Shelton Tappes

American civil rights activist

Shelton Tappes (March 27, 1911 – April 19, 1991) was an American labor organizer and civil rights activist, known for his role in drafting and negotiating the anti-discrimination clause included in the first contract (May, 1941) between Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers (UAW.)[1][2][3]

## Personal life[edit]

Shelton Tappes was born March 27, 1911, in Omaha, Nebraska.[4] After finishing high school, he attended the University of Nebraska for one semester, before moving to Detroit with his family.[5]

His wife Louise Tappes was also politically active; the activist Women's Public Affairs Committee of 1000 (WPAC) she co-founded in 1964 included Rosa Parks among its members.[6]

## Career[edit]

Shelton Tappes began working for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1928, first at their Briggs plant and later at the River Rouge plant.[7] In 1932, Tappes took part in the Ford Hunger March, where unemployed auto workers tried to present a petition to Henry Ford but were dispersed by gunfire from police and Ford's security team; five marchers died from their wounds.[8]

> The provisions of this contract shall apply to all employees covered by this agreement, without discrimination on account of race, color, national origin, sex, or creed.

Shelton Tappes, Ford-UAW contract 1941, clause 78.

From 1937 on, Tappes joined efforts by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) to unionize Black workers in the Rouge plant for the newly formed United Automobile Workers (UAW).[8] These efforts struggled against skepticism in the middle-class Black community of Detroit. Tappes spoke out for the CIO as a "mystery voice" on local radio, and worked with the local chapter of the National Negro Congress to encourage Black leaders to support Ford workers demanding better treatment.[8]

The UAW had a hard time recruiting Black workers at Ford Motor Company (FMC), partly because older community members felt loyalty to Henry Ford, who had hired and paid them well at a time when other auto companies would not. [9] Furthermore, many feared that Black workers were being asked to risk their jobs but would be "pushed aside and ignored" once the union had secured their votes.[1]

After years of often-violent opposition from Ford, on May 21, 1941, FMC employees including most Black workers voted decisively to join the UAW-CIO.[10]

When the UAW negotiated its first contract with Ford Motor Company, Tappes was a member of the union negotiating team. Clause #78 of that first contract was an anti-discrimination clause that has been described as "important,"[3] "then unique,"[2] and "the handiwork of Shelton Tappes":[1]

> The provisions of this contract shall apply to all employees covered by this agreement, without discrimination on account of race, color, national origin, sex, or creed.

The resulting first Ford-UAW contract, signed on June 20, 1941, was "considered a model and the most liberal of its day."[10] During the 1940s, along with George Crockett and others, Tappes organized a caucus of local activists who agitated for a more prominent role in the labor movement for black leaders; the caucus is also credited with pressing white union leaders to give greater prominence in their agenda to civil rights issues.[11]

From 1942 to 1944, Tappes served as recording secretary of his local union branch, which had more than 60,000 members.[11] In 1944, after serving three terms as recording secretary, he was defeated in an election. Tappes later told the House Un-American Activities Committee that Communist Party activists in the 50,000-member CIO Ford Local 600 union had warned him in 1942 that he would lose their support if he refused to join the party.[5][12]

The UAW then hired him as an "authority on contract interpretation and grievance procedure."[13] Tappes compared his job processing discrimination complaints during the 1950s and 60s to working in "a fire station," saying "when the bell rings we run to put out the fire."[11]

