GENORA (JOHNSON) DOLLINGER – WOMEN’S EMERGENCY BRIGADE

I first met my Mother-in-law 28 years ago. She was a frail woman, 5’5” in height and 70 years young. By looking at her, you would never imagine her as leading a paramilitary brigade of women in one of the most historical labor union struggles of the 20th Century, the 1936/37 sit down strikes in Flint, Michigan against the largest industrial corporation in the world, General Motors (GM) thereby winning recognition of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union.
Genora was called “the Joan of Arc of Labor” for her role in the Flint sit-down strikes and was of the five founding members of the UAW. (See photo of Genora Johnson Dollinger.) At the age of 23 she organized the Women’s Auxiliary of the UAW and led its military wing, the Women’s Emergency Brigade. (See photo of Women’s Emergency Brigade bearing clubs.)



On November 17, 1936, the first auto industry sit-down in U.S. history began at Bendix products in South Bend, Indiana. Workers occupied their plant for a week to win recognition of the UAW (Union of Automobile Workers). But the strike which led to the unionization of the mighty General Motors Corporation, and eventually spread to the entire auto industry, occurred on December 30, 1936. Flint Michigan s auto workers staged a sit down strike in their factories.

Within 24 hours city police surrounding the plant and started shooting tear gas inside the plant and at the picketers that had formed in front of the plant. “The police were using rifles, buckshot, fire-bombs, and tear-gas canisters.” (“Striking Flint”, Oral history from Genora Dollinger talking to Susan Rosenthal) (See photo Flint Police bearing arms and photo worker captured by police) The battle raged for hours. People from the city of City came out to witness the struggle.



Union leader, Victor Reuther was shouting out instruction from a sound car. He was attempted to encourage the sit down striker within the plant as well as the picketers on the line in front of the factory. At one crucial point, Victor reported that the batteries in the sound car were running low and state that we may lose this battle but the union would win this war. Genora asked Victor if she could use the speaker. He agreed believing there was nothing to lose. Genora call the police cowards! “I directed my remarks to the women on both sides of the barricades. I said the cops were shooting into the bellies of unarmed men and the mothers of children….I begged the women to break through those lines of cops and come down here and join with us. After that, other women came. The police didn’t want to shoot them in the back. The women poured through and that ended the battle.” (Coming of Age by Studs Terkel pg. 100) (See photo of police with crowd and sound car in background)

The police retreated when the spectators came between the police and the union men. The battle that night was a victory for the union forces. They forced the Flint police to retreat. This battle became known as, “The Battle of Bulls Run”. (The cops were referred to as “bulls”)


After the historic battle of The Battle of Bulls Run, Genora formed The Emergency Brigade to respond to emergency situations. Brigade members armed themselves with clubs. They defended sit-downers from Flint city police who also served the corporation as this was a company town. They also battled GM’s plant police, hired Pinkerton strike-breakers. Even the National Guard was brought in equipped with machine guns. (See 2 photos of National Guard with machine guns)

General Motors spent more than $900,000 during the sit down on their hired protection. (See photo of Flint Police and some of the armament brought to bear strikers) On other occasions during the sit down strike the Brigade Women would use their wooden clubs to break out the plant windows allowing the sit downer fresh air in to alleviate the effects of the tear gas.
Fifteen General Motors plants were on strike across the nation. The sit down strikers were making little or no progress. General Motors entered negotiations a few days after the Battle of Bulls Run but it was a stalling tactic. GM was bargaining in bad faith. Their efforts were to focus on getting a back-to-work movement spearheaded by the antiunion Flint Alliance. General Motors tried ever means at their disposal to stop the picketing and evacuate the plants. Corporate lawyers tried to use the courts to stop the strike. They used this strategy against the Toledo auto strike two years earlier.

It was very difficult to keep strikers moral up. Union personnel were sending out daily bulletins trying to encourage the worker to keep going. A drastic move had to be made as time was running out. (See photo of sit dowers counting the number of days the strike endured)


The union workers knew that if they could take the largest Chevrolet Plant 4, they could break the impasse and win the strike. Plant 4 was the crucial part of the GM complex as it produced all the Chevrolet engines for the entire country and for export as well. If the union workers could stop production in the heavily guarded Plant 4, it would be a crippling blow to General Motors and they could turn the tide and win the strike.

