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Planning the Home FrontBuilding Bombers and Communities at Willow Run$
Planning the Home Front: Building Bombers and Communities at Willow Run

Sarah Jo Peterson

Print publication date: 2013

Print ISBN-13: 9780226025421

Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: September 2013

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226025568.001.0001

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(p.343) Index

(p.343) Index

Source:
Planning the Home Front
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations
Adams, Pearl, 164
Addes, George F., 243, 248
Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, 24, 239
African American housing: African American community views on, 266;
association between black and white real estate communities, 261–62
;
campaign to integrate Willow Lodge, 242–49
;
Carver Homes, 242
;
Conant Gardens, 118–19
;
and Eight Mile-Wyoming area, 260
;
and FHA insistence on racially segregated neighborhoods, 81
;
and FPHA and FHA, 258–62
;
homeownership on northern border of Detroit, 299n22
;
in Inkster, 50
;
in metropolitan Detroit, 3
;
permanent public housing in Inkster, 208–9; projects in Inkster and Ypsilanti, 248–49
;
and single-family, owner-occupied houses, 260–61, 268, 275–76
;
standoff between Detroit and its suburbs, 265–68
;
and Willow Village, 268–71
African American in-migration, 252, 267;
Second Great Migration, 79
African American newspapers, Double V campaign, 6
African Americans: and discrimination in military and defense jobs, 5;
hardships of Depression, 53
;
and industrial suburbanization, 46
;
Ypsilanti community, 28, 244–45
African American war workers: commute to Dearborn, 266;
men at Willow Run Bomber Plant, 195–96
;
sought by federal agencies to avoid white in-migration, 240–41
;
women workers at Willow Run Bomber Plant, 193–94
;
working on Willow Run town site, 249
aircraft industry: aircraft production and automobile industry, 22–25;
feeder plants, 205
;
production informality, 25–26
;
and strategy of “moving work to workers,” 204–5
Aircraft Production Board (APB), xiii, 203, 235;
efforts to reduce absenteeism, 200
;
and manpower problems, 198–99
;
new aircraft production schedule (Schedule 8-L), 187–88
;
and transfer of work from Willow Run to other plants, 204
Albert Kahn Associates, 26, 39
“all-outers,” 5, 6, 24–25
aluminum, 184
American Federation of Labor (AFL), 92, 94, 98
American Legion, opposition to designating Willow Run as congested area, 229
American Road Building Association (ARBA), 58
Anderson, Karen, 195
Ann Arbor, 28;
and housing for industrial workers, 48–49
;
racially restrictive covenants, 48
Ann Arbor Builders Association, 133
Ann Arbor City Council, Trailer Camp Authority, 161, 163
Ann Arbor Committee for Planning War Workers’;
Shelter, 161
(p.344) Ann Arbor Council of Social Agencies, 214
Ann Arbor Real Estate Board, 133
Architectural Forum: analysis of housing situation for Willow Run, 127, 146;
“Defense Plan for the City,” 12–13
Area Manpower Priorities Committee (AMPC), 232–33
Area Production Urgency Committee (APUC), 232–33
Army Air Corps, xii, 1, 21, 22, 32–33, 35, 183, 276
Army Air Forces, 181, 184, 188, 204, 205, 220, 229
Army-Navy Munitions Board, 142, 143, 227–28
Army Supermarketing Center, 221–23, 227, 275
Army Tank Arsenal, 65
Atwood, Albert W., 236
Audubon Village, 93–95, 97, 102, 140
Augur, Tracy B., 10, 129, 131
automobile industry, and aircraft production, 22–25
Automobile Manufacturer’s Association, 23, 203
Automotive Council for Air Defense (ACAD), 23–24
Automotive Council for War Production (ACWP), 182, 203, 263
B-17, 4, 23, 179
B-24H, 188;
Knock-out, 238
;
Red Ryder, 238
;
Silver Streak (Flying Patches), 238
B-24 Liberator, 1, 23, 184, 276;
appearance, 179
;
design changes, 185
;
flying over Michigan, October 1944, 274
;
mass production of, 183–86
;
peak of Ford employment on, 204
;
rivalry with B-17, 238
;
and war bond sales, 74
B-24M, 185
B-29, 238
Baltimore Plan, 227
basement homes, 50, 299n23
Bauer, Catherine: Modern Housing, 92
Beatty, Charles E., 81
Beatty, Eugene, 245
Belgium, Nazi invasion of, 20
Belle Isle Park race riot, 250
Bennett, Harry, 19, 131, 188, 243;
and firing of Roscoe Smith, 55–56, 181–82
;
and hiring of African American men, 193, 195
;
and mixed-race housing, 266, 269
Berkley, Michigan, 47, 48
Bigger, Frederick, 77
Birmingham, Michigan, 47
Blaisdell, Thomas, 226, 292n14
Blandford, John B., 123, 125–29, 132, 134, 142, 144, 175, 243, 245, 264, 319n132
blitzkrieg, 20
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 47
Blouke, Pierre, 77
Blue, Allan G., 238
Bombardier, 173
Bomber City (formerly Defense City), xiii, 117;
confusion and inaction regarding, 158–63
;
FPHA plan for, 129–30
;
halting of construction by competing federal agencies, 134–36
;
planning and design, 129, 137, 138, 139
;
protest of location by local authorities, 130–31
;
and relations between Washtenaw County and federal government, 158–59
;
Truman Commission investigation of, 131–34
;
UAW and, 136–41
;
WPB authorization of reduced plans for, 134. See also Willow Village (formerly Bomber City)
Bower, Ross K., 65–66, 115, 129, 158
Branshaw, Charles E., 188, 189
Brayton, Glenn, 222, 245
Breuer, Marcel, 87
Bricker, Mead L., 30, 188
Brown, Prentiss M., 117
Buffa, Joseph P., 119
Buffalo Plan, 227
Builders’;
Association of Metropolitan Detroit, 90, 107, 114–15
building industry. See real estate industry
Burdick, Henry, 114
Bureau of the Budget, 226, 228
Byrnes, James F., 232
Byrnes Plan (West Coast Plan), Area Production Urgency Committee/Area Manpower Priorities Committee, 232–33
C-119 Flying Boxcars, 279
Cadillac Charter, 247
Camden Plan, 90–95, 97, 109, 115, 137, 140
Camp Willow Run, 55
Capeci, Dominic J., 250–51
Capizzi, I. A., 129
(p.345) Carl Mackley Houses, 90–91
Carmody, John, 87–88, 93, 100–101, 102
Carr, Lowell J., 16, 74
Carver Community Center Association (CCCA), 253, 254, 255–57
Carver Homes, Inkster, 242
Centerline, Michigan, 118
Central Housing Committee (CHC), 80, 84
Central Specialty Company, 269
Chapelle, Ernest, 245
Cheney, Johney, 271
child care, 155, 162, 197, 200, 202–3;
Edsel Ford’s interest in, 322n74
;
federal government view of, 202
;
first item removed from Army Supermarketing Center proposal, 223
Chrysler Plymouth Plant, 28
Chrysler Tank Plant, 7
