The Ford Hunger March, also known as the Ford Massacre, was a protest on March 7, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, during the worst part of the Great Depression. At least 3,000 unemployed auto workers participated in the one-mile march, which began in Detroit and ended at the River Rouge factory in Dearborn, Michigan. During the protest, Dearborn police and security guards from the Ford Motor Company shot and killed four workers. Many others were injured by gunfire. A fifth worker died from his injuries five months later.
The march was supported by the Unemployed Councils, which was part of the Communist Party USA. This event was followed by the Battle of the Overpass in 1937. It played an important role in a series of events that led to the unionization of the automotive industry in the United States.
Background
In the 1920s, the Detroit area experienced economic growth because of the success of the U.S. auto industry during that time. The auto industry, which was based in Detroit, produced 5,337,000 vehicles in 1929, a year when many people purchased their first cars. According to the 1930 U.S. census, the population of the United States was 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 that in 1929, the auto industry produced 50% more vehicles per person than it did in the early 21st century, when foreign car makers became stronger competitors.
On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, beginning the Great Depression. Vehicle production in the United States dropped sharply. In 1930, production fell to 3,363,000 vehicles. By 1931, production had decreased further to 1,332,000 vehicles, which was only 25% of the production level from two years earlier.
Because of this decline, unemployment in Detroit increased rapidly, and the wages of workers who still had jobs were reduced. In 1929, the average annual wage for auto workers was $1,639 (about $30,700 in 2025). By 1931, wages had dropped by 54% to $757 (about $16,000 in 2025). By 1932, 400,000 people in Michigan were unemployed.
Detroit saw a rise in suicides during this time. In 1927, there were 113 suicides, but by 1931, the number had increased to 568. In 1931, the daily welfare allowance was $0.15 per person (about $3.18 in 2025). At that time, neither state nor federal governments provided unemployment insurance, and Social Security did not exist. Many people lost their life savings when banks closed, as every neighborhood bank in Detroit went out of business. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which would later protect bank deposits, had not yet been created. By 1932, foreclosures, evictions, repossessions, and bankruptcies were common, and many unemployed people felt hopeless.
The Hunger March
The Great Depression caused many Ford workers to lose 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. Albert Goetz, a leader of the Detroit Unemployed Council, and John Schmies, the Communist candidate for mayor of Detroit, were the main organizers of the march. Detroit’s mayor, Frank Murphy, who a historian described as "slightly radical," gave the march a permit. However, Dearborn’s 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, a leader of the Communist Party and secretary of the Trade Union Unity League, spoke 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 rehiring the unemployed, providing money for health care, ending racial discrimination in hiring and promotions, giving winter fuel to the unemployed, stopping the use of company spies and private police against workers, and allowing workers to form unions.
On March 7, between 3,000 and 5,000 people gathered near the edge of Dearborn, about one mile from the Ford plant. The Detroit Times described the day as very cold, with strong winds blowing from the northwest. Marchers carried signs with messages like "Give Us Work," "We Want Bread Not Crumbs," and "Tax the Rich and Feed the Poor." Albert Goetz spoke, urging the crowd to remain peaceful. The march moved calmly through Detroit toward the Dearborn city limits.
At the city limits, Dearborn police tried to stop the march by using tear gas and hitting marchers with clubs. One officer fired a gun toward the crowd. The unarmed marchers ran into a field and then threw stones at the police. They regrouped and moved nearly one mile toward the plant. There, two fire engines sprayed cold water onto the marchers from an overpass. Police and Ford security guards opened fire with guns. Three marchers—Joseph York (20), Kalman Leny (26), and Joseph DeBlasio (31)—were killed, and at least 22 others were injured 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 continued shooting at the retreating marchers. Dearborn police and Ford security guards used machine guns on the marchers. Joseph Bussell (16) was killed, and many others were wounded. Bennett was taken to the hospital.
About 25 Dearborn police officers were hurt by rocks and other objects, but none were injured by gunfire.
Aftermath
All marchers who were seriously injured were arrested, and police chained some to their hospital beds after they received treatment. A search was conducted nationwide for William Z. Foster, but he was not captured. No law enforcement officers or Ford security guards were arrested, even though reliable reports showed that only they had fired weapons, causing deaths, injuries, and damage to property. The New York Times reported that "Dearborn streets were covered in blood, broken glass littered the ground, and the wreckage of cars shot by bullets was everywhere. 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, which seemed to be based on rumors or false police reports. For example, the Detroit Free Press falsely claimed that Harry Bennett and four police 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 alone are morally responsible for the assaults and killings that occurred before the Ford plant." The Mirror printed 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 judgment, and for killing four men."
In the following days, local newspapers gathered more information and changed their reports, shifting blame for the deaths and injuries of unemployed and unarmed workers. For example, the Detroit Times later said that "Someone, it is now admitted, made a mistake in handling the group of Hunger Marchers who tried to deliver petitions at the Ford plant in River Rouge." It described "the killing of unknown workers, who were not guilty of any crime … as a blow aimed at the heart of American institutions." The Detroit News reported that "As long as the demonstration had leaders present, they seem to have warned the participants not to fight."
The mainstream trade union movement criticized the violence. The Detroit Federation of Labor, part of the American Federation of Labor, issued a statement saying that "The brutal killing of workers at the Ford Motor Plant in Dearborn on Monday has left a stain on this community that will remain a disgrace for many years."
On March 12, an estimated 25,000 to 60,000 people attended a funeral procession for the four dead marchers, who were buried together in Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit. The slogan of the funeral march 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 chartered an airplane to scatter his ashes over the River Rouge complex.
Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy stated that "chaining injured prisoners to hospital 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 who wrote nearly 50 years later described their role as "minor." Murphy called Harry Bennett an "inhuman brute" and referred to Henry Ford as 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 grew after the incident. He later became Governor of Michigan and ended his public career as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Nine years later, on April 11, 1941, after the economy had improved and 40,000 Ford workers conducted 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 together a grand jury to look into the violence. In its report, released at the end of June, the grand jury said there was no reason to bring charges against anyone. However, the report criticized the demonstrators and said the security forces were not at fault. It stated, "We believe the demonstrators acted without thinking and broke the law by ignoring officials in charge. We also believe the Dearborn City Police tried to help at first, but their actions might have been less careful before they used tear gas. However, we think the police did what they honestly believed was their duty as law enforcement officers. This included stopping rioters at the city's edge with tear gas and using gunfire later to protect people and property, which were clearly in danger."
Grand juror Mrs. Jerry Houghton Bacon, a supporter of Detroit Mayor Murphy, disagreed with the report. She called the grand jury "the most biased, unfair, and uninformed process imaginable." She said there was "clear unfair treatment of witnesses by the prosecutors" and claimed "prejudice from the prosecutors 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 Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University, have photos of the march and the funerals that happened after. Members from Detroit in the Workers Film and Photo League recorded videos of the march and made a newsreel that was shown at radical meetings across the country.