Genora’s husband, Kermit Johnson, was the leader of the strike committee for Chevrolet and worked in Plant 4. He devised an ingenious plan how Plant 4 could be taken by the Union workers. It involved misdirection and leaking of Union misinformation. Plant 6 and Plant 8 are located close to plant 4. If the workers would strike these two plants they could pull strikers from these plants and march them over to plant 4 it could be taken. At a Union meeting they put their plan in action. They let it be known that the union was going to strike Plants 9, knowing full well that there were GM spies in the meeting. The real target, Plant 4 was kept secret.

Plant 4 was heavily guarded by Professional Pinkertons, plant protection and organized vigilantes. It potentially could have been a slaughter unless they were distracted from that area. The strikers needed time to barricade the critical plant 4. Plant 4 employed 4,000 workers, 2,000 on each shift. The doors inside the plant are as large as a house. It would take considerable amount of time to barricade the doors and to weld the openings shut to prevent an attack by the police. So the strikers needed to create a distraction to buy time.

Kermit’s put his plan into action on February 1 during the afternoon shift change. Genora had the Brigade out marching up and down in front of Plant 9. When the police saw the Brigade, they came and formed a line. At one point, the police pulled their revolvers and threatened the union men on the outside because they knew that GM was well prepared to deal with the men inside having been alerted to the strike.

The police immediately began to tear-gas and beat the union men when they started shutting down their machines. Genora heard a window break and saw Tom Klasey, a union man, stick his head out and yelled, “They’re gassing us in here! For God’s sake, they’re gassing us!” (“Striking Flint”, Oral history from Genora Dollinger talking to Susan Rosenthal) Genora and her Emergency Brigade swung into action. They lifted their clubs and smashed the windows to disperse the tear gas. (See photo of union workers against backdrop of broken windows)
The men inside took an awful beating and many were removed to awaiting ambulances. General Motors Police secure in the fact that they squashed that attempted sit down in Plant 9. The misdirection was working; the real target was Plant 4 half a mile down the street. Genora dismissed the Brigade at Plant 9 and sent them back to headquarters. She and five lieutenants left immediately for Plant 4.

When they arrived they saw the strikers engaged in fierce fights. Union men were throwing out the scabs and foremen. The strikers called out to Genora, “Hold that gate. Hold it; don’t let the police come through here!” (“Striking Flint”, Oral history from Genora Dollinger talking to Susan Rosenthal) Genora and her lieutenants strung themselves across the gate entrance. Flint police down soon arrived on the scene. They wanted to push the women aside and gain entrance to Plant 4. The Brigade women said, “Over our dead bodies.” (The Great Sit Down Documentary BBC films) The Brigade women reason with the police - in Flint the policemen had uncles or fathers or brothers who were factory workers, too. The women asked them, “What would you think if your wife was out here with us and you were in that damn plant? What would you think? Wouldn’t you expect your wife to defend you and fight for better conditions for you?” They responded to tell the women, “Well, you know, if we didn’t have General Motors, what would we do in Flint? This is what feeds the people of Flint.” (With Babies and Banners – Documentary nominated for Academy Award by Sarah Pillsbury)The Brigade women got them to procrastinate by engaging in these discussions.

Just as the police were ready to move in on the Plant, Genora saw the whole Emergency Brigade marching towards her, singing “Solidarity Forever” and “Hold the Fort.” (Coming of Age by Studs Terkel pg. 101)
(See photo of Brigade arriving carrying American flag.) When they arrived, Genora climbed into the sound car which came from the other direction and instructed the women to lock arms and set up an oval picket line to prevent the police from entering the plant until it could be secured.

Genora was instrumental in overcoming the opposition of those who initially rejected her husband’s plan for capturing Chevrolet Plant 4. The successful occupation of Plant 4, which joined the occupations at Fisher 1 and 2, marked a decisive turning point in the history of the American labor movement. It broke the resistance of General Motors and negotiations began in Detroit. “On February 11, 1937, a historic agreement was reached by the UAW and the General Motors Corporation. The settlement, set out on a single sheet of page, gave the union recognition as the bargaining agency for its members.” (Not Automatic by Sol Dollinger and Genora Johnson Dollinger pg. 30) (See photo of workers reading a newspaper announcing end of strike)GM signed a peace agreement recognizing the UAW as representative for the auto workers. And on March 12 the first labor contract was signed. The largest corporation in the world was forced to sign a contract with an industrial union representing all its workers. The victory of GM workers led to a wave of industrial organizing that revolutionized relations between capital and labor in the United States.