Civilian Defense Volunteer Office (CDVO), Washtenaw County, 162
Class A Area of Racial Tension, designation of southeastern Michigan, 241, 272
Committee for Congested Production Areas (CCPA), xiii, 6, 224–32, 333n59;
and African American needs, 241
;
designation of Willow Run as congested production area, 229
;
local offices, 230
;
mediation of controversies between federal agencies, 230–31
;
opposition to integrated community center for Ypsilanti, 256
;
symbol of centralization of federal executive power, 231–32
;
and the unified survey or “finding of need,” 231
community building, local cooperation and federal coordination, 218–23
Community Funds: Detroit, 213;
and Willow Run plant, 213–14
;
Ypsilanti, 213, 256
Conant Gardens, Detroit, 118
congested production areas, 228–29
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), 106;
and Community Chests and Councils, Incorporated, 214–15
;
push for prefabrication in construction of Audubon Village, 94–95
;
war housing plan, 79, 90–95, 109–10
Consolidated Aircraft, 4, 26, 37, 179, 205;
B-24 production facility, 25
;
merger with Vultee, 183
;
production problems, 183
construction labor shortage, 150, 151
construction materials shortage, 150, 267
Contract Section, Wright Field, 186
Controlled Materials Plan, 143, 144
Cooke, Alistair, 16
cooperative federalism, 13
cooperative housing association plan, 97
Corpus, Edith, 192
Councils of Social Agencies, 213–14;
Ann Arbor, 214
;
Detroit Metropolitan, 213, 214, 244, 263, 266
;
Ypsilanti, 162, 214, 255
Crosstown Motorway, 61
Current, Gloster B., 246–47
Currier, Patrick J., 97–101, 140
Currier Defense Home, advertisement for, 99
Currier Lumber Company, 97
Cushman, Edward L., 220
Davis, Chester, 34
Day Housing Corporation, 95
Dearborn, 28;
effect of River Rouge Plant on, 45
;
opposition to African American housing, 266
Dearborn Realty and Construction Company, 51, 52
Defense City, 101–4, 145;
alternative proposals, 112–17
;
model city design by University of Michigan architectural school, 115–16
;
model of, 104
;
political battle to build, 103–4. See also Bomber City (formerly Defense City)
Defense Highway Act, 60–61
Defense Homes Corporation, 84, 86
Defense Housing Coordinator’s Office, 88
Defense Housing Insurance Fund, 89
defense migration. See in-migration
“Defense Plan for the City,” Architectural Forum, 12–13
Defense Plant Corporation (DPC), 36, 222
Delano, Frederic, xiii, 12, 173, 226;
and Detroit conference, 116, 120, 121–22
demobilization, 278
demountable housing, 110, 264
Denmark, Nazi invasion of, 20
Detroit: annexation of land, 46–47;
argument with suburbs about African (p.346) American housing, 265–68
;
as “Arsenal of Democracy,” 1
;
exodus of professional and business classes from ethnic neighborhoods, 47
;
population explosion, 46
;
zoning ordinances, 303n86. See also Detroit metropolitan area
Detroit Area Production Urgency Committee, 233
Detroit Board of Commerce, 90
Detroit Builders Association, 96, 261–62
Detroit Builders’;
Show of 1942, “Ideal Home,” 113–14
Detroit City Planning Commission, and Eight Mile-Wyoming area, 260–61
Detroit Community Fund, 213
Detroit Department of Parks and Recreation, 263
Detroit Department of Street Railways, 156, 263
Detroit Federal Public Housing Authority, 129
Detroit Housing Commission (DHC), 82–83, 242, 260;
and Eight Mile- Wyoming area, 260–61
;
open housing policy, 248
;
policy of housing segregation, 118, 240, 243–44, 247–48
;
and Sojourner Truth Homes, 119, 120
Detroit metropolitan area: comprised cities in five counties surrounding Detroit, 8; defense and war supply contracts, 7;
expansion of home ownership, 78
;
loss of white population and increase in nonwhite population, 7–8
;
shifting land uses, 47
Detroit Metropolitan Council of Social Agencies, 213, 214, 244, 263, 266
Detroit NAACP, 192, 242, 245
Detroit race relations, 252–58;
race riots of 1943, xiii, 3, 230, 239, 241, 249–52
;
streetcar aflame during race riots of 1943, 251
Detroit Real Estate Board, 107
Detroit Terminal Railroad, 29
Detroit Urban League, 46, 245, 263
Detroit Victory Council (DVC), 16, 241, 263–65, 272
Detroit War Housing Center, 262
Detroit-Willow Run Class A Area of Racial Tension, 263, 272
Detroit-Willow Run Congested Production Area, xiv, 230
Deverall, Richard, 102, 117
Diggs, Charles C., 259
Dingall, John, 60
Divers, William K., 258, 264–65
Dodge Truck factory, Macomb County, Michigan, 65
Doll, Maurice, 165
Dondero, George A., 246
Dos Passos, John, 206
Double V campaign, 6, 341n5
Douglas Aircraft Corporation, 26, 37, 183
Downriver Industrial District, 48, 259
E. G. Wiedman Auto Company (Ford-Lincoln-Mercury), 75
Earhart, Harry B., 129
Ecorse (city), Michigan, 28, 45, 48, 266
Ecorse Road, 57
Ecorse Township, Wayne County, Michigan, 7, 267
Edelman, John, 91, 92, 102, 103, 112, 123
Edgecomb, Charles, 112, 119, 120, 244, 248, 267, 269
Edward, Dorothy, 192
Edwards, George C., 119
Eight Mile Civic Association, 260–61
Elliott, Harriet, 34, 35
Emergency Price Control Act, 124
Emmerich, Herbert, 243, 245–46, 277
Engel, Albert A., 60
Engelke, Otto K.: fight for designation of Willow Run as congested area, 229;
fight for improved housing conditions for war plant workers, 147–48, 159–60, 163, 164–65, 172, 174, 175
;
11-Point Plan, 219–20
;
public health crusade, 67–68, 74
Fair Lane Estate, 51
Farm Security Administration, 80, 87
Federal-Aid Highway Act, 58
Federal Coordinating Committee, 220–21, 227;
limits of, 221
;
Special Commercial Center Subcommittee, 222
federal highways, strategic highway network funding fight, 59–61
Federal Home Loan Agency, 123
Federal Housing Administration (FHA): creation of, xii; favored single-family, (p.347) owner-occupied houses, 80, 89;
focus on housing for war workers, xiii
;
history of experimentation with affordable housing, 312n18
;
and housing for African American workers, 258–62, 268
;
insistence on racially segregated neighborhoods, 81
;
liberalization program, 114, 115
;
limited to serving only war workers rather than defense areas, 129
;
mortgage insurance program, 80, 81, 94
;
private housing program, 89, 142, 143–44, 150– 51
;
reorganized under National Housing Agency, 123
;
and suburban expansion, 2
;
Title VI cost limitations, 116
;
Title VI defense housing program, 114
federal housing policy: decentralized and competitive, 80;
favored intensive use of existing buildings, 83, 164
;
