Society Holds Twelfth Annual Summer Social Event: A Lecture By University Of Michigan-Dearborn’s Professor Martin Hershock
Our Lady Of Sorrows Catholic Church
Saturday, August 3, 2024
The Society was honored this summer to host a lecture by the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Martin (“Marty”) Hershock, Ph.D. (pictured). The event took place on Saturday, August 3, in the Lower Level Social Hall of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Farmington from 1:30 to 3:15 p.m.
Marty is a professor of history who specializes primarily in the Civil War era. His father, who was born in 1925, was a police officer in Detroit. He was born in a house on Martin just a couple of doors down from the Federal Screw Works factory at 3401 Martin in the heart of our west side Detroit territory. A violent, historic strike took place at the factory in 1938, and Marty became intrigued with it and with the neighborhood. It was part of a broader labor movement taking place at the time.
Marty presented a lecture accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation. His lecture was entitled, “Seems To Me You Have Plenty of Nerve: Polish American Women, Detroit’s Federal Screw Works Strike of 1938, and the Fate of the UAW.” It was based on his fascination with the community and how the neighborhood responded to the strike, as well as what he referred to as “the police presence in the neighborhood.” He spent an impressive amount of time researching the neighborhood in general and the people of the community and learning about their day-to-day lives and activities.
Approximately 40 people attended the lecture, including several people with roots in Detroit’s west side neighborhoods. The lecture was captivating. Those attending learned how remarkably violent the strike was and the extent to which the community—in particular, the neighborhood women—became involved in the strike.
Pan Mieczysław (“Mietek”) Oniśkiewcz of the Polish Media Center at Orchard Lake videotaped the lecture. It can be viewed on the Polish Media Center’s You Tube channel via the link on the Society’s website here: https://www.detroitpolonia.org/videos/. The Society’s director, Alina Klin, Ph.D., arranged for the videotaping. We are extremely grateful to both Alina and Mietek.
We are also grateful to our director, Rev. Canon Walter J. Ptak, Pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, for accommodating us at this event, and for his staff, particularly Ms. Dolores Dolecki, for facilitating the event and helping out with the refreshments.
Marty Hershock is a specialist in 19th-century American political and social history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and in the history of Michigan. He has written/edited four books, as well as a number of academic articles, book chapters, reviews, and encyclopedia articles. A lifelong resident of the Detroit metropolitan region, Marty earned his B.A. in history from UM-Dearborn, his M.A. in history from Wayne State University, and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He joined the UM-Dearborn faculty in 1999 and was awarded the University’s distinguished teaching award in 2003.
He also presented his research on Detroit’s 1938 Federal Screw Works strike at a conference in Warsaw in June of 2024. His presentation to the Society was part of a longer article that will appear in a journal in the spring.
Federal Screw Works was founded in Detroit in 1917, initially to produce fasteners for the automotive industry. The company went on to manufacture various component parts for the automobile industry throughout the years. The brick and limestone building, which is still standing, was built in approximately 1920 and housed not only production facilities and a warehouse, but also offices. Notable on the building’s façade are various large bas-relief figures in the shapes of nuts and bolts.
Today, Federal Screw Works is located on Griswold Street in Detroit. They also have a division in Romulus. They specialize in precision cold formed and machined products to customer specifications.
It was an honor to host Professor Marty Hershock for this presentation on an extremely important part of west side Detroit Polonia’s history. The strike was memorable for its intensity and for the involvement of a large part of the community, including many women. The Polish American workers who were involved in the strike contributed toward the growth of Detroit’s labor movement and the UAW.
Photo Source: Marty Hershock, Ph.D.
