The power and collapse of paternalism: The Ford Motor Company and black workers, 1937-1941

In this comparative historical analysis, I examine the significance of pate rnalism in two interracial labor organizing drives at the Ford Motor Compan y's River Rouge plant during the Great Depression. The first drive resulted in ongoing? interracial antagonism among Ford workers and the union's fail ure. The second drive generated interracial labor solidarity and led to the union's recognition. One of the distinctive aspects of the setting was Hen ry Ford's paternalistic relations with the black community of Detroit. Draw ing from Mary Jackman 's (1994) research, I examine the dimensions of pater nalism and hort it contributes to split labor market dynamics, in particula r, and power relationships, in general. This analysis suggest that a split labor market based on paternalism can only be overcome by workers when anot her political actor intervenes in ways that challenge the stratification (w hether by design or not).