favored private sector building, 83, 143, 145
;
favored single-family, owner-occupied houses, 80–81, 145, 275
;
federal inspection tour of Washtenaw County, 172–75
;
federally financed public housing, 78, 81–83, 88
;
Federal Works Agency (FWA) policy, 86–87
;
and housing for industrial workers, 83, 84, 106
;
and Lanham Act, 85–86
;
local control of land regulation, 164
;
opposed to mixed-race war housing projects, 118, 240–41, 260
;
policy for defense housing, 83–90
;
policy for war housing, 108–11
;
“priorities” assistance plan, 90, 143
;
rent and occupancy controls, 84
federalism, separation of powers under, 13, 224
federal mobilization policy, 207;
battle between “all-outers” and “partial-outers,” 24–25
;
combination of carrots and sticks, 15–16
;
combination of top-down and bottom-up planning, 14
;
competing agendas among agencies, 17
;
controls on movement of workers, 16
;
early defense, 4
;
early war, 5–6
;
and industrial suburbanization, 4
;
late defense, 5
;
late war, 6–7
;
organization of aircraft procurement and defense buying, 21–22
;
participatory planning approach, 4, 17, 276–77
;
reactivation of mobilization structure used for WWI, 4
;
uncertainty of planning, 19
Federal Public Housing Authority (FPHA), 123, 151, 255;
and housing for African American workers, 258–62, 264, 266, 269, 270
;
and mixed-race war housing projects, 240
;
plan for Bomber City, 129–30
;
plan for dormitories and apartments in Willow Run area, 148, 208
;
proposed unrestricted housing project in Dearborn, 266
;
and temporary housing, 143
Federal Security Agency (FSA): and African American needs, 241;
and community center in Ypsilanti’s First Ward, 254–57
;
Office of Community War Services, 216–17
;
Office of Defense Health and Welfare, 225
Federal Works Agency (FWA), 59, 78, 123, 221, 225, 279;
assignment of construction, 87
;
and Currier contract, 97–101
;
and Defense City, 111
;
Division of Defense Housing, 87, 109
;
fight for right to determine community needs, 227
;
Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division, 87, 88, 109
;
preference for large-scale housing development in community-focused neighborhoods, 86–87
;
Public Building Administration (PBA), 108–9
;
and rent setting, 86
;
and Sojourner Truth Homes, 118–21
;
Title VI war housing program, 112
;
Truman’s criticism of, 110–11
;
Vital Area Boards, 226
;
and Ypsilanti recreation center, 255
Ferguson, Homer, 168, 180, 211–12, 222, 246–47
Ferndale, Michigan, 47
Fleming, Philip B., 109
Flowers, Howard, 262
Foley, Raymond M., 114–15, 128, 163, 171, 259–61, 279
Ford, Edsel, 19, 148, 168, 181, 192;
appeal to Truman for federal assistance for Willow Run labor shortages, 168
;
death of, xiii, 182
;
initiation of Willow Run bomber program, 24–26, 37, 38
;
interest in child-care provision, 322n74
;
neutrality on mixed-race housing issue, 247
;
support of cooperative housing, 52
;
and Willow Run housing, 169
Ford, Henry, 19, 24, 26;
assumption of presidency after death of Edsel, 182
;
and (p.348) Bomber City, 131, 315n53
;
and Charles Sorenson, 181
;
commitment to hydroelectricity, 54
;
and construction of Willow Run, 39
;
experiments in rural industrial decentralization, 30–31, 42, 53–54
;
favored vertical integration in “superplant,” 29
;
insistence that company contribute only to US defense, 22
;
opposition to model towns, 54
;
opposition to unionization, 38
;
and suburbanization, 51–56
Ford, Henry II, 182
Ford farms, 55, 56
Ford Generator Plant, 269
Ford Lake, 55, 56
Ford Motor Company: clash with Aircraft Production Board over production schedules, 187;
deconcentration plan, 204–5
;
discrimination against African American women, 193–94
;
five-dollar day, 52
;
and industrial suburbanization, 44
;
limited efforts to solve Willow Run manpower problems, 205
;
lobbying for Willow Run access roads, 662
;
management culture, 19, 38, 199
;
management problems, 181–83
;
and mass production of aircraft, 26, 27, 180
;
opposition to Bomber City, 131, 139–40
;
opposition to designating Willow Run as congested area, 229
;
production innovation at Willow Run, 183–86
;
and proposed super-marketing center, 222
;
recruitment of African American workers, 46
;
study of Willow Run’s postwar use, 279
;
and suburbanization, 51–56
;
survey of worker dissatisfaction, 52
;
theory of mass production, 183–86
;
unionization, 199
;
village industries, 30–31
;
war contract for Eagle boats, 29
;
and Willow run recreation program, 216
Ford Motor Company, and war worker housing: application of mass production techniques to housing, 52–53;
canvassing of towns for housing for war workers, 171–72, 177
;
housing program in Inkster, 53
;
position on mixed-race housing, 153, 247, 266, 267
Ford Motor Company, Fordson Plant, 30
Ford Motor Company, Highland Park Plant, 18, 29, 30, 44, 47
Ford Motor Company, River Rouge Plant, 22, 47;
concentration of production at, 30
;
employee parking spaces, 18
;
hiring of African American workers, 259
;
percentage of women workers, 326n27
;
and political fragmentation of surrounding area, 45
;
racially progressive hiring pattern, 180
;
residential dispersal pattern of workers, 57
;
vertical integration, 51
Ford Transportation Bureau “swap ride” program, 200–202
Ford Tri-motor aircraft, 26
Foreman’s Club, Ypsilanti, 74
Foster, Ed, 159
Fox Tent and Awning Company, 152
France, fall of, 20
fuel rationing, 153
Gaines, Thurman, 259
Garden City, Michigan, 45
Garden City plan, 54
garden communities, 117
gasoline rationing, 156, 200, 201
General Motors, 279
German blitzkrieg, 20
Gilbert Community House, Ypsilanti, 161, 162, 255
Gill, Corrington, 228, 231, 232
Gomon, Josephine, 170–72, 195, 215, 269;
and hiring of African American women at Willow Run, 193–94
;
on lack of attention to child care, 202
;
personal prejudice against southern whites, 196
;
support for mixed-race public housing, 243, 247
Gordon, Spencer, 214, 215, 229, 244, 245, 256
Grand Trunk Railroad, 29
Gray, Richard J., 101
Great Lakes Steel Plant, 48
Green, John, 92, 93, 104
Greenbelt new towns, 11
Greenfield Village School, 54
Gropius, Walter, 87
Grosse Pointes (“Detroit’s Gold Coast”), 47
“ground-freed” dwelling, 137, 139
Guinan, W. J., 115, 128, 261
(p.349) Hall, Willis H., 133
Hamtramck, Michigan, 28, 45, 46
Hanson, Harry B., 30, 39, 62
Hardy, Robert, 237
Harper-McGraw Crosstown Motorway, 59
Harriet Elementary School, Ypsilanti, 253, 254
