Forgotten about LivCo history continued 4/28/25

In doing some local May Day research we learned new info that weʼre betting you didnʼt know about either. Check this out… Local history on the fight for workers rights & connection to white supremacy.

One of the most violent white supremacist groups Michigan has ever experienced, the Black Legion, was funded by one of America's oldest corporations, a chemical company founded/run by the DuPonts. This family was listed last year as one of Forbes’ richest families in America. Source

In the 1930s “Irenee du Pont used General Motors money to finance the notorious Black Legion” which was a more violent version of the KKK credited with butchering at least 50 people, most of them Black, in the Detroit area during its short existence. “This terrorist organization had as its purpose the prevention of automobile workers from unionizing. The members wore hoods and black robes while they fire-bombed union meetings and tortured/murdered union organizers. “General Motors spent $839,000 on detective work in 1934 alone and used a group called 'The Black Legion' who employed various intimidation tactics against active union members. As a consequence of these policies, union organizers changed tactics and gradually the union gained strength.” Source

Members of the Black Legion admitted to murdering a union organizer named Silas Coleman in 1935. Coleman, a 42 year old husband, father, and World War I veteran, was lured onto their property in Pinckney and told to run into the marshes so they could hunt him by chasing him “like a deer” and gunning him down before celebrating with beers and shots of whiskey. The racially motivated “thrill killing” was stated in court documents as Black Legion members wanting to know what it “felt like to shoot a Negro” Source

Many murders linked to the Black Legion were of labor organizers. One of their first victims was George Marchuk, Secretary of the Auto Workers Union in Lincoln Park and union organizer at Ford Motor Company, was found dead in 1933, with a bullet in his head. John Bielak, an A. F. of L. organizer in the Hudson Motor Car Company plant who had led a drive for a wage increase, "was found riddled with bullets in 1934. The "arson squad" of the Black Legion confessed to the 1934 burning of the farm of William Mollenhauer, a labor activist in Pontiac.

Criminal trials revealed the wide network of Black Legion members in local governments, particularly Detroit, Pontiac, Royal Oak, Highland Park and Ecorse. Members included a former mayor, chief of police, and city councilman, in addition to persons in civil service jobs including many in law enforcement. “Since 1933 the Black Legion's power had permeated police departments." Dozens of Black Legion members were prosecuted for related crimes, convicted and sentenced to prison terms. Following the convictions, membership in the Black Legion dropped quickly; its reign of terror ended in the Detroit area.

Du Pont’s General Motors Co. funded the Black Legion to stop unionization in its Midwestern factories. “The Black Legion was indeed a great help to General Motors in its struggle to prevent auto workers from unionizing. With members wearing black robes and slitted hoods, members terrorized Michigan and Ohio auto fields, riding like Klansmen through the night in car caravans. The organization was divided into arson squads, bombing squads, execution squads, and anti-communist squads, and membership discipline on pain of torture or death was strictly enforced. Legion cells filled G.M. factories, terrorizing workers and recruiting Klansmen. They worked together to stop Reds and unions that demanded their labor rights.” Source

“During the final days of 1936, about 50 auto workers at General Motors shut down their machines in Flint, Michigan, and sat down. The workers, members of the tiny United Automobile Workers union founded just a year prior, sought to improve brutal working conditions at mighty General Motors, the world’s largest manufacturer. They also demanded GM recognize the union as workers’ bargaining agent in negotiations. By sitting down, workers stayed inside the factory and near their stations so “scabs” couldn’t take over.

When the strike became violent, the Women’s Emergency Brigade was formed to protect the sit-down strikers who were their husbands, sons, brothers and fellow co-workers. When tear gas was hurled into the buildings to break the strike, the women smashed the windows so it would escape. Wielding mops, brooms, rolling pins or pans, they surrounded the men on the picket line and formed human shields against the police. Overwhelmed, and afraid to shoot at women, the police abandoned their assault. The women carried these tools which were meant to intimidate by showing that the wives of workers were prepared for violence. Due to the Women’s Emergency Brigade the Flint Sit Down Strike was successful. Source

Two weeks into the strike, workers at the plant clashed with GM security and Flint police after the company cut off heat and electricity and prevented food from being delivered to workers inside. The clash left dozens injured. The Michigan Governor called in the National Guard and ordered both sides to negotiate. The two sides reached a compromise in which GM agreed to recognize the UAW as the bargaining agent for workers who wanted to join the union. Source

“The UAW’s sit-down strike across GM plants lasted 44 days and involved 125,000 workers. It is considered the most important work stoppage of the 20th century and a turning point in relations between companies and workers in America. It was a breakthrough for unions and led to a wave of labor organizing across the country.“ Source