“Girls, We Cannot Lose!”: Midwestern Black Women Activists During the Great Depression Tales from the Reuther Library

Dr. Melissa Ford explores the influence of working-class Black women in Detroit, St. Louis, and Cleveland on the development of Black radicalism in the American Midwest during the Great Depression.

Ford is an associate professor of African American history at Slippery Rock University and author of A Brick and a Bible: Black Women’s Radical Activism in the Midwest during the Great Depression.

Related Collections:

Black Workers in the Labor Movement Oral Histories

Black Workers in the Labor Movement Oral Histories: Joseph and Rose Billups

Robert W. Dunn Papers

Maurice Sugar Papers

Related Resources:

A Brick and a Bible: Black Women’s Radical Activism in the Midwest during the Great Depression.

Subject Focus: Ford Hunger March

1932 Ford Hunger March Image Gallery

Episode Credits

Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English

Interviewee: Melissa Ford

Music: Bart Bealmear