Herrando, Mary, 191
Hettel, Joseph N., 93
Highland Park (city), 18, 28, 44, 46;
immigrants to, 44
;
incorporation as separate city from Detroit, 45
Highland Park Plant, Ford Motor Company (“Crystal Palace”), 29, 44
Hillman, Sidney, 94;
and AFL building trade unions, 98
;
and Currier contract, 100, 101
;
and Defense City, 102, 103, 111, 112
;
exit from government service, 123–24
;
as head of Office of Production Management, 32
;
and Willow Run Bomber Plant, 33, 34
Hinkley, F. T., 237
Hitler, Adolf, 20
home construction, do-it-yourself, 50
Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), 77
Homes Registration Office, 124
Hoover, Herbert, 80
“hotbedding,” 44
House Committee on Appropriations, and Committee for Congested Production Areas, 231
House Naval Affairs Committee, 228
House Public Buildings Committee, 119
housing, for defense: concern that inadequate housing could affect production, 78;
decentralized and competitive federal policy, 77–80
;
federally financed public housing, 78, 81–83, 88, 304n8
;
federal rent control, 78, 84
;
and Lanham Act provisions, 85–86
;
and organized labor, 90–95
;
and prefabrication, 94
;
racial discrimination and segregation, 79, 118–21
;
rivalry between public and private housing, 78
;
“temporary shelter,” 110
;
UAW housing campaigns, 95–101. See also federal housing policy; housing, for war
housing, for war: crisis of, 141–45;
end to permanent public war housing, 141–45
;
federal funding for, 108–11
;
low-cost innovations, 304n8
;
and new national housing agency, 122–26. See also federal housing policy
housing, for Willow Run, 48–49, 81;
alarm over housing shortages in press, 126–27
;
duplex trailer apartments, 208
;
eligibility requirements, 209–10
;
empty units at town site and Norwayne, 262
;
eviction of squatters from makeshift camps, 147–48
;
Ford plans for, 169
;
Ford’s canvassing of rooms for rent, 171–72, 177–78
;
halting of construction by competing federal agencies, 134–36
;
and housing of in-migrant workers, 2
;
intensive use of existing buildings and service lots, 163–66
;
landlord discrimination against children, 152
;
negative press publicity regarding housing problems, 175–76
;
NHA program, 129–30, 148
;
one family’s experience, 154–55
;
plan to house women workers in Michigan State Normal School dormitories, 169–72, 177
;
postwar demand for public housing, 279
;
public war housing as least desirable option, 157–58
;
and reduced plant employment, 241
;
and sanitation problems, 159–60
;
search for shelter for winter of 1942–43, 146, 149, 150–53
;
steps to improve living conditions, 156–57
;
trailer housing, 127, 155, 176, 177
;
war housing, 208–12
;
West Court, 208
;
housing, temporary, 108, 110, 128;
Central Housing Committee recommendations for, 84
;
supported by War Department, 125–26. See also public housing, temporary
Housing and Home Finance Agency, 279
housing industry. See real estate industry
housing segregation, 306n11;
in defense housing, 79, 118–21
;
in federal housing policy, 118, 240–41, 260
;
and Ford Motor Company, 153, 247, 266, 267
;
and Michigan congressional delegation, 246
;
and National Housing Agency (NHA), 243, 246, 269
;
policy of Detroit Housing (p.350) Commission, 118, 240, 243–44, 247–48
;
in Willow Village, 269
housing strategies, of war workers, 49–50;
adaptation to and shaping of community, 177
;
basement homes, 50
;
do-it-yourself home construction, 50
;
“hotbedding,” 44
;
“roughed in” house, 51; steps to improve living conditions, 156–57
;
tents, 152
;
trailer camps, 154, 155, 161, 163, 176, 177
Housing—The Continuing Problem (NRPB), 77–78
Howe, George, 87
Hudson Naval Ordinance, 7
Huntington Woods, Michigan, 47
hydroelectricity, 54
industrial decentralization, 20, 36;
Ford’s experiments in, 30–31, 42, 53–54
;
and political fragmentation, 8
industrial suburbanization, 7, 20;
under normal conditions, 43
;
and political fragmentation, 44
;
and urban planning, 10–13
;
and war mobilization, 4
;
and Willow Run, 44–48
Ingersoll Machine, 184
Ingersoll Milling Company, 184
Inkster, Michigan, 28, 46, 266, 298n10;
attempt by whites to form separate political unit, 252–53
;
branch of Ford Commissary, 53
;
Carver Homes, 242
;
family apartments for African Americans, 208–9
;
federal funding for two segregated community centers, 257
;
growth in African American community, 7, 253
;
housing, 49–50
;
wartime housing sold to individuals postwar, 280
Inkster, Robert, 298n10
Inkster Defense Recreation Committee, 216, 217, 253
Inkster race riot, 249
in-migration: African American, 79, 252, 267;
efforts to prevent, 124, 125, 189–90, 240–41
;
from Kentucky and Tennessee, 195
;
from South, opposition to, 64
;
transition from temporary war workers to permanent residents, 210–11
;
of workers for Willow Run, 71, 73–74, 195–96
“integrated community” (model city), 127–28
Intercultural Conference, 257–58 interest groups, competition for federal defense funds, 14, 277
Iwanicki, Thomas, 105
Jeffries, Edward, 112, 113, 120, 190, 248, 250, 258–59, 265, 267 “Jeffries Double-Cross,” 248
Johnson, Henry, 261
Johnson, “Johnny,” 237
Johnson, Marilyn, 305n11
Jones, Jesse, 222
Journey through Chaos (Agnes Meyer), 11
Kahn, Albert, 39
Kahn, Louis I., 87, 137
Kaiser, Henry J., 279
Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, 279
Kastner, Alfred, 87
Kennedy, G. Donald, 58, 59, 61–62, 117, 148
Kidder, Elmer, 45–46, 50
Knowlson, J. S., 224, 225
Knudsen, William S., 22–25, 32–34, 38, 122, 175, 187, 188, 189
Koistinen, Paul, 21
Krome, Bernice, 237–38
Krug, J. A., 135
Kuhlman, Edmund, 107, 261
labor: cooperation with private social agencies, 214–15;
and housing for defense, 90–95. See also Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)
;
United Automobile Workers (UAW) United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 50
labor draft, 7, 16, 135, 145
Labor Housing Conference, 1934, 92
Lanham, Fritz G., 85, 108
Lanham Act, xii, 4, 15, 85–86, 110, 111, 119–20, 128, 276;
amendments to, 108–9
;
childcare funds, 202
;
community facilities program, 225
;
cost limitations, 86, 95, 115, 130
;
expansion of, 5
;
federal funds for school operating costs, 219
;
preference for private sector housing, 88–89
;
restrictions on housing standards, 136
;
temporary public housing, 136, 305n11
(p.351) “leapfrog” development, 48
Lenawee County, 31
Lewis, A. D., 94
Lewis, John L., 94
