Existing comment:
1942: The Picket Line
It was April 3, 1941, day two of the first United Auto Workers' strike at the Ford Motor Co. factory in Detroit. The factory was closed; 120,000 workers were idle. Tensions ran high.
Milton Brooks of The Detroit News joined journalists outside the gates. Brooks was a frugal photographer. He rarely took more than one picture, preferring to stand patiently until the most newsworthy image presented itself. That day, as cameras snapped and rolled around him, Brooks waited.
He saw a man pick a fight with some of the pickets. "I could tell from what he said that there would be trouble soon." Fists were clenched. Clubs rose. Brooks snapped his photo: eight strikers, faces contorted; a lone dissenter, crouching low, coat over his head. The camera under his coat, Brooks ducked into the crowd. "A lot of people would have liked to wreck that picture." |