Additional Source Material:

Not Automatic by Sol Dollinger and Genora Johnson Dollinger, Monthly Review Press New York, published 2000
Coming of Age by Studs Terkel, The New Press, New York 1995
Child of the Sit-Downs: The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger, by Carlton Jackson, Ken State University Press, Kent, Ohio 2008
“Striking Flint”, Oral history from Genora Dollinger talking to Susan Rosenthal, Haymarket Books, Chicago, IL 1995
“With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade” – Documentary nominated for Academy Award by Sarah Pillsbury 1976
“The Great Sit Down” – Documentary - BBC films - 1979
Genora & Sol Dollinger Collection - Walter P. Reuther Library by Sherna Gluck - Wayne State University - 1976
UCLA - Living History archives
The Michigan’s Women’s Historical Center - Hall of Fame – Genora (Johnson) Dollinger

MEDICINE AND MIDWIFERY IN COLONIAL AMERICA

The study of medicine in the seventeenth century of Colonial America was very basic and based more on common sense than science and reason. Although this part of the century was at the cusp of a turning point of how doctors understood medicine, people were less concerned with how the body works and more so with the development of religion. Surgical operations were performed by Barber-Surgeons. The knowledge of human anatomy was still very unclear to many people.


In 1628, William Harvey discovered that blood circulates throughout the entire body. The conventional wisdom of his day was that the liver was responsible for converting food into blood. The body then was able to consume the blood. Harvey believed that direct observation essential in reaching conclusions. He recorded his observations when he felt that he had proven his findings. He was created with finding what we refer to today as the scientific method.
Harvey observed through the dissection of cadavers that the heart pumped the blood out in one direction. He determined this by observing the one way nature of the heart valves. Harvey concluded that the blood was pumped, by the heart, around to the different body parts and returned to the heart in a closed circulatory system. Although Harvey correctly observed the closed system of the blood circulatory system with the heart serving as a pump he missed the mark as to the function of the liver.
Even with the emergence of the scientific method, medicine is in a very primitive state. Physicians had little understanding of physiology or diseases processes and they had few effective methods of treatment. Bloodletting was still a common practice until William Harvey disproved the basis of the practice in 1628, and with the introduction of the scientific method eventually proved that it was a completely ineffective treatment. Additionally, it was believed that including blood there were four different fluids in the body. A person’s illness was also believed to be due to the body containing too much of one fluid. However, during this period, a more scientific approach was beginning to be implemented by doctors who then began to negate traditional ideas (Colonial America).
To put Harvey’s advancements into proper perspective we should examine other forms of medicine being practiced in the 1600’s. Medical practitioners fell into six categories: Medicine Men, Surgeons and barber-surgeons, Apothecaries, Midwives, Clerics, and Ministers.
Medicine Men: The Indian Medicine Man used similar traditional methods as those used by Europeans consisting of herbs and plants. They developed over 170 preparations which was part of the United States pharmacopoeia. 50 such preparations used by the British were developed by American Indians. Quacks, at the time, would travel about sideshows and sell their remedies as “Indian cures” and then leave town with an unsuspecting public duped.
Surgeons and barber-surgeons: Surgeons and barber-surgeons were considered a craft and were regulated. Again their craft were shared by the Europeans. They required a 7 years apprenticeship before one could practice on their own. This was accomplished by observing a practicing surgeon. They received no formal education and yet they were authorized to conduct surgery. Barbers did not just cut hair they could remove teeth, practiced bloodletting, performed amputations, set fractured bones, cut out cancer and tumors, and dress wounds. All of this was accomplished without the use of anesthesia. Surgeries had a 50% mortality rate.
Apothecaries: Apothecaries similar to physicians. They had an apprenticeship of between 4 to 7 years. Again, the trade was learned through hands training and by observation. Physicians would refuse “to dirty their hands” by making medicine. Patients would take the doctor’s prescription to the apothecaries to have filled. Apothecaries would also treat patients on their own accord. Their roles were limited to a few diagnoses. They would look at the patient, take a pulse, make a diagnosis and mix the medicines. Drugs came from England by ship and sometimes did not reach the colonies in time to treat the patient. Apothecary’s methods were less aggressive than physicians and were often trusted more by the colonist as their treatment produced less harm.
Midwives: Midwives were comprised of women who had little or no training in childbirth. They helped pregnant women through the birthing process.