Lincoln Park, Michigan, 28, 45, 48
Lindbergh, Charles, 237
Lotchin, Roger, 7, 341n5
Lovett, Robert A., 61
Lubin, Isador, 102
Mack, Harry, 130
Macomb County, 64–65
MacRae, Robert, 263
manpower problems, 10, 16, 224;
and Aircraft Production Board (APB), 198–99
;
construction labor shortage, 150, 151
;
federal government wrangling over responsibility for in plants, 203
;
as leading war mobilization issue, 180–81
;
and War Production Board, 199
;
Marshall, Thurgood, 262
Martin, Louis, 248–49
Martinson, Willard, 245
mass production: engineering for, 185; Ford theory of, 183–86
materials shortages: construction materials, 150, 267;
rubber, 63, 135, 140, 200
Maverick, Maury, 126, 132, 134, 135, 227
May Act, 15
Mayor’s Fact-Finding Committee on Defense Housing (Detroit), 113, 115, 128, 190
McDonald, Stewart, 88
McKellar, Kenneth, 60
McNutt, Paul, 190
Meader, George, 130, 131, 132
Melvindale, Michigan, 28, 45, 48
Menzies, Agnes, 190
Meyer, Agnes, 11, 174, 322n74
Michener, Earl, 60, 66, 74
Michigan: in-migration, 7, 64, 71, 125;
statewide speed limit, 148, 156
;
types of local government, 297n3
Michigan Agricultural Extension Service, 69–70
Michigan Avenue, Detroit, 57
Michigan Central Railroad, 29, 62
Michigan Clergymen’s Delinquency Prevention Committee, 74
Michigan congressional delegation, and mixed-race housing, 246
Michigan Council of Defense, 72, 74;
opposition to southern in-migration, 64
;
survey of housing, sanitation, and education in Willow Run, 65
Michigan highway planning, 58–59, 61;
Willow Run Expressway, 63
Michigan Manufacturers Association, 263
Michigan Society of Architects, 90
Michigan State Normal School, NHA plan to house women war workers in dormitories, 169–72, 177
migration, defense, 5, 6, 7. See also in-migration
Miller, Logan, 56
Model A, 30
model city plan, 2, 115–16, 127–28
Model T, 18, 30
“modern” housing, 93–94, 105, 108, 123, 137
Monroe, Rose, 237
Moses, Robert, 228, 333n57
Mullin, John Robert, 54
Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division, FWA, 87, 88
mutual ownership program, 93, 96, 104, 106, 110, 112, 123, 130, 137, 140
Nankin Township, Wayne County, Michigan, 45, 46
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 241;
Detroit Branch, 192, 242, 245
;
and housing integration, 240, 242, 244, 245–47, 248, 249, 259, 262
;
and UAW, 336n6
;
Ypsilanti Council, 244–45
National Association of Building Owners and Managers, 85
National Association of Housing Officials, 86
National Association of Real Estate Boards, 85, 123, 261
National Defense Advisory Commission (NDAC), 4, 5, 21, 22, 93;
support for (p.352) industrial decentralization, 36
;
voice in defense plant locations, 31–32
;
and Willow Run plant approval, 33–34
National Housing Act, Title VI: addition of, xii, 89;
cost limitations, 116, 308n45
;
defense housing program, 114
;
expansion of, 128–29, 140
;
for-profit permanent housing for whites, 305n11
;
war housing program, 112
National Housing Agency (NHA), xiii, 80;
advocated repair or remodeling of existing buildings, 163-164
;
creation of, 123
;
formal codification of housing policy, 143
;
joint policy with War Production Board, 124–25
;
limited by scarcity of construction materials, 124
;
and mixed-race housing for war workers, 241, 243, 246, 258, 265, 269
;
Office of the Administrator, 123
;
plans for Bomber City, xiii, 132
;
plan to house women workers in Michigan State Normal School dormitories, 169–72, 177
;
position on migration, 125
;
private housing priorities for Detroit area, 268
;
restriction of war housing to temporary construction, xiii, 129–30, 136, 141, 144
;
Willow Run housing program, 126–30, 148, 169
National Industrial Recovery Act, 82
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 38
National Resources Planning Board (NRPB), 11, 71, 105, 116, 225, 291n13;
coordination efforts, 226
;
Housing—The Continuing Problem, 77–78
;
lack of implementation authority, 12
Naval Ordinance Plant, Macomb County, 65
Nelson, Donald M., 5, 14–15, 17, 33, 34, 122, 126, 199, 277
Netherlands, Nazi invasion of, 20
New Deal, 11;
Home Owners Loan Corporation, 80
;
housing lessons from, 80–83, 289n5
Newton, Charles, 36, 56, 60, 68, 153
Nicholas, William G., 140
North American Aviation, 183
Norway, Nazi invasion of, 20
Norwayne: and mixed-race housing, 264;
permanent housing project for white workers, 208, 210, 242
;
wartime housing sold to individuals postwar, 280
Oakland County, 64
Oakwood public housing proposal, white opposition to, 267
O’Brien, George D., 246
Office of Community War Services, 216, 225, 334n64
Office of Price Administration, 124
Office of Production Management (OPM), 5, 21, 24–25, 94, 98;
analysis of heavy bomber program, 37–38
;
Plant Site Board, 36
;
responsibility for industrial production and materials, 32
Office of War Information (OWI): diagnosis of Willow Run production problems, 166–67;
propaganda photograph of Willow Run assembly line, 167; survey of Detroit area housing, 320n39
Office of War Mobilization, 6, 232–33
Owens, Jesse, 217, 260
Palmer, Charles F., 112;
and amendments to Lanham Act, 109
;
and Defense City, 116
;
as defense housing coordinator, 85
;
and Federal Works Administration, 122
;
policy of focusing on housing quantity but not quality, 102
;
public-for-rent and private-for-sale policy, 106
;
recommendation that UAW work with FHA, 312n18
;
and Sojourner Truth Homes, 119, 120
;
support for mutual ownership, 112
;
and tension between private and public housing, 88–89, 111
;
and Willow Run location, 34–35
Pang, Florence, 237
Paradise Valley, Detroit, 250
Park Ridge housing project, Ypsilanti, 255, 262, 280
Park Ridge Recreation Center, 257
Park Ridge Tenants’ Council, 254
partial-outers, 5, 24–25
participatory planning, 4, 17, 276–77
patriotism, exploitation of by federal government, 13–14
Patterson, Robert P., 148
Paul, Herbert I., 160
Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombing of, xii, 5, 40, 107
Perrelle, Charles, 183
Perry, Clarence, 137
Perry, Lawrence, 244–45
(p.353) Pershing map, 58
Peterson, Leroy, 266
Pidgeon, Walter, 237
Pittsfield Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, 72
Pittsfield Village, 281
planning: as advisory function, 12;
participatory, 4, 17, 276–77. See also urban planning
Platt, Pittsfield Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, 72–73
Pommer, Richard, 91
Powell, Hickman, 236
Pratt and Whitney engine, 23
