Walter Reuther (1907-1970) was Detroit's most influential labor leader and a key figure in 20th-century American liberalism. As an architect of the United Automobile Workers union, Reuther and helped to organize the factories of Detroit in the 1930s. He took a determinedly anti-Communist stance in the 1940s, as he worked his way to the union's presidency, but also made the UAW a leading liberal voice in labor and a prominent supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Reuther was the most prominent white speaker at the 1963 March on Washington.

Reuther lived in a house on Appoline Street in Detroit, near the city's northern border, until an attempted assassination prompted a move to northern Oakland County. He is memorialized in a number of places around the city, including:

 Walter P. Reuther Freeway (I-696)

Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital, Westland

Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University, Detroit

 Walter and May Reuther Park, Lafayette Park, Detroit