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From the jazz opera Forgotten, this trio details the unholy trinity of Henry Ford, Father Charles Coughlin and Harry Bennett, who in 1937 conspired to prevent workers from forming a union in the River Rouge factory, using fear, innuendo, beatings, and murder, all financed by Henry Ford, richest man in the world.

Bennett, whom Ford met with every day, assembled a collection of security guards using ties to the underworld. Bennett gave early-release felons a gun and a nightstick, and a job at the Rouge performing security.

Coughlin broadcast "The Hour of Power," with a nationwide listenership of 40 million in the 1930's, raising huge amounts of money on the radio. Jewish bankers caused the Depression, he said. Hitler and Mussolini, while stern authoritarians, should be supported he said, because that's what it takes to get rid of Communists.

The UAW organizing story was front-page news in the New York Times all year long. The other two of the "Big Three", Chrysler and GM, had signed union contracts. The eyes of the world were watching the River Rouge factory, and waiting to see whether the workers could overcome the unholy trinity.

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Summary of Opera

by Steve Jones

Set in the 1930s, Forgotten tells the story of Lewis Bradford, a minister and radio host with a vision of "labor peace" who goes to work at the yet-to-be organized Ford Motor Company.

We had known about Lewis Bradford's murder for years. He was married to Ella Bradford, my grandfather's cousin. Like my grandfather, Lewis was a Methodist minister strongly influenced by Muriel Lester, a British socialist and pacifist and founder of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Lewis worked the Ford Motor Company assembly line for 18 months in 1936-37. Newspaper accounts say he had a "vision of labor peace", in a time of bitter labor struggles. Henry Ford, and his chief "enforcer", Harry Bennett, ruled with an iron fist over the River Rouge plant, largest factory in the world. According to veteran organizer Victor Reuther, "To a larger extent than any other major corporation in the country, Ford engaged in open and shameless acts of terrorism, to prevent its workers from joining a trade union" (p. 197, The Brothers Reuther, by Victor Reuther, 1976).

Lewis's widow, Ella, recalled how he formed a group, "The League of One Thousand Men", that met Sunday afternoons away from the plant. "The meetings had become popular... The attitude of fear was beginning to break down... Lewis Bradford was threatening Bennett's rule of terror and his whole plan." (p. 5, letter from Ella Bradford to daughter Helen, March, 1965).

Lewis Bradford died on November 30, 1937, as a result of a fractured skull, which occurred inside the Rouge plant. The Ford Motor Company claimed it was an accidental fall. The family was told to leave town and don't ask questions. The obituary writer was picked up by Bennett's thugs not once, but twice and brought before Harry Bennett. There were two revolvers on his desk, as Bennett instructed the writer how to craft the wording in the newspaper.

My journey these past two years has been to find out more about this story. As a musician, I've written a musical based on Lewis's life and death. In the process, I've observed, in a very personal way, labor history in this pivotal time of 1930's Detroit, through the eyes of this former minister who died while helping to build the union.

Just who was Reverend Bradford?

He was the odd one, some family members said. He was one of five cousins, all ministers - but it was Lewis who, in the middle of the Great Depression, left his job as minister of a church, with its guaranteed income. He felt that his calling was with poor and working people who were being hit so hard. But this decision was tough on his own family. One daughter, "Little Ella", had a serious medical condition, and needed surgery. A sympathetic doctor in Detroit, Dr. Frank Sladen, who also happened to be the head of the Henry Ford Hospital, offered to help, and the family moved to that city.

Barely keeping hunger away from the door himself, Bradford began working for the Detroit Department of Public Welfare, where he visited Hoovervilles, and saw how the layoffs were destroying lives, and how hunger stalked the city. At one hospital in Detroit, a physician reported that four persons a day were dying, "Too far gone from starvation for their lives to be saved." (p. 57, Working Detroit, by Steve Babson, Ron Alpern, Dave Elsila, and John Revitte, 1984).