Physicians would be called in only if there was a very difficult birth. In the healthy communities 1 out of 10 children died before reaching the age of 5. In less healthy communities that number increased to 3 out of 10. Skilled Midwives were highly valued by the community but were not respected by the physicians. Only 1 to 1.5 percent of births resulted in the death of the mother. Most midwives having had their own children knew what to expect during the birthing process. Colonists viewed the Physicians as having knowledge but midwives has having experience.
Midwives were also skilled in using the herbal remedies of the time. They relieved discomfort associated with child birth by gather herbs from garden and fields. Butter was used as a lubricant during child birth.
Midwives treatments were not confined to child birth alone. They treated snake bites, upset stomachs, burns, and broken bones. They also took testimony of out of wedlock mothers as to whom the child’s father was. It was though that during the birthing process women would be unable to lie thereby allowing the midwife to ascertain the child father and turn that name over to the magistrate.
Clerics: Clerics were often drawn in to aid the sick because they were cheap or free and had a little education and were trusted by the populace. They did the best they could to help and often believed that illness was punishment from God. If it was God’s doing then look better to treat the ailment than the cleric. It also served as a backup profession in case “God’s work” fell through.
Ministers: Ministers were well prepared to fill in as doctors because they were among the most educated in the community. They also had access to 1 or 2 medicals books which helped them immeasurably in treating their patients.
Although Medicine Men, Surgeons and barber-surgeons, Apothecaries, Midwives, Clerics, and Ministers played important role in treating colonist, Women played a huge role in medicine in this time period. They did all the household chores such as cooking, cleaning and caring for their children. As well women did majority of the farming tasks like feeding the animals, keeping the bee hives and planting crops. Additionally, women knew how to treat their family’s illnesses and had knowledge of medicine to ensure their family’s health. Only wealthy people could afford to go to a doctor at the time, thus, a wife took care of most of the ailments that came about. Overall, women were a large part of maintaining structure and health within their family. Although women were closed to certain jobs such as being a teacher, doctor or lawyer, women were able to be domestic servants, shoemakers, dyers, tailors and midwives (Colonial America).
Women serving as Midwives had essential role in Colonial America. Midwives were held in very high regard in society and were known to be very gentle, nurturing as well as very knowledgeable in medicine. They were older women who had several children of their own. They were apprentice-trained and combined running a household with their practice (Midwifery in the United States). Midwives treated the sick and also knew how to make their own medicines. Antiseptic and cleanliness in general was not well implemented and was thought to be unnecessary when giving birth because the birth process was considered to be a natural process, and the delivery should happen without any medicine or unnatural products (Colonial Midwifery).
Although women were not allowed to take on the roles as doctors due to the fact that doctors were viewed as prominent figures and had a great deal more knowledge about human anatomy than the average person, women were still able to be midwives and have a great deal of responsibility and obtained a lot of knowledge without it being seen as a man’s line of work. Midwives not only aided the process of giving birth, but they also had a great deal of knowledge in other aspects of gynecological problems (Colonial Midwifery). Additionally, men in this time period were not at all eager to be responsible for aiding the birth of children due to the fact that they had little to no knowledge of the process as well as that the idea of birth was more focused toward women. Further, Midwives did not allow male physicians or husbands to be in the “lying-in chamber” or the room where a woman gave birth. Thus, women found one of the only areas of specialty they could monopolize at the time (Midwifery Today).
Further, the fact that midwives had such authority as well as influence within their field caused women such as Anne Hutchinson to branch out from their normal role as a wife, mother and keeper of the household to take on new challenges that women of that time period had previously been prohibited from attempting. Anne Hutchinson is known as one of the most famous midwives of the seventeenth century. She had a great knowledge of medicine in addition to being literate, which was not common for women at that time. Immigrating to Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston from England in 1634, Hutchinson began preaching new ideals of the Christian Doctrine that gathered many followers including several male leaders. Not long after, however, Hutchinson was banished from the colony because her ideas were very controversial and too liberal for the time (Anne Hutchinson). Thus, Hutchinson was able to use her status as a midwife to cast an influence across a broad audience when most women were not in the same position to do so.
Medicine in colonial America was primitive by our standards today. Most practitioners had little or no formal training. They relied on hands on apprenticeship training and herbal treatments handed down from one generation to another. With bloodletting, baric surgeries with no anesthesia it was amazing the mortality rate was only at 50%. But, the central role which emerges in colonial medicine practitioners were the roles women played as nurturing mothers, and midwives. A ray of hope in this primitive state of medicine was emergence of William Harvey’s scientific method.





