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

24:31

Talking History with AFA President Sara Nelson

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/11/26

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO discusses the importance of understanding labor and legislative history when bargaining for better labor contracts for flight attendants today. Related Resources: Turbulent Romance: The History of the Association of Flight Attendants Related Collections: Association of Flight … Continue reading Talking History with AFA President Sara Nelson

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54:09

The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/11/17

Professor Michelle Adams describes the struggles to integrate Detroit’s highly segregated neighborhoods and schools in the 1960s, a federal judge’s ruling to alleviate that segregation by bussing students between the predominately Black schools in Detroit and predominantly white schools in the suburbs, and the Supreme Court’s subsequent 1974 Milliken v. Bradley decision that acknowledged the … Continue reading The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the

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33:57

Remembering the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/10/30

Dr. Beth Widmaier Capo discusses the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center and the role health practitioners there—including her mother—played in empowering women to understand their bodies and take control of their health in the 1970s. Capo is the Edward Capps Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at Illinois College, and author of the article, … Continue reading Remembering the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center

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39:41

Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/10/09

John Miles Branch discusses the National Labor Relations Board’s policy to dismiss union petitions at charitable organizations in the decades following the Second World War, and the policy’s reversal in 1976 when the board acknowledged nonprofit institutions as a “third sector” of the economy linked with the nation’s commercial life. Branch is a Ph.D. candidate … Continue reading Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976

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31:11

Talking Archives with AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/09/25

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride reflects on the role the union’s history and archives play in current and future labor actions and organizing campaigns. Related Resources: AFSCME History Related Collections: AFSCME collections at the Reuther Library Episode Credits Interviewee: Elissa McBride Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English … Continue reading Talking Archives with AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride

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53:04

Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/09/11

Dr. Keith Wunderlich shares the life and legacy of D.L. Holmes, athletic director of what is now Wayne State University from 1917 though 1958. With a meager budget and outdated equipment, Coach Holmes nurtured a generation of track and field Olympians and world record holders in Detroit, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religious background. Wunderlich … Continue reading Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of Detroit’s Track Stars

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59:13

Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/08/21

Dr. Nick Juravich discusses the experiences of the first-generation of paraprofessional educators in New York City in the 1960s-1980s and their impact on the city’s educational system, community relations, and public sector unions. Juravich is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed … Continue reading Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education

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35:22

Oil Can Eddie and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/07/31

Roger Biles and Mark Rose discuss the legacy of Eddie Sadlowski, a charismatic and progressive Chicago steelworker who, unhappy with the United Steelworker of America’s closed-rank authoritarian leadership and tepid support for rank-and-file members, led a highly visible yet unsuccessful dissident campaign in the contentious election for the USWA’s presidency in 1977. Dr. Biles is … Continue reading Oil Can Eddie and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union

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46:43

Seeking “Self-Determination” in Detroit: Housing,...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/07/03

Dr. Anna E. Lindner discusses the rise and subsequent downfall of the West Central Organization in Detroit, a coalition of civil rights organizations, community groups, and church congregations that sought to bring attention to housing inequality and other social issues in the 1960s. Although founded with good intent, the group’s aggressive lobbying gained short-term results … Continue reading Seeking “Self-Determination” in Detroit: Housing, Race, and the Activism of the West Central Organization,

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50:55

Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/05/29

Dr. Matt Kautz explores how evolving school disciplinary practices, changes in crime reporting, and political pressure in the decades following school desegregation led to the rise of student suspensions, expulsions, dropouts, and the school-to-prison pipeline in Detroit and other cities. Kautz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership and Counseling at Eastern Michigan … Continue reading Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World

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53:02

The Worthy Wages Movement for Childcare Workers

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/04/17

Dr. Justine Modica discusses the Worthy Wages movement centered in Seattle from the 1980s through the 2000s. Affiliated with SEIU, daycare directors and childcare workers in childcare centers and home-based daycares joined together to raise public awareness of the underfunding of daycare and lobby for increased state childcare subsidies, hoping to increase the wages and … Continue reading The Worthy Wages Movement for Childcare Workers