Bradford's family recalled how one day on his way home from work, he gave away his last dollar, only to come home to find there was no food in the house. (Interview June 11, 2001, with Lewis Bradford's son-in-law Dr. Robert Loftfield, and granddaughter Lore Loftfield, Kensington, MD).

"Forgotten Man's Hour" on WXYZ - Lewis Bradford

Thursday evenings in Detroit, Reverend Lewis Bradford broadcast a radio show on WXYZ, "The Forgotten Man's Hour," interviewing men and women on the soup line at the Howard Street Mission. They told their stories of being laid-off; the difficulties of factory work; stories of trying to care for their families, often sending money to families living in a different city. They talked about organizing the union.

Bradford had a close friend helping him at the Howard Street Mission, Allen Brett, who raised money and was a social activist in Detroit. Brett's father-in-law was Bishop Charles D. Williams of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and family pastor to Henry and Clara Ford. Curiously, as Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Michigan, Williams was known as the "Red Bishop," for his stance in favor of workers.

"Hour of Power" on WJR - Charles Coughlin

During this same period, another voice had a radio show in Detroit, Sunday afternoons, on WJR. Father Charles Coughlin broadcast "The Hour of Power," with a nationwide listenership of 40 million in the 1930's (p. 34, Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life of the Priest of the Little Flower, by Sheldon Marcus, 1973). He raised huge amounts of money on the radio. And while at the beginning of the Depression Coughlin sounded like a Populist in the tradition of Huey Long, he became more and more extreme. Jewish bankers caused the Depression, he said. Hitler and Mussolini, while stern authoritarians, should be supported, because that's what it takes to get rid of Communists. "Coughlin berated Jews, he berated Blacks, he was just hateful," recalled Allen Brett's daughter Mary (Phone Interview with Mary Daniels (nee Brett), September 11, 2001).

The Ford Hunger March

Ford blamed the depression on the poor, and said in March, 1931, "These are really good times, but only if you know it. . . The average man won't really do a day's work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it." (p. 25, The Ford Hunger March, by Maurice Sugar, 1980). Ford refused to pay into an unemployed person's fund.

On March 7, 1932, thousands of unemployed workers marched on the Ford Motor Company. Led by Communist organizers, these were desperate workers, poor, ragged. Evictions were rampant throughout this period, and the previous week, a number of the marchers, including Joe DeBlasio, helped stop police from evicting an African American man from his home. (p. 81, Brother Bill McKie by Phillip Bonosky, 1953).

They marched from Detroit to the River Rouge plant. Their signs read, "We Want Bread Not Crumbs," "Tax the Rich, Feed the Poor," "Free the Scottsboro Boys," and "Stop Jim Crow." At the Dearborn line, the crowd was told to disperse. None of the marchers was armed, but teargas and fire hoses were used on the crowd. Finally, the order to shoot was given - scores were wounded. Killed outright were Joe York, Joe DeBlasio, Coleman Leny, and Joe Bussell.

They were buried in Woodmere Cemetery. An African American man, Curtis Williams, died a short while later, but the cemetery would not allow an African American to be buried along with his comrades. They say his ashes were scattered over the River Rouge plant from an airplane.

I met Dave Elsila, retired editor of the UAW newspaper, Solidarity. Along with Steve Babson and others Dave made a project of getting gravestones for the 5 killed, 50 years afterwards, including a gravestone for Curtis Williams. We visited the graves, the smokestacks of the Rouge towering just behind the markers.

The Ford Hunger March became international news in 1932. Scott Nearing, noted economist and lecturer visited Detroit at this time and gave a talk entitled, "Must We Starve," where he defended the Hunger Marchers. (p. 123, The Ford Hunger March, by Maurice Sugar, 1980). By this time Henry Ford had become the richest man in the world - in the years 1921-22 he had made $200 million in net profit. (p. 80, The Legend of Henry Ford by Keith Sward, 1948). Nearing contrasted the attitudes of Ford, living at the Fairlane estate, and the needs of poor people living in Hoovervilles.

