Qualla: Battle of the Overpass https://qualla.com/battle-of-the-overpass en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/s/b/battle-of-the-overpass-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of the Overpass https://qualla.com/battle-of-the-overpass Battle of the Overpass: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-the-overpass/ Photo credit Saul Vielmetti, CC BY-SA 4.0. The photographer asked them to pose. Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen, two of the United Auto Workers' most visible organizers, stood on the Miller Road overpass above Gate 4 of Ford's River Rouge plant on May 26, 1937, the Ford sign looming behind them. Detroit News photographer James "Scotty" Kilpatrick wanted a picture for the next day's paper. Before the shutter finished clicking, as many as forty men from Ford's Service Department rushed from behind and attacked. Frankensteen's jacket was pulled over his head; he was kicked and punched while pinned. Organizer Richard Merriweather suffered a broken back. Ford's men then turned on the photographers, smashing cameras and seizing film. But Kilpatrick had already passed his negatives to a colleague. The pictures ran nationally. Ford won the overpass that afternoon and lost the war.

Read more: Battle of the Overpass on Qualla

Image: Saul Vielmetti | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/s/b/battle-of-the-overpass-wp/dpsb-battle-of-the-overpass-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of the Overpass: The Rouge and Its Shadow Army https://qualla.com/battle-of-the-overpass/ Photo credit Kilpatrick, James R. "Scotty", Public domain. By 1937, the Ford River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, was the largest industrial facility on earth, employing roughly 90,000 workers. It was also a fortress. Harry Bennett, head of Ford's Service Department, commanded what historians have called a "quasi-military" security...

Read more: Battle of the Overpass on Qualla

Image: Kilpatrick, James R. "Scotty" | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/s/b/battle-of-the-overpass-wp/dpsb-battle-of-the-overpass-the-rouge-and-its-shadow-army.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of the Overpass: "Unionism, Not Fordism" https://qualla.com/battle-of-the-overpass/ Photo credit Kilpatrick, James E. "Scotty", Public domain. The UAW had been founded only two years earlier, in 1935, but momentum was building fast. A sit-down strike at the Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Company in Detroit in late 1936 disrupted parts flowing to the Rouge and swelled UAW Local 174's membership. Tactics refined at Kelsey-Hayes were ...

Read more: Battle of the Overpass on Qualla

Image: Kilpatrick, James E. "Scotty" | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/s/b/battle-of-the-overpass-wp/dpsb-battle-of-the-overpass-unionism-not-fordism.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of the Overpass: The Photographs That Backfired https://qualla.com/battle-of-the-overpass/ Photo credit Kilpatrick, James R. "Scotty", Public domain. Ford's Service Department understood the power of images -- which is exactly why they tried to destroy them. After the beating, Bennett's men seized cameras and exposed film from every journalist they could reach. But Kilpatrick's negatives survived, smuggled out in a colleague's...

Read more: Battle of the Overpass on Qualla

Image: Kilpatrick, James R. "Scotty" | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/s/b/battle-of-the-overpass-wp/dpsb-battle-of-the-overpass-the-photographs-that-backfired.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of the Overpass: The Contract That Ended the Fight https://qualla.com/battle-of-the-overpass/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Four years passed before Ford capitulated. The Battle of the Overpass set off a chain of organizing drives, legal challenges, and escalating tensions that culminated in a full-scale strike at the Rouge in April 1941. When it ended, Ford signed a contract with the UAW -- the last ...

Read more: Battle of the Overpass on Qualla

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/s/b/battle-of-the-overpass-wp/dpsb-battle-of-the-overpass-the-contract-that-ended-the-fight.mp3 0:06 5 full