PODCAST

Tales from the Reuther Library

Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Stories on labor history, Detroit, and Wayne State University

history

All Episodes

52:35

Environmental Activism in Deindustrialized Detroit

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2022/04/19

Brandon Ward explains how Detroit residents, community organizations, and the labor movement, alarmed by the pollution remaining in Detroit’s deindustrialized era that mostly heavily impacted Black Americans and the working class, worked together from the 1970s onward to create a healthier, greener, and more livable city. Ward is a lecturer at Perimeter College at Georgia … Continue reading Environmental Activism in Deindustrialized Detroit

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52:53

Bargaining for the Common Good: Milton Tambor...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2022/01/14

Labor leader and social activist Milton Tambor discusses his life’s work in Detroit since the 1950s as a social worker; AFSCME local union president, staff representative and assistant education director; and teaching faculty in both labor studies and social work at Wayne State University and other institutions. He also discusses the intersection of labor and … Continue reading Bargaining for the Common Good: Milton Tambor Reflects on 50 Years in Labor and Social Activism

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39:15

And Many More: Celebrating SEIU’s Centennial in the...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/12/20

Reuther Library SEIU archivist Sarah Lebovitz shares highlights from the union’s first 100 years, and explains how its archives at the Reuther Library have supported labor organizing and centennial celebrations. Related Collections: SEIU District 925 Records SEIU Executive Office: George Hardy Records SEIU Executive Office: John Sweeney Records SEIU Executive Office: William McFetridge Records SEIU … Continue reading And Many More: Celebrating SEIU’s Centennial in the Archives

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44:34

Brewing a Boycott: Collective Activism and the...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/11/18

Dr. Allyson Brantley explains how large and diverse groups joined together for a decades-long consumer boycott of the Coors Brewing Company to fight against its union busting, discriminatory hiring practices, and politics. Brantley is an assistant professor of history and Director of Honors & Interdisciplinary Initiatives at the University of La Verne and author of … Continue reading Brewing a Boycott: Collective Activism and the Decades-Long Coors Beer Boycott

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56:06

Communists and Community in Wartime Detroit

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/10/29

Dr. Ryan Pettengill explains how communist activists in Detroit worked with labor activists during and after the Second World War to enhance the quality of life in the community by advocating for civil rights, affordable housing, protections for the foreign-born, and more. Pettengill is a Professor of History at Collin College and author of Communists … Continue reading Communists and Community in Wartime Detroit

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48:53

Sandfuture: Exploring Minoru Yamasaki, Lost Humanist...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/09/30

Artist and author Justin Beal shares the career and legacy of influential yet often forgotten architect Minoru Yamasaki. Yamasaki’s human-centered architectural design was often overrun by economics, politics, and capitalist symbolism, leading to his two most well-known developments, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis and the World Trade Center in New York City, to … Continue reading Sandfuture: Exploring Minoru Yamasaki, Lost Humanist Architecture, and the Rise of Sick Buildings and Sick

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34:05

Midnight in Vehicle City: Modern Lessons From the...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/08/14

Edward McClelland recounts the gripping details of the Flint sit-down strike, and considers what we can learn today from the strikers’ successful fight for shared prosperity in 1936-1937. McClelland is a journalist, historian, and author of Midnight in Vehicle City: General Motors, Flint, and the Strike That Built the Middle Class. Related Collections: Flint Labor … Continue reading Midnight in Vehicle City: Modern Lessons From the Flint Sit-Down Strike

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46:38

Blaming Teachers: How America Simultaneously...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/07/09

Dr. Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz explains how the push to professionalize and standardize educators beginning in the mid-1800s, without granting them decision-making power, has made them the public face of foundering school policies developed and implemented by local school administrators and state and national policymakers. Widespread policy narratives that schools and teachers acting as mother figures … Continue reading Blaming Teachers: How America Simultaneously Professionalized and Patronized

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41:57

From Bargaining Table to Diplomatic Table: Leonard...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/05/27

After Leonard Woodcock stepped down as president of the UAW in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent him to Beijing as a diplomatic envoy and ultimately as the nation’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. In the second of a two-part interview, his wife Sharon Woodcock talks about Deng Xiaoping’s visit to the … Continue reading From Bargaining Table to Diplomatic Table: Leonard Woodcock in China (Part 2)

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41:36

From Bargaining Table to Diplomatic Table: Leonard...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/05/07

After Leonard Woodcock stepped down as president of the UAW in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent him to Beijing as a diplomatic envoy and ultimately as the nation’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. In the first of a two-part interview, his wife Sharon Woodcock talks about Leonard’s labor ideals and shares … Continue reading From Bargaining Table to Diplomatic Table: Leonard Woodcock in China (Part 1)