Ford had carefully cultivated an image over the years as the kindly inventor who upheld old-fashioned values. But in this period of time, his anti-unionism and anti-communism became so extreme that he became an enthusiastic backer of Hitler. A weekly newspaper put out by Ford, the Dearborn Independent, carried 91 installments of anti-Semitic and racist diatribes, all assembled in one book, The International Jew. It was a bestseller in Germany. Third Reich offices were filled with copies. In the 1920's, the daughter-in-law of the composer Wagner came to Ford asking for funds for the Nazis. (p. 225, Henry Ford, Wayward Capitalist, by Carol Gelderman, 1981). It is unknown the extent of support, but Hitler kept a full-length oil portrait of Henry Ford in his office in Munich.

The River Rouge Plant

In April 1936, Bradford went to work on the assembly line at the Ford River Rouge plant, with a spirit of hope, and anticipation that his visions could come true at the Rouge, the biggest battleground in the 1930's for the hearts and minds of American workers.

The Rouge was a marvel of the Industrial Age when built in the 1920's. It was the largest factory in the world. One hundred thousand workers worked its assembly line. The raw materials were brought into the plant, and thirty-three hours later, a fully assembled car rolled off the line. Diego Rivera's mural in the Detroit Institute of the Arts depicted the Rouge, and its "imaginative power, its physical complexity and its sheer brutality," according to Nelson Lichtenstein. (p. 17, Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, by Nelson Lichtenstein, 1995). It was Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's son, who saw that Diego Rivera, a world-famous artist who also happened to be a Communist, got his commission. Edsel defended the decision, and in sharp contrast to the Rockefellers, who had the Rivera mural in the Rockefeller Center destroyed, the Rouge mural stands to this day.

The Rouge and the Ford Motor Company were inspirations for many of the world's greatest artistic ruminations on the relationship of humanity to the machine: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, and novels like Upton Sinclair's Flivver King which depicted the brutal reign of Ford and Bennett at the Rouge.

As Bradford began working at the Rouge, Bennett was assembling a collection of security guards using ties to the underworld, as well as a special relationship with Harry H. Jackson of the Michigan prison system. (p. 298, The Legend of Henry Ford by Keith Sward, 1948). Release felons early, and Bennett would give them a gun and a nightstick, and a job at the Rouge performing "security."

At the same time, a team of labor organizers were working to bring the workers into the newly formed United Auto Workers union. Carl Haessler, editor of the West End Conveyor, the UAW newspaper for Local 174 during this time, was a Rhodes scholar. Many of the organizers were idealistic and bright men and women. The contrast between the union and Ford's thugs could not have been starker.

African Americans and the Success of the CIO

As one of the newly formed CIO unions, the UAW was organizing skilled and unskilled workers industry-wide. A special effort was being made to fight racism within the ranks of workers. For the first time in history, African-Americans were organizing on the basis of equality into the nation's new trade unions.

Elise Bryant, my friend and colleague, described how at the same time Ford was laying off 75,000 workers in Detroit, her father, along with many other African-American workers, was recruited in Alabama by flyers promising "guaranteed work, good pay." Ford and Bennett worked hard through this time to develop pools of workers they were convinced would not be "contaminated" by the union message. In her dad's case, the strategy didn't work.

Many African-American workers, though, had mixed feelings. While relegated to the hardest, most dangerous jobs (Elise's father worked in the Rouge foundry), at lower pay, Ford at least gave them a job.

Historian Steve Babson speaks of the successful CIO drives through this time: "It was, above all, the decade-long shift in the attitudes and politics of Detroit's Black community that finally tipped the scales in favor of the union." (p.105, Working Detroit, by Steve Babson, Ron Alpern, Dave Elsila, and John Revitte, 1984).