Later, Tappes served the UAW as an international representative until, in 1976, he retired.[13]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c Bates, Beth Tompkins (2012). The Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford. USA: University of North Carolina Press. p. 255\. ISBN 9780807837450. "'The provisions of this contract shall apply to all employees covered by this agreement, without discrimination on account of race, color, national origin, sex, or creed.' Clause No. 78, the antidiscrimination clause, was the handiwork of Shelton Tappes, a member of the negotiation team."
2. ^ a b Lichtenstein, Nelson (2013). A Contest of Ideas: Capital, Politics, and Labor. University of Illinois Press. p. 116\. ISBN 9780252095122. Retrieved February 4, 2022. "Foundryman Shelton Tappes, a 1936 migrant from Alabama, helped negotiate a then unique antidiscrimination clause into the first UAW-Ford contract and went on to serve as recording secretary of the sixty-thousand-member local in the mid-1940s."
3. ^ a b Feeley, Diane. "Black Workers, Fordism and the UAW". Against the Current. Retrieved February 4, 2022. "the May 1941 the Ford-UAW contract contained an important anti-discrimination clause, the handiwork of Shelton Tappes"
4. ^ Bates, Beth T. (July 28, 2018). "Shelton Tappes". American National Biography. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
5. ^ a b Communism in the Detroit Area: Hearings. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1952. pp. 3117–3145. Retrieved February 4, 2022. "I finished high school, spent one term in the University of Nebraska, and had several courses, extension courses, at the University of Michigan and Wayne University...I lived in Detroit since 1929."
6. ^ "The Women's Public Affairs Committee of 1000". Library of Congress. Retrieved January 29, 2024. "Rosa Parks became a close friend of Louise Tappes, owner of Detroit's House of Beauty Hair Salon and wife of United Automobile Workers leader Shelton Tappes. In 1964 Rosa joined the Women's Public Affairs Committee of 1000 (WPAC), the activist social group Tappes cofounded."
7. ^ Lewis-Colman, David M. (2008). "From Fellow traveler to friendly witness: Shelton Tappes, liberal anticommunism, and working-class Civil Rights in the United Auto Workers". In Stromquist, Shelton (ed.). Labor's Cold War: Local Politics in a Global Context. USA: University of Illinois Press. pp. 110–136. ISBN 9780252074691. "Although Tappes never joined the party, Communist activism shaped his political outlook and individual party members gained his trust and respect... Tappes joined the CP-led Auto Workers Union in the early 1930s, which [Communist Bill] McKie had helped organize to bring a union to auto workers in New York. Tappes also became active in the Unemployed Councils...With the backing of the well-organized party chapter at the Rouge plant, Tappes was elected recording-secretary in 1942, become the only black executive board member in the local. Tappes held the position, with Communist support, for three years."
8. ^ a b c Lewis-Colman, David M. (2008). Race Against Liberalism: Black Workers and the UAW in Detroit. US: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252075056. "..in 1937 he helped organize a four-year long drive to unionize Ford by the CIO's newly-formed union the United Automobile Workers (UAW-CIO)."
9. ^ Brueggemann, John (2000). "The Power and Collapse of Paternalism: The Ford Motor Company and Black Workers, 1937-1941". Social Problems. 47 (2): 220–240. Retrieved February 11, 2024. "In 1937, over 84,096 workers worked at the massive River Rouge plant. Almost half of all black auto workers were employed there-9,825 workers or 12 percent of the Rouge work force....black autoworkers had scant opportunities for work with other employers. Whereas, the FMC established an interracial workforce that had functioned in accord since the early 1920s, other companies largely excluded blacks. General Motors employed some 2,500 blacks (out of 100,000 employees) and Chrysler employed 2,000 blacks (out of 50,000"
10. ^ a b "Ford UAW contract". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024. "The UAW was ultimately able to secure better contractual terms with Ford than had been possible with other employers. Wages were increased as promised, with increased pay for night shift workers and time-and-a-half provided for overtime pay. An estimated 4,000 workers who had been dismissed for union activity were rehired with back pay. Notably, all members of the Service Department were now required to wear uniforms on the job. The union was also provided with a closed shop and a checkoff. Ford also agreed to affix the union label to its cars. The contract was considered a model and the most liberal of its day. Ford ordered Bennett to sign the contract, which he did on 20 June 1941."
11. ^ a b c Korstad, Robert; Lichtenstein, Nelson (1988). "Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement". The Journal of American History. 75 (3): 786–811. doi:10.2307/1901530. ISSN 0021-8723. "The UAW's Fair Employment Practices Department (FEPD).. had a dual role: it represented the UAW to the national civil rights community.. and it processed discrimination complaints as they percolated up from black workers in the locals... 'We are a fire station' admitted Tappes, who served in the department during the 1950s and 1960s, 'and when the bell rings we run to put out the fire.'"
12. ^ "CIO official bares Red blackmail attempts". Jet. March 27, 1952. "I thought their support for me was given on the basis of my support for union people."
13. ^ a b "Shelton Tappes Collection" (PDF). Walter P. Reuther Library. Retrieved February 1, 2024. "A UAW member since 1937, Mr. Tappes was particularly active in the organization of the Production Foundry Unit at the Ford Rouge plant in 1941. He was a part-time organizer for the Foundry Unit, the first Foundry Unit chairman, and a member of the negotiating committee that secured the UAW's first contract with Ford Motor Company in 1941. He served as recording secretary of Local 600 from 1942 through 1944. Defeated for a fourth term, he later went to work on the staff of Ken Bannon, where he was recognized as a top authority on contract interpretation and grievance procedure. From 1954 until his retirement in 1976, Mr. Tappes served as an international representative for the UAW in the Ohio area."

## External links[edit]

* Shelton Tappes collected papers 1934-1989 at Wayne State University
* 1965 photo of Tappes taking part in Selma to Montgomery marches (Detroit Historical Society)
* United Automobile Worker (July 1, 1941) containing full text of Ford-UAW contract and photo of negotiating team including Tappes.