldest days of the winter, with a very cold wind blowing from the northwest." Marchers carried signs with messages such as "Give Us Work," "We Want Bread Not Crumbs," and "Tax the Rich and Feed the Poor." Albert Goetz spoke, asking marchers to avoid violence. The march moved peacefully through Detroit toward the Dearborn city limits.
At the city limits, Dearborn police tried to stop the march by releasing tear gas and hitting marchers with clubs. One officer shot a gun toward the crowd. The unarmed people ran into a field and then threw stones at the police. The marchers regrouped and moved nearly one mile toward the plant. There, two fire engines sprayed cold water on the marchers from an overpass. Police and Ford security guards fired weapons into the crowd. Marchers Joseph York (20), Kalman Leny (26), and Joseph DeBlasio (31) were killed, and at least 22 others were hurt by gunfire.
The leaders canceled the march and began to leave in an organized way. Harry Bennett, head of Ford security, drove up in a car, opened a window, and fired a pistol into the crowd. His car was hit with rocks, and Bennett was injured. He got out of the car and kept firing at the retreating marchers. Dearborn police and Ford security guards used machine guns on the retreating crowd. Joseph Bussell (16) was killed, many others were hurt, and Bennett was taken to the hospital.
About 25 Dearborn police officers were injured by rocks and other objects, but none were hurt by gunfire.
Aftermath
All seriously injured marchers were arrested, and police chained some to their hospital beds after they were admitted for treatment. A nationwide search was made for William Z. Foster, but he was not arrested. No law enforcement officers or Ford security guards were arrested, even though reliable reports showed that only they had used gunfire, causing deaths, injuries, and property damage. The New York Times reported that "Dearborn streets were covered in blood, broken glass littered the ground, and bullet-damaged cars were scattered. Nearly every window in the Ford plant's employment building was broken."
The next day, Detroit newspapers published exaggerated and incorrect stories about the violence, based on rumors or false police reports. For example, the Detroit Free Press falsely claimed that Harry Bennett and four officers had been shot. The Detroit Press stated that "six shots fired by a communist hiding behind a parked car were said by police to have started a riot at the Ford Motor Company plant." The Detroit Times wrote that "These professional Communists are solely responsible for the assaults and killings that occurred at the Ford plant." The Mirror used a headline that read "Red Leaders Facing Murder Trials." National newspapers were more critical of the security forces. The New York Herald Tribune wrote: "The Dearborn police should be condemned for shooting unarmed people, for poor decisions, and for killing four men."
In the following days, local newspapers shared more information and changed their statements, shifting blame for the deaths and injuries of unemployed and unarmed workers. The Detroit Times said, "It is now admitted that someone made a mistake in handling the group of Hunger Marchers who tried to deliver petitions at the Ford plant in River Rouge." It called "the killing of unknown workers, who had done nothing wrong, a blow to American institutions." The Detroit News reported that "Leaders present in the march warned participants not to fight."
The mainstream trade union movement criticized the killings. The Detroit Federation of Labor, part of the American Federation of Labor, issued a statement saying, "The violent killing of workers at the Ford Motor Plant in Dearborn has left a stain on this community that will be a disgrace for many years."
On March 12, an estimated 25,000 to 60,000 people joined a funeral procession for the four dead marchers, who were buried together in Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit. The slogan of the funeral was "Smash the Ford-Murphy Terror." A fifth marcher, Curtis Williams (36), died from injuries five months later on August 7, 1932. When Woodmere Cemetery refused to allow Williams, an African American, to be buried there, his family arranged for his cremation. The union hired an airplane to scatter his ashes over the River Rouge complex.
Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy said, "Chaining injured prisoners to beds is a cruel practice that should not be allowed in a modern hospital." Murphy faced criticism because some people believed Detroit police may have been involved in the violence, but a historian writing nearly 50 years later described their role as "peripheral." Murphy called Harry Bennett an "inhuman brute" and Henry Ford a "terrible man." He asked, "What is the difference between the official Dearborn police and Ford's guards?" His answer was, "A legal one." Murphy's reputation improved after the incident. He later became Governor of Michigan and ended his public career as an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.
Nine years later, on April 11, 1941, after the economy had improved and 40,000 Ford workers held a ten-day sit-down strike, Henry Ford signed a collective bargaining agreement with the United Auto Workers union.
Grand Jury report
Prosecutor Harry S. Toy called a grand jury to look into the violence. In its report, released at the end of June, the grand jury said there was not enough evidence to charge anyone with crimes. However, it criticized the demonstrators for acting in a way that ignored authority and broke the law. It also said the Dearborn City Police acted in good faith when they first met the demonstrators, but their use of tear gas could have been handled more carefully. The report stated that the police believed they were doing their duty when they used tear gas to stop rioters at the city's edge and when they used gunfire to protect people and property during a dangerous situation.
Grand juror Mrs. Jerry Houghton Bacon, who supported Detroit Mayor Murphy, disagreed with the report. She called the grand jury "the most biased, prejudiced, and ignorant proceeding imaginable." She claimed the prosecutors treated witnesses unfairly and that the prosecutors showed bias, which influenced the jurors' decisions.
In popular culture
The song "Fort Street Bridge" by Wakefire is part of the album Voyages, Dreams, & Other Stories. It was released on September 1, 2022. The lyrics were written by Sarah O’Brien, and the music was composed by Sarah O’Brien and Bubba Wilson.
Contemporary documentation
The archives at the Walter P. Reuther Library, part of Wayne State University, contain pictures of the march and the funerals that happened afterward. Members from Detroit in the Workers Film and Photo League took videos of the march and created a film that was shown at meetings where people discussed social issues across the country.