As the union grew, activists like the NAACP's Walter White worked to unite the communities. UAW attorney Maurice Sugar defended the rights of African- Americans in his campaign for recorder's-court. ("It's About Time", a campaign tabloid, 1931, cited on p. 157, Maurice Sugar: Law, Labor, and the Left in Detroit, 1912-1950, by Christopher Johnson, 1988). Blacks found they could become union leaders: chief shop steward at Chrysler was an African-American man, Samuel Fanroy. Cadillac had Black shop stewards, along with higher wages. These were strong inducements to join up. Wrote the Afro-American, on June 26, 1937 about organizing in Detroit's auto plants: "There are at present a few scattered units affiliated with AFL, but because the doors of this body have been closed in the face of most colored craftsmen, it is too late for it to make sincere overtures now. . . The CIO is the union movement going directly down our street."

Ford and Bennett watched in horror as the sit-down strikes swept Detroit and the nation. In February 1937 workers at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, won the union. The years of struggle, of fighting the company goons, and often the police and state troopers allied with the industrialists, was culminating in victory. Author Arthur Miller observed the events at Flint, and paraphrasing the poet W.B. Yeats, wrote, "A new beauty was being born." (p. 267, Timebends, by Arthur Miller, 1987).

Lewis Bradford

Many Bradford relatives came to visit our home in Maryland, driving or flying from various parts of the country. One granddaughter said, "I'm just sure there's a diary. I've seen it, and it's in Albuquerque." Two weeks later, I got a call from Ella-Kari Loftfield - "We found the diary!" It was written by Lewis in the years leading up to the murder, and Ella wrote in it as well. Ella-Kari caught a plane 5 days later. I picked her up at the airport, and she was cradling the special document safely in her arms.

Reading the diary, we learned about Lewis's transition from minister to organizer. He wrote in the third person, "The real reason for Lewis being in Detroit is that he should make a guided approach toward meeting the spiritual need of Detroit. This is to be done at present, through his work, not as an evangelist." (Entry in Lewis Bradford's diary, April 20, 1935).

Ella and Lewis learned that the surgeries for Little Ella, arranged for by Dr. Sladen, were successful. The family celebrated. Lewis had a job, an income. And while Ella worried about the dangers in the factory, she supported Lewis's efforts.

They had an affectionate relationship. Lewis wrote in a letter: "I can see you right there with your face between my two hands and love light in your eyes." (p. 2, letter from Lewis to Ella Bradford, dated May 6, 1935).

Little Ella would recall years later how devoted Lewis could be as a father. Once they hiked Mt. Marcy in New York. Back at the car, she burst into tears - she had left her stuffed teddy bear at the top. Lewis hiked all the way back to the top to retrieve it.

But Lewis was not content to be passive in the Rouge plant. Ella recalled, "He could not understand why, as soon as men went through the gate, they seemed to change personality. From being cordial and friendly, they apparently became suspicious and hostile." (p. 8, letter from Ella Bradford, to daughter Helen, March, 1965). Lewis had come from a family of Abolitionists. His parents had met while working in Mississippi with the Methodist Church Freedman's Aid Society, teaching newly freed slaves to read. The Ku Klux Klan surrounded Mrs. Bradford's schoolhouse once and prevented teacher and students from leaving for two weeks. Despite the attacks, they remained in Mississippi for 15 years.

Here at the Rouge, Lewis was determined not to back down.

Harry Bennett-"Closer to Ford than his only son"

Ford and Bennett saw red. Two of the Big Three auto companies, General Motors and Chrysler, had fallen. Henry's only child, Edsel, had sympathies with the workers, and encouraged co-operation and negotiation with the union, but Ford would have none of it. He told Edsel he needed to toughen up - and try to be more like Harry Bennett - Ford was fond of saying, "Bennett knows how to hold himself in an argument." Edsel had been expected to take over the running of the company from Henry Ford, but his father undercut him, and favored Bennett, again and again. Even the most sympathetic biographers of Ford agree that he treated his son cruelly. One of the Ford grandchildren was quoted as saying Ford "killed my father," Edsel. (p. 413, Ford: The Men and the Machine, by Robert Lacey, 1986).

