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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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In 1958 the Flint board of Education and the Mott foundation officially adopted two new forms of pupil grouping that ranked students by classroom performance, achievement tests an IQ. This "ability grouping" often ranked black children two grade levels below their white peers.
Black children could not take college Preparatory classes because the board implemented a vocational and life skilled oriented program in each of the majority black schools.
The NAACP raised challeges to this alleged color blind testing,
(page 171)
"Negroes Charge plot Against race in Two Community programs". Flint journal, January 14, 1965
john R. davis, "NAACP Officials Renew Charges on Mott program, Flint Schools", February 11, 1965 |
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Wed Mar 28, 2012 3:45 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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For many of the blacks who migranted from the south seeking employment, there were few employment opportunities in Gm and in other locations.
The Smith-Bridgman department store in downtown Flint was owned by the Mott Foundation. In 1958 The NAACP Employment Committee picketed in front of the Smith-Bridgman to protest the refusal of the store to hire black workers in any capacity other than maintenance.
Frank Manley organized the Flint Citizens Study Group (FCSG) "an informal, secretive organization that brought together leading members of the city's black and white communities" to discuss workplace discrimination |
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Wed Mar 28, 2012 3:58 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| In the early years, General Motors hired verry few black workers and when they did, it was only for the least desirable jobs. Loyd Bailer wrote "The Negro Automobile Worker' for the Journal of political Economy in October 1943. Bailer conducted extensive surveys og the auto industry during the 1930's and 1940's and concluded "the vast majority of the negro Automobile workers are employed in the foundry, paint, andmaintenance departments (chiefly as janitors or as unskilled labor.: |
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Wed Mar 28, 2012 4:07 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| The NAACP maintained a list of black jobs seekers, complete with resumes and referrals. They forwarded these list to Manley and the FCSG, who then quietly interviewed and tested candidates for employment. Those selected then had the FCSG lobby quietly on their behalf. As an action group, the FCSG did not have great success and only 11 clerks were hired from among 26 potential employers. Among those who did not hire any black employees was Smith-Bridgman. |
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Wed Mar 28, 2012 4:17 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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1964, a year before the race riots was a pivotal year for confrontations between the NAACP and General Motors. Herbert Hill, national labor secretary of the NAACP, gave Flint the right to have protests in advance of the planned may 4th rally in Detroit. Detroit was originally to kick off ptotests in 50 cities to protest aginst employment discrimination byGeneral Motors.
Hill allowed Flint to protest here because of the huge volume of complaints lodged in Flint. Saturday, April 25, 1964 Flint NAACP leader Edgar Holt picketed the north side Buick plant and the Buick dealership downtown. Protesters chanted "Jim Crow Must Go. GM Crow Must Go".
Holt was quoted in the Flint Journal article on the picket:
"GM like Rip van Winkle has slept too long. The world and events have passed them by. of course their machines are modern and pretty, but their concern for humanity stinks worse than the manure of a thousand dinosaurs."
Page 196 reflecting articles from the HOLT Papers GHCC |
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Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:48 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Through the 1964 protests against GM, Holt and Sydney Finney, the national field secretary of the NAACP, held a joint press conference. The Flint Mirror newspaper quoted Finney:
"Eighty percent of the Negro workers employed by GM are either foundry workers, toilet attenents, window washers, or performing some menial task. We are cognizant of flagrant discriminatory practices."
"Although by the 1960's GM had a highly publicized policy of nondiscrimination, Finney and Holt pointed out that all of its plants and offices in Genesee County remained rigidly segregated." (page 1970 |
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Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:55 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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General Motors Institute of Technology, GMI and now kettering, resisted even token desegregation. By 1966 they had enrolled only 16 black students.
In the early 1970s" some students and at least one faculty sponsor organized the Stoner's Society for the Preservation of White Supremacy, a group dedicated to epelling all black students and staff from the campus. Stoner's Society members distributed insulting leaflets, issued death threats, and pressured the school's administrators to end their limited experiment with desegregation. To dramatize their efforts, group members distributed a cartoon depicting a lynching and a 'Nigger Application for Employment', which asked imaginary black applicants to name their "motha"and "fatha" if known, list the number of children on welfare, and how many words they could "jive" in one minute.'