prefabrication, 79, 94, 96, 98, 106, 109, 140
Preston, John, 210–11
priority ratings, 32, 148, 150, 151, 259, 314n62
private housing: tension with public housing programs, 78, 88–89, 111
private housing programs: of FHA, 89, 142, 143–44, 150–51;
Pittsfield Village, 144
;
revised standards, 144
;
and War Production Board, 142, 143
private sector housing: exploitation of federal housing programs, 304n8;
favored by federal housing policy, 83, 143, 145
;
and Lanham Act, 88–89
Proctor, Downing E., 217
Progressives (Ypsilanti), 254
prostitution, 15
Public Buildings Administration (PBA), 84, 87, 108
public housing: better adapted to serve war’s needs, 278;
federally financed, 81–83, 304n8
;
least desirable option for Willow Run workers, 157–58
;
permanent housing for African Americans in Inkster, 208–9; postwar demand for at Willow Run, 279
;
reserved for new in-migrants, 172
;
USHA public housing model, 86
;
for veterans, postwar, 271
public housing, temporary: design flaws, 211;
and Lanham Act, 136, 305n11
;
ordered by War Production Board, xiii, 142, 143
;
sanitation and water supply, 211
;
standards prevented women from taking war work, 211–12
Public Works Administration (PWA), 11, 80, 82, 92
Randolph, A. Philip, 5
rationing, 6;
building materials, 90
;
fuel, 153
;
gasoline, 156, 200, 201
Rawsonville, Michigan, 151
Raymond, Antonin, 87
real estate industry, 2, 108;
and Bomber City, 107, 117
;
calls for temporary public housing at Willow Run, 133
;
and expansion of Title VI mortgage program, 128, 140
;
federally financed public housing, 82–83, 136
;
minimal provision of public war housing for African Americans, 79
;
protests against federal rationing regulations, 90
;
and single-family, detached house, 145
;
UAW crusade against, 141
Reeder, Sherwood, 243, 264
Regional Defense Planning Committee, Detroit Metropolitan Area, 113, 117, 128
rent “ceilings,” 124
rent setting, 86, 87
Resettlement Administration, 80
restrictive covenants, 46, 261, 262, 268
Retail Merchants Association, 263
Reuther, Walter, 2, 24, 101–2, 102, 104, 278–79;
and Defense City, 111, 112, 115, 117
;
and Delano conference, 121
Riggs, Henry, 130–31, 132
River Rouge, improvement of harbor, 29–30
River Rouge (city), 28, 45, 48
Rolland, Donna M., 194
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 120
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 207;
administrative style, 123, 224
;
belief in air power as key to defense, 20
;
call for new military aircraft, xii, 20, 22, 187
;
Central Housing Committee (CHC), 80
;
centralization of civilian housing functions, 122–23, 225
;
creation of Committee for Congested Production Areas, xiii; creation of Office of War Mobilization, 232
;
and Defense City, 103, 107, 116
;
disgust at war greed at home, 277
;
endorsement of national service legislation, 7
;
executive order prohibiting discrimination in military and defense jobs, 5
;
and expansion of bomber program, 37
;
funding request for strategic highway network, 59
;
(p.354) halting of car and truck production for civilian use, 25
;
and location of new defense plants in interior of nation, 31–32
;
military access road plan, 59
;
reactivation of mobilization structure used for WWI, 4
;
resistance to martial planning law, 228
;
support for federal intervention in housing markets, 80
;
“survey of possibilities” for UAW Defense City, xii; and Willow Run housing problem, 175
Rosie the Riveter, 237
Ross, George, 113, 115
row houses, 91
Royal Oak, Michigan, 47
Royal Oak Township, Oakland County, Michigan, 7, 64, 266
rubber shortage, 63, 135, 140, 200
Saarinen, Eero, 116, 280
Saarinen and Swanson, 137, 280;
design for school and town center for Bomber City, 138
Sandercock, Leonie, 14
Schermer, George, 266, 267
Schmidt, Hans, 218, 254, 256, 320n16
Scholle, August, 104
Schultz, Margaret and Ferdie, 210
Scio Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, 161
Scott, Mel, 11
segregation, in housing policy. See housing segregation
Seven Mile-Fenelon Improvement Association, 119, 120
Seversky, Alexander de: Victory through Air Power, 149
Seymour, Frank, 256
Sharpe, Carleton F., 262, 264
Simes, Goldie, 193
Simmons. Rev., 245
single-family, owner-occupied houses: for African Americans in Inkster, 50;
and African American workers, 260–61, 268, 275–76
;
federal policies in favor of, 77, 80–81, 89, 108, 143–44, 275
;
in models for Defense City, 115
;
versus “modern housing,” 105
;
symbolic of American way of life, 145
single-family zoning districts, 163–64
slum-clearance programs, 82, 83, 84
Small, Grace, 191
Smith, Harold D., 223, 228, 229, 230, 231
Smith, Roscoe, 25, 55–56, 182, 186, 195
Snyder, Baird III, 112
social recreation philosophy, 216–18, 241, 253, 256
Sojourner Truth Citizens Committee, 119–20, 120
Sojourner Truth Housing controversy, xiii, 118–21, 123, 242, 246
Somervell, Brehon, 125, 126
Sorenson, Charles, 18, 19, 23, 25, 61, 181, 195;
and deconcentration program, 204
;
discussion with government for building complete bombers at Willow Run, 37, 38
;
and location of Willow Run plant, 31
;
notion of mass production of bombers, 26
;
payout for bomber plant, 26
;
as production manager of River Rouge plant, 30
;
and production pressures from military, 187–89
;
proposal for Willow Run plant, 33, 35
;
retirement from Ford, 182–83
;
and Roscoe Smith, 182
;
and supermarketing center, 222
;
on usefulness of manpower czar, 203–4
;
and Willow Run Expressway, 62
;
and Willow Run housing crisis, 169
;
on Willow Run’s delayed bomber production, 149
speed limit, 156
Spencer School District, 219
Sprague, Isaac, 237
Sprague, Phil, 237
Starnes, Joe, 243
Starr, F. Charles, 120, 129–30, 132, 135
Steinbeck, John: Bombs Away, 179
Stermer, James E., 16
Stimson, Harry L., 62
Stonorov, Oscar, 2, 12, 91, 92, 104
and Audubon Village, 93–94
;
and Defense City/Bomber City, 102, 104, 111–12, 116, 117, 123, 129, 137
;
support for union housing program, 92–93
Stonorov and Kahn: design for “ground-freed” dwelling, 137, 139
Story of Willow Run, The, 272
Stout Metal Airplane Company, 26
Strachan, Alan, 217
Straus, Nathan, 85, 111
strikebreakers, 100
(p.355) Stubbins, Hugh, Jr., 87
Sturgeon, W. R., 127
suburban housing, 48–51
suburbanization, 7, 51–56. See also industrial suburbanization
Supply Priorities and Allocations Board, 21, 90
Syrians, in Dearborn, 45
Taber, John, 231
Taft, Charles P., 172