Ford's and Bennett's relationship deepened at this critical juncture during the organizing of the Rouge. The two would meet every day in Bennett's basement office off Schaeffer Road. Bennett boasted that he was "closer to him even than his only son." (p. 5, We Never Called Him Henry, by Harry Bennett, as told to Paul Marcus, 1951). Ford entrusted important business decisions to him. Also, when Ford had inappropriate relationships with servant girls, it was Bennett's job to cover up so no one would know. There was one place all Ford executives knew where to find Ford: Bennett's office. Bennett was expected by many to become the next head of the Ford Motor Company.

I spoke with Victor Reuther, the famous United Auto Workers organizer, who was interested to hear about Bradford. He's over 90 now, but he remembers to the 1/2-cent what women workers were making at Kelsey Wheel in November 1936. After I described Lewis Bradford and how he was killed by thugs under Harry Bennett, Victor said slowly, and under his breath, "There were others. My brother Walter and I were victims of assassination attempts by the same people. . . We lost many good organizers picked off by Harry Bennett's thugs." (Telephone interview with Victor Reuther, June 7, 2001).

The Battle of the Overpass

In April, 1937, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Wagner Act, guaranteeing workers the rights to organize a union. Walter Reuther and other organizers saw their chance, and Ford would not be able to stop them. On May 26, 1937, they assembled a hundred leafletters, and invited over a hundred clergy, press and politicians, "So there won't be any trouble."

However, over 400 Ford Servicemen under Harry Bennett appeared as the leafleting began and proceeded to viciously beat the organizers, both men and women. One minister noted that the Dearborn police looked on as one woman was being beaten, and made no attempt to stop the carnage. Katherine "Bebe" Gelles, head of the Local 174 auxiliary, traded punches with a goon. The thugs went too far, commentators said. At least one organizer - JJ Kennedy - died of his wounds. Tony Marinovich suffered a fractured skull which he never fully recovered from. But the biggest mistake made by the company was beating up the press, including photographers from the Detroit News. Most of the film was seized by the thugs, but one photographer got away. Walter Reuther and Dick Frankensteen had their bloody faces broadcast around the world. The photographs told the story of what came to be called the Battle of the Overpass. Time's coverage was particularly graphic, and in response Ford withdrew all ads from Time, Life and Fortune for the next 70 weeks.

WJ Cameron, Henry Ford's assistant, reported on his Sunday radio broadcast that it was merely a case of Ford against the "Reds," and that this was no time to be "timid."

The Battle of the Overpass took its toll on Edsel - the relationship of Henry and his son Edsel never recovered. The organizers that were being beaten and murdered were intellectuals, idealists - the same sort of folks Edsel socialized with. Clara Ford sided with Edsel, but it was clear Henry was firm in his decision - Bennett, and no one else, would rule on all matters relating to labor at the Ford Motor Company.

Clara Ford had mutual friends with the Bradfords in Dr. Sladen, the head of the Henry Ford Hospital, and personal physician to the Ford family. In June, a month after the Battle of the Overpass, the Bradford's son Curtis graduated with a PhD from Yale University. The Bradfords were unable to get to New Haven, but Dr. Sladen attended and wrote them a letter, "The accomplishment that he has completed is worthy of the greatest praise, and I tried my best to represent the family in the amount of noise I made when his diploma was awarded." (Letter from Dr. Frank J. Sladen, Physician-in-Chief at the Henry Ford Hospital, to Mrs. Lewis Bradford, July 8, 1937).

