Many years before, during the winter of 1888-89, Henry
Ford had hired Perry to help him cut and saw wood. Henry Ford—newly
married and living on timberland given to him by his father in rural
Dearborn Township, Michigan—was making a living selling lumber.
To cut down the trees, Ford and Perry used a crosscut saw, a long blade
with handles at both ends that took two people to operate. Henry Ford
remembered William Perry as a man who worked hard and did his job well.
They developed a mutual respect.
In 1891 Henry Ford and his wife, Clara, moved to Detroit where Henry
began working as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company. William
Perry became a bricklayer and by 1904 had purchased a home for his
family on Pearl Street in southwest Detroit.
Power Plant staff at Ford Motor Company’s
Rouge factory in January 1940. William Perry is seventh from
the left.
I.D. P.833.72956.A
|
|
When his health made it impossible to continue his work as a bricklayer,
William Perry remembered having worked for Henry Ford and thought him
an honest man. So Perry went to the administration offices at Ford
Motor Company’s Highland Park Plant to speak with him. Henry
Ford indeed remembered Perry and, after talking with him, gave him
a tour of the machinery in the Power Plant. Ford then informed the
powerhouse superintendent that Perry would be working there and to “see
to it that he’s comfortable.” A handwritten note on Perry’s
employment application stated “Mr. H. Ford is interested in this
party.” William Perry became the first African-American employee
at Ford Motor Company. He remained on the payroll until his death at
the age of 87 on October 9, 1940.
The Perrys were the only African-American family living on Pearl Street
in Detroit and the neighbors were aware of his connection to Henry
Ford. When William Perry died, Henry Ford visited Perry’s widow
at the family home. It was tradition for the deceased to be laid out
at home and for mourners to come by to pay their respects. Ford’s
visit caused much excitement in the neighborhood, but no surprise.
William Perry’s friendship had a significant influence on Henry
Ford. In later years, Henry used the metaphor of sharing a crosscut
saw to explain his belief that African Americans and whites should
work together with “the colored man [sawing] at one end of the
log and the white man at the other.” At the time that Ford hired
Perry at Ford Motor Company, few industries would employ skilled and
semiskilled African Americans. The only industrial jobs open to African
Americans were those that whites refused. These jobs were usually dirty,
hot and strenuous.
Beginning in the mid-1910s, Ford Motor Company hired increasing numbers
of African-American workers. They held jobs in virtually all non-salary
job categories and earned the same pay as white workers. Eventually,
African Americans even held supervisory and white-collar positions.
A 1919 Ford Motor Company policy statement expressed the views of Henry
Ford and his son Edsel on employment: “We have learned to appreciate
men as men, and to forget…everything else outside of human qualities
and energy.” For the most part, Ford Motor Company practice followed
this philosophy. By 1926, over 10,000 African Americans worked for
Ford Motor Company—more than half of all African Americans employed
in the automobile manufacturing industry at that time.
Cynthia Read-Miller
Curator, Photography and Prints
|