takings clause, 83
Taylor, Marguerite, 201
temporary housing. See housing, temporary
Tenerowicz, Rudolph G., 119
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 11, 80, 87
Thirty Mile Swamp, 28
Thomas, R. J., 104, 112, 131, 139–40, 148, 173, 248;
Housing for Defense, 96–97
trailer housing/camps, 154, 155, 161, 163, 176, 177
Trout, A. Lynn, 71
Truman, Harry S., 98, 101, 110, 168, 226–27
Truman Committee (Senate Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program), xii, xiii, 110;
on inspection tour of Willow run, 168; investigation of Bomber City Plan, 131–34
;
investigation of Currier contract, 97–98, 100, 103
;
investigation of Willow Run production problems, 166–70, 173, 174, 175
Tufts, Joseph, 103, 111, 112, 116
Ungrodt, Paul, 56, 66, 67, 75, 116, 206, 223
Unitarian Service Committee, volunteer youth camp, 217
United Automobile Worker, 95, 96, 112;
“I’ll Build Me a House,” 105
United Automobile Workers (UAW), 2;
City-Wide Housing Committee, 128, 137,141
;
condemnation of housing discrimination, 240
;
and conversion of large housing into apartments, 164
;
criticism of NHA housing program, 128
;
crusade against real estate industry, 141
;
and Defense City/Bomber City, 101–4, 111, 129, 136–41
;
defense housing campaigns, 95–101
;
Detroit UAW-CIO Housing Committee, 112
;
efforts to prevent in-migration to Michigan, 125
;
and Eight Mile-Wyoming area, 260–61
;
housing actions in 1942, 318n120
;
Housing for Defense, 96–97, 101, 112, 140
;
housing plans for Willow Run, 127
;
lack of faith in private sector housing, 96
;
and mixed-race housing, 244, 270
;
plans for large-scale entry into housing, 96–97
;
pressure on Ford to move work from Willow Run to other plants, 204
;
shift in housing goals, 139–40
;
support for Camden Plan, 96
;
support for permanent public housing, 144
;
Wayne project, 96–101, 103, 118, 140
;
and Willow Village postwar redevelopment, 280
United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 50, 16, 38;
alliance with Washtenaw County Health Department, 219
;
“A Program for Willow Run,” 206, 220
;
attempt to open large government trailer camp, 163
;
concerns that Willow Run’s production problems would be used against unions, 173
;
and designation of Willow Run as congested area, 229
;
“good will” programs for trailer camps, 161
;
and integrated community center for Ypsilanti, 256
;
little authority in industrial plants, 199
;
protest of whites-only designation for Willow Lodge, 245
;
study on converting war plants to peacetime production, 278–79
;
and super-marketing center, 222
United Construction Workers Organizing Committee (UCW), 94
United Construction Workers (UCW), 97
United States Employment Service (USES), 125, 190, 194
United States Housing Authority (USHA), 83;
creation of, 80
;
defense amendments, 84–85
;
funding of, 109–11
;
public housing budget tied to slum clearance, 82
;
public housing model, 86
;
responsibility for large-scale family housing projects, 84
Universal Double V, 341n5
University of Michigan: Aeronautical Research Center, 279;
Soil Mechanics Laboratory, 279
University of Michigan architectural school, model city design, 115–16
(p.356) urbanization: early 1940s, 289n5. See also industrial suburbanization
urban planning, 10;
American method, 274–75
;
and industrial suburbanization, 10–13
;
postwar focus, 291n13
;
in total war, 10
;
and trade-offs, 16
Vanaman, Arthur W., 187
Vandenberg, Arthur, 60
Van Wagoner, Murray D., 58
venereal disease, 15
vertical integration, 29, 51
veterans, in public housing postwar, 271
Village Cooperative Homes, 281
village industry program, 53–56
Wagner-Steagall Act, 80, 83
Wallgren, Mon C., 168
War Department: “505 contract,” 187, 188;
opposition to designating Willow Run as congested area, 229
;
Special Projects Section, 227
;
supported only temporary housing for workers, 125–26
War Housing Commission, 263
War Manpower Commission (WMC), 151;
approved recruiting workers from Kentucky and Tennessee, 195
;
and the Byrnes Plan, 232
;
concern for worker shortages over housing, 125, 135
;
and hiring of African Americans at Willow Run, 192
;
and hiring of local women and African Americans over in-migrants, 190, 192, 202, 258
;
and local Federal Coordinating Committees, 227
;
organization of, 122
;
organization of local Federal Coordinating Committees, 227
;
pressure on Ford to move work from Willow Run to other plants, 204
;
recruitment drive for women workers, 202
;
role in the plants, 203
war mobilization. See federal mobilization policy
War Production Board (WPB), 5, 6, 21, 224;
Aircraft Production Board, 183
;
Bureau of Governmental Relations, 227
;
Conservation Order L-41, 124
;
Controlled Materials Plan, 124, 143, 144, 225, 292n14
;
control of construction through quotas, 134
;
and Defense City/Bomber City, xiii, 115, 132, 134
;
Facility Clearance Board, 226
;
formal codification of housing policy, 143
;
freezing of sales and deliveries of construction lumber, 135, 136
;
investigation of NHA housing policy, 134
;
joint policy with National Housing Agency, 124–25, 144, 227
;
Non-industrial Facility Committee, 222
;
official approach to manpower, 199
;
Planning Committee, 226
;
preference for using existing housing facilities, 226
;
pressure on Ford to move work from Willow Run to other plants, 204
;
and private housing program, 142, 143
;
on production problems at Willow Run, 166
;
prohibition of all nonessential construction, xiii; pushed Detroit area to hire women war workers, 190
;
replaced Office of Production Management, 122
;
restriction of war housing to temporary construction, xiii, 142, 143
;
role in community mobilization, 225, 226–27
;
Willow Run committee, 134
Washington, Amos S., 258
Washtenaw County: county zoning and building code efforts, 31, 42, 43, 68–70;
efforts to limit in-migration, 71
;
efforts to remedy Willow Run’s problems, 206
;
lobbying for congested area designation, 229
;
postwar housing crisis, 271
;
postwar land use plan, 280
;
responses to population influx, 71
;
Second Annual Merchants and Builders’
;
Exhibit, 80–81
Washtenaw County Council of Defense: child-care committee, 202;
Civilian Defense Volunteer Office (CDVO), 162
Washtenaw County Health Department, 66–68, 159–60;
alliance with Local 50 and Ypsilanti Board of Commerce, 219
;
11-Point Plan, 220
;
and Willow Run Bomber Plant problems, 66–68. See also Engelke, Otto K.