Layoffs and Intimidation

In September 1937, 75,000 of the 87,000 workers at the Rouge were laid off. Labor charged that the layoffs were a ploy to break the momentum built up by the massive surge of strikes and labor organizing, and as a message to workers: See what happens to jobs when the union comes to town.

The eyes of the world were focused on Detroit. There was change in the air. City council elections were coming - and there were 5 labor candidates, including Maurice Sugar, Walter Reuther and others alleged to be Communists or Socialists. The fledgling auto workers union showed its strength in the October runoffs - all 5 candidates did well, building on a broad labor-liberal-black consituency. The New York Times proclaimed them "sure winners." Walter Reuther declared that labor would "put its best picket captain" in the job of Chief of Police. (p. 88, Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, by Nelson Lichtenstein, 1995).

Through this time, Father Coughlin became more controversial, and along with Henry Ford, more openly supportive of Hitler. He was unable to raise the huge amounts of money through his broadcasts, perhaps because of his increasingly shrill tone, and began to receive large amounts of money from Ford. (p. 330, Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, The Father of Hate Radio by Donald Warren, 1996).

As the November, 1937 elections approached, Coughlin became more strident. On October 3, 1937 in a radio broadcast he asked: "Do you want Detroit run by Labor Tyranny?" and suggested the Communists will take over. At the same time, Coughlin was working closely with Harry Bennett on several schemes to stop the UAW and bring in a company union at the Rouge. (p. 147, Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, The Father of Hate Radio by Donald Warren, 1996).

Bradford's radio show got more outspoken - he had transformed at this point, and rather than achieving a dream of transforming Ford Motor Company by bringing labor and management together, was being threatened himself. He formed a group called the League of One Thousand Men.

The anti-communist hysteria crescendoed - Ford, Coughlin and Bennett worked together on a successful get-out-the-vote campaign. On election day, voter turnout was doubled over turnouts in previous years. All five labor candidates lost the election.

Ford was victorious - Bennett was victorious - they were determined to stall the National Labor Relations Board both on a legal front - and continue the illegal activities in the plant. They vowed to wait until 1940. The NLRB was seen as a creation of Roosevelt - and in 1940 they could use the same money, and the same tactics used in the Detroit elections, to win the presidency back from Roosevelt.

The campaign of intimidation was set to continue. A New York Times article of January 23, 1938, reported that in the previous six weeks, there had been 900 arrests of union leafletters in the city of Dearborn. (p.398, The Legend of Henry Ford, by Keith Sward, 1948).

Muriel Lester Tries to Speak with Henry Ford, November 1937

Just after the city elections, Muriel Lester, a Socialist from England, and founder of the Fellowship of Reconciliation - came to Detroit to hold meetings. She had been in China during the infamous Rape of Nanking the previous summer. She was traveling the world to bring attention to atrocities committed by the Japanese. Lester was now on her way to Tokyo. She commented at the time, "I shall try to make Americans see their own share of the guilt. They are making large profits out of supplying the means of death and torture." (p. 163 Mother of World Peace; The Life of Muriel Lester, by Jill Wallis, 1993).

It's not clear that Henry Ford was aware of Muriel Lester's attempt to communicate. However, the very next month, the New York Times of December 28, 1937, reported that Ford's chief agent in the Far East just invested 1,000,000 yen in Japanese war bonds. (p. 457, The Legend of Henry Ford, by Keith Sward, 1948). Was this a not-so-subtle response to Lester?

Ella would write later that Lester represented all that Ford and Bennett feared, and had been fighting the previous year. Ella and Lewis had an interview with Muriel Lester at the end of November, 1937. Lester was late. She said, I was trying to arrange to speak with Henry Ford, with no luck. Bradford said he knew people in the front office, and spent the better part of an afternoon trying to set up a meeting between Henry Ford and Lester. "This was a fatal mistake," Ella wrote.

Ella received a threatening call at 1:30 a.m. that same night. Almost paralyzed with fear, Ella waited for Lewis to come, feeling that he might never arrive. When he did, Ella told him of the call. Lewis said there was nothing to do about it except forget it.