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42:55

Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/02/20

Dr. Lori Flores discusses food systems in the US and Northeast region specifically, illuminating how the nation has developed a growing appetite for both Latinx food and Latinx food laborers, who are often underpaid and under-nourished as they help grow, process, transport, prepare, and serve food across the country. Flores is an associate professor of … Continue reading Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to COVID-19

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52:34

The Carter Presidency and Gay Rights

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2025/01/16

Dr. Harris Dousemetzis shares the extraordinary impact of U.S. President Jimmy Carter on gay rights in the 1970s and early 1980s, from instituting policies to prevent anti-gay discrimination of most federal employees to facilitating IRS nonprofit status for gay rights organizations and community centers, enabling them to receive federal funding for educational materials and health … Continue reading The Carter Presidency and Gay Rights

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57:59

A Fond Farewell with Audiovisual Archivist Mary Wallace

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2024/12/23

Reuther Library audiovisual archivist Mary Wallace has worn many hats over the past 27 years, from student page in the Reading Room to interim director and chief weather-spotter and safety monitor. As she prepares to retire in January 2025, Wallace reflects on the changes she’s seen at the Reuther and in the field, shares a … Continue reading A Fond Farewell with Audiovisual Archivist Mary Wallace

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25:34

When Detroit Played the Numbers: Gambling’s History...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2024/10/17

Dr. Felicia George explains how number lotteries in the city’s Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods in the 20th century, although illegal and rife with exploitation, also raised some Black Detroiters out of poverty and created an important social support in a community stressed by racial discrimination and job insecurity. Dr. George is an adjunct … Continue reading When Detroit Played the Numbers: Gambling’s History and Cultural Impact on the Motor City

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47:04

Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2024/09/03

Dr. Jesse Chanin describes how the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) gained power and influence in a region hostile to unions from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s by building trust in the community with transparent and democratic decision-making and a focus on racial and economic justice to improve the lives of the New Orleans … Continue reading Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers of New Orleans, 1965-2008

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31:59

Detroit Industry and ‘The Mural’

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2024/07/25

Dr. Jay Cephas considers two Depression-era murals in Detroit and their contrasting messaging about workers, labor, and power. Diego Rivera’s famed Detroit Industry murals, commissioned by Edsel Ford for the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1932, champions industrial and technological progress and the factory workers who fueled it. In contrast, Walter Speck and Barbara Wilson’s … Continue reading Detroit Industry and ‘The Mural’

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38:34

Organizing Your Own: The White Fight for Black Power...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2024/06/13

Dr. Say Burgin explains that contrary to the common belief that white activists were purged from the Black freedom movement in the mid-1960 and 1970s, Black-led organizations in Detroit – including the Northern Student Movement, the City-Wide Citizens Action Committee, and the League of Revolutionary Workers—called on white activists to organize within their own white … Continue reading Organizing Your Own: The White Fight for Black Power in Detroit

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43:45

Hillbilly Highway: Charting White Migration from...

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2024/05/09

Dr. Max Fraser shares the often overlooked story of the “hillbilly highway,” the route nearly eight million poor, rural, white Americans took in the 20th century from economically depressed areas in the Southeastern and Southern United States toward higher paying factory jobs in the Upper South and Midwest. He explains how the social advancement and … Continue reading Hillbilly Highway: Charting White Migration from Appalachia to the Industrial Midwest

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33:57

Betty Friedan’s Labor Roots

Tales from the Reuther Library ·

2024/03/28

Rachel Shteir shares how Betty Friedan’s early experience as a labor reporter for the Federated Press informed her later work as a famed women’s rights activist, author of The Feminine Mystique, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Although Friedan’s activism shaped the American women’s movement in the latter half of the 20th century, … Continue reading Betty Friedan’s Labor Roots

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