Holt went to the GMI administration to protest and later discovered that GMI and other GM institutions were reluctant to fight even these overt acts of racism and harrassment.
(page 197 using documents from the HOLT Papers GHCC) |
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Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:08 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Michigan Civil Rights Commission investigated GM in 1966 which demonstrated how uncommitted GM was to it's nondiscrimination policy.
Buick had 7,499 salaried and skilled trades workers and non white wer 1 percent.
Nonwhite workers represented 15percent of Buick's hourly workers.
Fisher body I had 1, 727 salaried and skilled-trades workers, of whom only 21 were nonwhite.
it was nearly impossible for nonwhites to gain an apprenticeship in any GM city.
page 198 using the Holt and Beasley papers GHCC
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:21 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:16 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Holt wrote to GM Director of Employment, Laurence Vckery, about the high number of black job applicants rejected because of "UTE", a mysterious ailment that caused "curved backs".
Holt noted that those rejected in Flint were athletes, marines and acceptable to other GM plants.
page 199 |
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Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:20 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Olive Beasley was the Flint representative on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, and she received complaints of discrimantion not only from Flint GM plants, but also from the growing number of suburban GM plants.
In 1969 the black workers at GM's Coldwater road facility in beecher formed the "Equality for All" organization to protest employment discrimination and poor union representation. The group was led by Anna Jean Miles and Sam V. Cade , who charged "local officials rom UAW Local 326 with "unjust representation and conspiracy to block promotions."
Page 200 from the Beasley Papers |
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Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:30 am |
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Cornbread Maxwell
F L I N T O I D
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| fascinating reading - thank you |
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Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:30 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Cornbread- I agree that it is fascinating. I am pleased that some are downloading the whole dissertation , reading and sharing the original work.
Once we know our past, it will help us know our future. |
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Sat Mar 31, 2012 5:41 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Highsmith discusses the decentralization strategy of GM betweent the years of 1945 to 1955. As GM moved their plants to other states, there was an impact on the local Flint economy and it created a ripple effect in the location of the automotive suppliers.
Economic Analyst Neil Hurley gave a 1959 presentation on the automotive industry :
"Although it will be decades before the primacy of Michigan as the nation's auto state will be seriously challenged, there seems little doubt that Michigan is losing its historic position of dominence" (page 216)
the UAW leaders and workers looked at this policy of decentralization as part of GM's "southern strategy". wages were higher in the unionized cities ain the north and moving to the south and west moved the jobs where the wages were lower and the trade uions were weakest. (page 217) |
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Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:11 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| In his observations, Highsmith notes that "virtually all of the corporation's postwar domestic investments occurred either in rural areas ofr within the racially segregated suburbs of large cities. Of the thirteen facilities constructed in the South during the 1970's, only one was located inside of a major city. A national phenomenon, the postwar shift of industrial resources from Cities to suburbs and rural areas was even more prononced than the Rust Belt to Sunbelt capital migrations." 9page 218) |
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Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:16 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Local public policies drove the suburbanization of factories in Genesee County. Large quantities of public utilities, water and sewer, as well as adequate fire and police protection were not availabele in the under developed suburbs of Flint. So during the 1945 to 1960 shift of GM capital investments to the suburbs, GM cororate officials lobbied Flint city officials to extend water and sewer lines to their suburban plants.
"During the 1940s and the early 1950s, the Flint City Commission had no formal rules on providing water and sewer services to suburban homes and businesses. lacking a clear policy, city commissioners approved water and sewer "hookups" on an ad hoc, case by case basis." (Flint Journal, October 11, 1949).
"Over the objections of many UAW-CIO officials who opposed corporate subsidies, city commissioners approved water and sewer connections for all of GM's major suburban facilities."
see Searchlight, April 17, 1952 and AC Sparkler, October 29,1953
(Page 218)
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Sat Aug 10, 2013 7:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:36 am |
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