The “Detroit Americanization” movement, begun by major auto manufacturers as the industry experienced rapid growth in the 1920s, was a major contributor to class and race changes in Detroit neighborhoods. Ford, aiming to give men “a LIFE—not a mere LIVING,” paid workers to attend mandatory programs like English language classes. Workers who declined to participate were laid off and given a second chance to accept. Assembly-like foremen were told to list employees who could were not fluent in written and spoken English, and attendance at classes was submitted by workers to their foremen.

Ford’s sociology department ran other programs aimed at integration and assimilation, like home inspections and analysis based on lifestyle. These programs were designed to help stabilize the Ford workforce — in the 1910s, worker turnover had reach about half of the workforce each month.

The Board of Commerce’s Education Committee undertook many of these efforts. The Board was staffed with the heads of manufacturing companies and figure like Horace Rackham; W. E. Scipps, owner of the Detroit News; as well as school officials like Frank D. Cody (assistant superintendent).

Sources

Zunz, Olivier. The Changing Face of Inequality: Urbanization, Industrial Development, and Immigrants in Detroit, 1880-1920. University of Chicago Press, 2000.