Ford Strikers Riot is a 1941 photograph which shows a strikebreaker getting beaten by United Auto Workers (UAW) strikers. Photographer Milton Brooks captured the image and it won the first Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1942.
In the image, workers were picketing at the Ford Motor Company and a man clashed with the union men who were picketing. The man was a strikebreaker and the photo shows him being beaten by striking United Auto Workers (UAW) strikers. The image has been called a portrayal of the struggle in America between capital and labor.
Background
The image was taken in Dearborn, Michigan at the Rouge Plant of the Ford Motor Company during a worker strike action on April 3, 1941.[1][2] In its 40 year history, Ford Motor Company had never been closed as a result of a worker strike. The workers defied the company, the state police, and the strike breakers.[3]
The image was captured by The Detroit News photographer Milton Brooks.[4] A peaceful picketing of the Ford Motor Company was interrupted when a single man clashed with the Union men who were picketing. The man ignored the advice of the Michigan State Police and crossed the picket lines. Brooks waited with other photo journalists outside the Ford factory gates. Brooks described what happened, "I saw a man pick a fight with some of the pickets." Brooks took only one photograph and he said, "I took the picture quickly, hid the camera... ducked into the crowd... a lot of people would have liked to wreck that picture.[5]
Description
The image shows United Auto Workers (UAW) strikers beating a strikebreaker[6] with his coat pulled over his head. He is surrounded by eight men with clenched fists and clubs. After the photo was taken, the man was bleeding and stunned and was taken to the Ford Motor Company's hospital.[5] The Times ofShreveport, Louisiana described the scene by saying, "strikers rain blows on a man who shields himself with his coat in an early morning outbreak of hostilities".[7]
Reception
The image won the first Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1942,[6][3] juried by Herbert Brucker, Richard F. Crandell, and Roscoe B. Ellard.[8] The new photography category had 109 entries. The jury selected 11 finalists, deliberated, and concluded: "This brutal picture [...] sums up much of the labor history of 1941."[9] The Los Angeles Times, at the time, referred to the photograph as a "dramatic picture of a gang in action".[10] The award was accompanied by a prize of US$500 (equivalent to $9,000 in 2023).[11]
In Carol Quirke's 2012 book Eyes on Labor, she stated that photography plays a partisan role for both employers and employees, and that this image portrays the struggle in America between capital and labor.[12]
See also
- Battle of the Overpass, another famous photograph and incident
- Ford Hunger March
- List of photographs considered the most important