Lewis is Attacked

Two days later, on November 27, 1937, Lewis was attacked inside the Rouge plant.

Ella took her two daughters, Little Ella and Helen, and went to the Henry Ford Hospital. Lewis was unconscious. Dr. Sladen wheeled Bradford into the X-ray room, and told Ella he wanted to know everything about the case.

I contacted Dr. Frank Sladen's son, who is now 80. He recalled his dad's close relationship with the Ford family. The son recalled how his father hoped he would go into medicine, but the son lost a leg in the war, and decided to go into education. "I wanted to teach people a better way to handle arguments. Dad didn't understand." His father spoke of Harry Bennett, "a brutal man," who had spies even in the Henry Ford Hospital. Dr. Sladen was careful not to speak against Ford - he learned you got "sat on." (Phone Interview with Frank Sladen, Jr., June 11, 2001).

Allen Brett and his daughter Mary were close by, and helped constantly, staying by Ella's side at the hospital and having the family over for dinner.

I located Mary Brett in Philadelphia. She was Little Ella's best friend. She shared how her father had an idealistic nature like Bradford. When Lewis was in the hospital, she recalls how she and Little Ella would stay up late, coloring in their coloring books - "It was a way to cope with the terribleness." (Phone Interview with Mary Daniels (nee Brett), September 11, 2001).

Lewis Dies; The Foreman Claims His Death an "Accident"

Bradford spent three days in a coma, and died, never speaking another word to Ella. Ella is told he received a "cleverly placed blow to the head," with no outward sign of injury.

The workers at the Rouge glass plant, where Bradford had worked, made sure that Ella never went alone to the factory. They also took up a collection, and gave Ella $80, almost all of it in coin, and told her, "The boys at the glass-house wanted you to have this." Ella broke down completely. "I knew that it was a love offering which some of them could ill afford." (p. 3, Autobiographical Sketch written by Ella Bradford, given to Dr. Francis P. Jones, 1961). One worker shared that, "I was always a better man after I talked with Brad."

The foreman came to see the widow, bringing with him a 3-year old boy "as a screen". He said he saw Lewis hit his head upon the floor. "Did Lewis ever have fainting spells?" He added, "Everybody's gotta die some time." The foreman was very nervous as he spoke with her. "I had all I could do to keep from screaming at him hysterically, and tell him he was lying and he knew it." (p. 3, letter from Ella Bradford to daughter Helen, March, 1965).

The family knew from Dr. Sladen's comments that Bradford's injuries were not consistent with an accidental fall. However, the family never saw an autopsy report.

Locating the Autopsy in 2001

In April 2001, I contacted the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office. Cassandra Lee told me, "Yes, we could search for a record - but 1937? That could be real tough." She searched for two months. Then I got the call in early June. "We found the autopsy." I was almost breathless. She read from the report, "Multiple stellate fractures at the base of the skull, and multiple stellate fractures along the convex portion of the skull." I spoke with Dr. Carl Schmidt, Forensic Pathologist for Wayne County. It was clear to him what was in the autopsy report and he told me, "This was no accident - this was a homicide that was never investigated. . . There's no way in hell that he fell." (Phone Interview with Dr. Carl Schmidt, Forensic Pathologist for the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office, June 22, 2001).

A City Mourns

Three funeral services were held for Bradford. One was at the Howard Street Mission. One was held at Central Church - in the church bulletin was the note, "Flowers at the altar are provided by Mrs. Edsel Ford." (Church Bulletin, Central Methodist Church, December 5, 1937). Yet the Ford family didn't worship at the Central Church. And a third service was held at the River Rouge plant. Ella did not want to go, but workers insisted. "A completely strange man whom I had never seen before pushed in between me and my friends and took the seat beside me. You can imagine the tension I felt. After the service, I turned, extended my hand, and said, 'I don't believe I have met you.' He was quite uneasy, but said, No, he was a stranger, he was just going through, and saw the crowd so decided to see what was going on. Why did he have to intrude among the relatives of the one for whom the service was being held?" (p. 8, letter from Ella Bradford to daughter Helen, March, 1965).