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46:32

Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/04/15

Historian Jane Little Botkin explains how Jane Street, a single mother, firebrand, and little-known IWW organizer, orchestrated a 1916 housemaids’ rebellion in Denver. To fight for better pay and working conditions in the elite Capitol Hill neighborhood, Street worked with—and later, despite—the IWW to blacklist and shame the area’s worst domestic employers, thereby disrupting the … Continue reading Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver

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42:08

It’s Been a Year: Reuther Library Director Aliqae...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/03/18

Aliqae Geraci explains that she had big plans when she became director of the Reuther Library a year ago, and those plans were immediately scuttled when her first day on the job coincided with the first day Wayne State University’s on-campus operations were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She describes how she and the … Continue reading It’s Been a Year: Reuther Library Director Aliqae Geraci Recalls Her First Year on the Job During a Global Pandemic

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44:33

Bootlegged Aliens: How Undocumented Immigrants from...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2021/01/21

Dr. Ashley Johnson Bavery explains how undocumented European immigrants coming over the Canadian border to work in the Detroit auto industry in the 1920s and 1930s spurred nativist discourse, influenced government policies toward illegal immigration, and shaped how business and labor unions used and positioned migrant labor. Dr. Bavery is Assistant Professor of History at … Continue reading Bootlegged Aliens: How Undocumented Immigrants from Canada in the 1920s Shaped American Immigration Policy

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1:08:26

The Long Deep Grudge: How the Haymarket “Riot” of...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2020/12/18

Labor historian Dr. Toni Gilpin explores how the McCormick family’s greed and union-busting in the late 19th century set the stage for a bitter battle between the International Harvester corporation and the radical Farm Equipment Workers union in the 1930s and 1940s. Although the union was absorbed by the United Auto Workers in 1955, Gilpin … Continue reading The Long Deep Grudge: How the Haymarket “Riot” of 1886 Evolved into a Bitter Battle Between the Farm Equipment Workers Union and International

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50:32

The Detroit Interracial Committee and Racial...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2020/12/03

Sean Henry discusses the Detroit Interracial Committee’s (IRC) pragmatic attempt to ease racial tensions in the city following the 1943 Detroit riots. Assuming that it could not completely eliminate racial antagonism, the IRC instead used its Community Barometer initiative and the Detroit Public Schools program for intercultural education to identify and manage systemic racial inequities … Continue reading The Detroit Interracial Committee and Racial Pragmatism, 1944-1950

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40:02

SEIU: A Successful Union in an Era of Labor Decline

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2020/11/06

Dr. Timothy Minchin explores how the SEIU nearly doubled its membership from 1980-1995, during a time of significantly declining numbers in most other American labor unions. Through an exploration of SEIU’s membership drives at nursing homes, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and its long-running Justice for Janitors campaign, Minchin credits the union’s growth to a combination of … Continue reading SEIU: A Successful Union in an Era of Labor Decline

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53:08

When It Happened Here: Michigan and the Transnational...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2020/09/10

Salaina Catalano Crumb explains how American fascism developed and thrived in Michigan from the 1920s through the 1940s due to the influence of right-wing individuals and organizations swayed by the politics of Nazi Germany, including industrialist Henry Ford, anti-communist clergy members Father Coughlin and Reverend Gerald L.K. Smith, militant secret societies like the Black Legion, … Continue reading When It Happened Here: Michigan and the Transnational Development of American Fascism,

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35:45

Reading the Room: How César Chávez’s Early Life...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2020/08/20

Dr. Clay Walker explains how César Chávez’s lifeworld discourse – the language, culture, and experiences that shaped who he was and how he encountered and navigated the world – uniquely prepared him to lead the United Farm Workers and effectively communicate his message to a diverse audience. Dr. Walker is a senior lecturer in English … Continue reading Reading the Room: How César Chávez’s Early Life Prepared Him to Lead

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45:26

Mechanical Engineer To Booth Babe and Back Again: The...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2020/07/30

Society of Women Engineers archivist Troy Eller English shares the tragicomic story of Lucille Pieti, 1950 mechanical engineering alum and Miss Wayne University. Sidelined in technical writing despite her degree and experience, Pieti found her career veering farther and farther away from engineering in the mid-1950s as her bosses at Chrysler capitalized on her beauty … Continue reading Mechanical Engineer To Booth Babe and Back Again: The Tragicomic Career of Wayne State Engineering Alum Lucille

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26:09

(Re)Introducing the Michigan Black History Bibliography

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2020/07/09

Reuther Library field archivist Dr. Louis Jones and former archives students and staff members Mattie Dugan and Allie Penn discuss the Reuther’s Michigan Black History Bibliography (MBHB) and the multi-year, student-led project to digitize a decades-old index card file. Meticulously compiled by Reuther librarian Roberta McBride in the 1970s, the MBHB cataloged well-known and obscure … Continue reading (Re)Introducing the Michigan Black History Bibliography

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Tales from the Reuther Library

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