Blogs

This is the first in a series of four blog posts annotating Jerry Peacock's 1939 cartoon map of the Wayne University campus. View the entire map here.

In 1939, Wayne University undergraduate and newspaper cartoonist Jerome R. Peacock drew ("with artistic license") a large-scale, heavily-detailed cartoon map of his school's campus. Peacock might have planned to include it in that year's yearbook, but the 1939 Wayne yearbook was cancelled before publication. By the time the map appeared in the 1942 yearbook, it was already somewhat out of date.  read more »

Work speed-ups on the line helped to initiate the 1972 strike at a General Motors assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Although the strike’s impact was initially felt at GM, its influence quickly grew, informing the nation about the struggles of its young workforce, and influencing the content of congressional hearings and national studies.  read more »

Metro Detroiters recognize radio station WDET 101.9 FM as Wayne State University’s local voice for National Public Radio. Prior to 1952, however, WDET served as the local voice for labor. Unhappy with the critical representation of the labor movement in newspapers and on the radio, in 1944 the United Automobile Workers filed applications with the Federal Communications Commission to run independent radio stations in six markets with strong labor ties: the UAW’s hometown of Detroit; Flint, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles; Chicago; and Newark, New Jersey.  read more »

On October 14, 1949, 11 members of the National Board of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) were convicted of violating the Smith Act of 1940 by advocating the overthrow of the government of the United States with force and violence. The ten-month trial, which took place in New York City, captured the country’s attention with its sensational events both inside and outside of the courtroom. More importantly, it established a precedent for prosecuting other communists across the country.  read more »