Remembering the 1932 Ford Hunger March: Detroit park honors labor and environmental history

A Dearborn policeman knocked unconscious was the first casualty of the 1932 Ford Hunger March in Detroit and Dearborn. Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University. / Detroit News Burckhardt. by Paul Draus, University of Michigan-Dearborn The intersection of Fort Street and Oakwood Boulevard in southwest Detroit today functions mostly as a thoroughfare for trucks and commuters. However, as you sit idling at the stoplight waiting to cross the bridge over the Rouge River, you might glance to the side and see something unexpected in this heavily industrialized area: A sculpture of weathered steel reaches toward the sky alongside a spray of flowers and waves of grasses and people fishing. This inconspicuous corner, now the home of the Fort Street Bridge Park, has several stories to tell: of a river, a region, a historic conflict and an ongoing struggle. If you pull over, you’ll enter a place that attempts to pull together threads of history, environment and sustainable redevelopment. Signs explain why this sculpture and park are here: to honor the memory of protesters who met on this very spot on March 7, 1932, before marching up Miller Road to the massive Ford Rouge...