Watson Realty Company, 262
Wayne Chamber of Commerce, 264
Wayne County, 1, 55, 57;
child-care facilities, 202
;
Ford purchase of land in, 31
;
growth (p.357) of trailer camps in, 127
;
health department, 67
;
public housing projects, 129, 132, 148, 209
;
segregated housing market, 209
;
suburbanization, 28
;
and Willow Run Airport, 1, 35
;
and zoning, 70
Wayne County Better Homes, 259, 260, 261
Welch Oakwood Hill subdivision, Detroit, 262
Westbrook, Lawrence, 88, 93, 96, 97, 110, 116;
“Park Living Plan,” 87
West Coast Plan (Byrnes Plan ), 232
West Lodge dormitories, 208, 262
“Westwood,” 252–53
Wiese, Andrew, 306n11
Wilkerson, Martha, 250–51
Williams, Allen, 259
Williams, Viney, 259
Willow Lodge dormitories, xiii, 208, 211, 240;
campaign to integrate, 242–49
Willow Run: A Study of Industrialization and Cultural Inadequacy (Carr and Stermer), 16
Willow Run Airport, 1, 35, 279
Willow Run Area Planning Committee, 280
Willow Run Area Recreation Project (WRARP), 207, 216–18, 254, 255, 256, 272
Willow Run Bomber Plant: Army Super-marketing Center, 221–23, 275;
B-24 Studio (radio station), 237
;
cessation of bomber production, xiv; and community building, 206–8
;
and Community Funds, 213–14
;
commuting to, 156
;
construction of, 39–41
;
demonstration of spot welding by woman worker, 193; doubling of employment estimates, 62
;
drill press lineup, 191; employment estimates in 1942, 40
;
employment numbers, peak, 132, 204
;
employment numbers after deconcentration, 204–5
;
employment numbers from Jan.1, 1942 and June 30, 1945, 237
;
groundbreaking for, xii; highway program, 148
;
and industrial suburbanization, 44–48
;
location issues, xiii, 2, 19–20, 27–37
;
models of B-24 built, 238
;
motor vehicle access to, 57
;
October 1942 photo of, 40
;
plant details, 236–37
;
postwar uses, 279
;
production employment numbers, 126
;
transportation at, July 1942, 201
;
and Willow Run Expressway, 57–64
Willow Run Bomber Plant, labor issues, 167, 169–70, 180–81;
absenteeism, 169, 180, 188, 197–98, 224
;
adaptation problems, 198
;
attrition due to housing and transportation problems, 156, 197
;
discharges, 327n45
;
hiring of African American workers, 180–81, 192–93, 195–96
;
hiring of white women and African American women and men, 180–81
;
injuries, 237
;
and matters outside the company’s control, 198–204
;
movement of work to other plants, 181,204–5
;
out-of-state recruiting, 195–96, 210
;
percentage of women workers, 326n27
;
poaching of labor force by military, 197
;
preference for hiring in-migrants, 210
;
recruitment of women workers, 190–95
;
recruitment of workers, 180, 189–96
;
retention of new hires, 169
;
standard work week, 197
;
ten-day quits, 196–97
;
and transportation, 200–202
;
turnover, 149, 167, 180, 188, 189, 196–98, 224
;
wages, 197
;
white workers’
;
influence over workforce integration, 194–95. See also housing, for Willow Run
Willow Run Bomber Plant, production: achievement of production rate of a bomber an hour, xiv, 235;
Army-Navy “E” award for production excellence, xiv, 238
;
cessation of production, 239
;
missed production deadlines, 166–70
;
and model changes, 188
;
production crisis, 41, 186–89
;
production innovation, 183–86
;
production of first B-24, xiii; production pressures, 169, 179–80, 186–88, 277
;
production procedures to combat turnover and absenteeism, 199
;
production records in aircraft industry, 235–36
;
trade-off of production delay in return for high-speed production run, 184, 185
Willow Run community, 2–3, 8–9;
beginnings of, 155–58
;
housing issues (See housing, for Willow Run); limits of transportation system, 155–56, 200–202
;
problem of integrating bomber plant into social and political landscape, 10
Willow Run Community Council (WRCC), 207, 212–16, 256, 272, 280;
funding (p.358) capability, 216
;
labor representatives, 214, 215
;
lobbying of federal agencies, 215
;
and mixed-race designation of Willow Lodge, 244, 245
;
most important local organization to address effects of bomber plant, 215
;
representatives from local Councils of Social Agencies, 214
;
social recreation philosophy, 217, 253
;
and super-marketing center, 222
Willow Run Expressway, xiv, 43, 57–64, 121, 148, 226
Willow Run town site, 219, 242;
designated for white workers, 208
;
postwar redevelopment, 280, 281. See also Willow Village (formerly Bomber City)
Willow Village (formerly Bomber City), xiii, xiv, 273;
and African American housing, 268–71
;
average family in, 210
;
“Clay Hill” nickname, 269–70
;
community services, 208
;
demountable construction, 264
;
neighborhood-scale segregation, 269
;
only successful effort at housing integration in Detroit area, 272
;
planned commercial centers, 208–9
;
planned elementary schools, 218–19
;
postwar redevelopment, 280
;
prefabricated and mass produced housing, 208
Wilson, Charles E., 175, 179, 188–89, 189
Winn, Otis, 102, 104, 137
women: African American women workers, 193–94;
industrial wages, 197
;
inhibited from war work by limitations of public housing, 211–12
;
and manpower problems, 199–200
;
percentage of workers at Willow Run and River Rouge Plant, 326n27
;
plan to house workers in Michigan State Normal School dormitories, 169–72
;
Woodrum, Clifton A., 243
Woodward Avenue, Detroit, 47
“work-or-fight order,” 211
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 11–12
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 87
Wright Field Contract Section, 187
Wurster, William W., 87
Wyandotte, Michigan, 28, 48
York Plan, 15
Ypsilanti, Michigan: absorbed into Detroit metropolitan area, 8;
African American population, 28, 153
;
approval of Willow Village for African American housing, 269
;
building restrictions, 150
;
cancellation of 1943 Fourth of July celebrations due to interracial violence, 251–52
;
College Heights subdivision, 49
;
Ford village industry, 31, 55
;
and integrated recreation center, 255–56
;
Park Ridge housing project, 280
;
racial order, 153
;
restrictive covenants, 48
;
segregation of city swimming pool, 336n14
;
starter and generator plant, 56
;
support for mixed-race housing in Willow Lodge, 244
;
tradition of higher education, 28
;
volunteer youth work camp, 161–62
Ypsilanti, Michigan, and Willow Run Bomber Plant: changes in as result of plant, 73–76;
designated as “critical area” by federal government in October 1941, 76
;
designated as part of National Defense Area, 66
;
housing for industrial workers, 48–49
;
in-migration problems, 71, 73–74
;
need for sanitation and school facilities, 72
;
preservation of way of life, 64–73
Ypsilanti Board of Commerce, 222
Ypsilanti City School District, 219
Ypsilanti Community Fund, 213, 256
Ypsilanti Council of Social Agencies, 162, 214, 255;
Intercultural Division, 258
Ypsilanti defense area, regional map of, 9
Ypsilanti Defense Council, 72
Ypsilanti Homes Registration Office, 152
Ypsilanti Real Estate Board, 133
Ypsilanti Regional Planning Board, 70–71, 158
Ypsilanti Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan: efforts to strengthen building codes and zoning ordinances, 43, 68–69, 70;
and 1943 Fourth of July celebration, 252
;
increase in African American population, 7
;
sanitation problems, 159–60, 221
Ypsilanti War Housing Center, 262
zoning ordinances, 163–66, 303n86;
single-family zoning districts, 163–64
Zunz, Olivier, 47