Lewis's widow and her children left Detroit, never to return. Sixty-six years later, there are grandchildren and great-grandchildren and others who know Lewis's story and keep it alive. Lewis Bradford is not forgotten.

However, questions remain.

Who Knew?

The Ford family physician and the family of the Ford family pastor, Bishop Charles D. Williams, knew the Bradford family well, and knew the circumstances of Bradford's murder. Did Clara Ford have awareness of Bradford's murder? If so, how did it affect her? Did Henry Ford have awareness of the murder?

More than 60 years later, maybe it's too late to ask these questions. Some answers aren't around any more. Witnesses are gone. Bennett was fired from the Ford Motor Company in 1945, soon after Henry Ford II took over from his ailing grandfather Henry. Bennett spent an afternoon burning all the files he kept on workers. He was determined to leave no paper trail. (p. 318, Maurice Sugar: Law, Labor, and the Left in Detroit, 1912-1950, by Christopher Johnson, 1988).

Lewis Bradford has been all but erased from the Ford Motor Company. Repeated attempts to get information have turned up little. There is a public file Ford Motor Company has on industrial accidents of 1937 - Bradford is missing from that file. However, Dr. Schmidt wondered, "Could there have been some investigation by Dearborn Police?" He called the Dearborn Police Department. They apologized, but they couldn't help in the search. There are no Dearborn Police Department records of any kind going back before 1946.

UAW Wins at Ford; Clara's Role

In 1941, after years of struggle the UAW was on the verge of winning a contract at the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford declared he would shut down all the plants worldwide before he would sign with the union. Clara threatened to divorce him if he didn't sign, and the next day he signed the most far-reaching union contract ever in the auto industry. (p. 169, The Fords: An American Epic, by David Horowitz, 1987). Today, Local 600 at the River Rouge plant is a strong militant local of the United Auto Workers Union with a fighting tradition.

Thanks to my mom, Virginia Jones - who taught me to tell the false from true. Also, thanks to my brother Peter, who wrote the first Lewis Bradford song, which stimulated interest in the story. Also, Elise Bryant is someone who has directed labor theater for over 20 years. She moved to Maryland, where I live, 6 years ago, and we determined to work together on some project tying in music and theater. Her father worked at the Rouge for 40 years, and when she asked me 5 years ago - where did your relative work? I did some research - and found that Lewis Bradford was also at the Rouge. It has been a wonderful collaboration.

Thanks go to Dr. Sue Schurman, President of the National Labor College, who helped bring the show to the stage for the first time. Thanks also to Holly Syrrakos, Dave Elsila, who helped restore the graves of the Ford Hunger Marchers, and his wife Katie, Donna Messersmith Jones, International Association of Machinists educator Charlie Micallef and his wife Kathy, George Fulginiti-Shakar, the family of Lewis Bradford, including Ella-Kari Loftfield, Bob Loftfield, Michael Kelsay, Kate Bates, Lewis Conn, Pat and Ollie Moles. Also to Philip, Emily,Jono and Lucy Jones for their ideas.

Thanks also to those who gave their time to be interviewed, including those who were there in Detroit in the 1930's - Victor Reuther, Mary Daniels, Willard Hunter, Frank Sladen Jr., and others. Thanks to Cassandra Lee and Dr Carl Schmidt of the Wayne County Medical Examiners Office.

Thanks to Bill Meyer, for helping these songs come to life. Thanks to Elaine Smith for keeping us organized! Thanks to Lisa Canada for giving so much to bring this story to Detroit. Thanks to the singers who have worked hard to make this show happen.