The Circulation of the Blood – Two Anatomical Essay with nine letters
By William Harvey, PUBLISHED BY Charles C Thomas, 1958

A History of American Medicine from the Colonial Period to the Twentieth Century
by Luis H. Toledo-Pereyra, Published by The Edwin Mellen Press, 2006

Stanford Hall: Colonial America
http://www.lmsd.org/staff/elemtech/colonial/medicine.htm

Bryant University; Colonial Midwifery
http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364proj/sprg_98/maraglia/mid17.htm

Midwifery Today: The History of Midwifery and Childbirth in America: A Time Line
http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/timeline.asp

Parkland school of nurse midwifery: Midwifery in the United States
http://www3.utsouthwestern.edu/midwifery/mdwfhsus.html

Anne Hutchinson http://www.answers.com/topic/anne-hutchinson

Medicine & Midwifery 17th Century

The study of medicine in the seventeenth century of Colonial America was very basic and based more on common sense than science and reason. Although this part of the century was at the cusp of a turning point of how doctors understood medicine, people were less concerned with how the body works and more so with the development of religion. Surgical operations were performed by Barber-Surgeons. The knowledge of human anatomy was still very unclear to many people. In 1628, William Harvey discovered that blood circulates throughout the entire body. However, it was believed that including blood there were four different fluids in the body. A person’s illness was also believed to be due to the body containing too much of one fluid. However, during this period, a more scientific approach was beginning to be implemented by doctors who then began to negate traditional ideas (Colonial America).
Further, women lead a huge role in this time period. They did all the household chores such as cooking, cleaning and caring for their children. As well women did majority of the farming tasks like feeding the animals, keeping the bee hives and planting crops. Additionally, women knew how to treat their family’s illnesses and had knowledge of medicine to ensure their family’s health. Only wealthy people could afford to go to a doctor at the time, thus, a wife took care of most of the ailments that came about. Overall, women were a large part of maintaining structure and health within their family. Although women were closed to certain jobs such as being a teacher, doctor or lawyer, women were able to be domestic servants, shoemakers, dyers, tailors and midwives (Colonial America).
Midwifery was an essential role in Colonial America. Midwives were held in very high regard in society and were known to be very gentle, nurturing as well as very knowledgeable in medicine. They were older women who had several children of their own. They were apprentice-trained and combined running a household with their practice (Midwifery in the United States). Midwives treated the sick and also knew how to make their own medicines. Antiseptic and cleanliness in general was not well implemented and was thought to be unnecessary when giving birth because the birth process was considered to be a natural process, and the delivery should happen without any medicine or unnatural products (Colonial Midwifery).
Although women were not allowed to take on the roles as doctors due to the fact that doctors were viewed as prominent figures and had a great deal more knowledge about human anatomy than the average person, women were still able to be midwives and have a great deal of responsibility and obtained a lot of knowledge without it being seen as a man’s line of work. Midwives not only aided the process of giving birth, but they also had a great deal of knowledge in other aspects of gynecological problems (Colonial Midwifery). Additionally, men in this time period were not at all eager to be responsible for aiding the birth of children due to the fact that they had little to no knowledge of the process as well as that the idea of birth was more focused toward women. Further, Midwives did not allow male physicians or husbands to be in the “lying-in chamber” or the room where a woman gave birth. Thus, women found one of the only areas of specialty they could monopolize at the time (Midwifery Today).
Further, the fact that midwives had such authority as well as influence within their field caused women such as Anne Hutchinson to branch out from their normal role as a wife, mother and keeper of the household to take on new challenges that women of that time period had previously been prohibited from attempting. Anne Hutchinson is known as one of the most famous midwives of the seventeenth century. She had a great knowledge of medicine in addition to being literate, which was not common for women at that time. Immigrating to Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston from England in 1634, Hutchinson began preaching new ideals of the Christian Doctrine that gathered many followers including several male leaders. Not long after, however, Hutchinson was banished from the colony because her ideas were very controversial and too liberal for the time (Anne Hutchinson). Thus, Hutchinson was able to use her status as a midwife to cast an influence across a broad audience when most women were not in the same position to do so. “’She was a woman of haughty and fierce carriage, a nimble wit and active spirit, a very voluble tongue, more bold than a man,” said Governor John Winthrop of religious pioneer Anne Hutchinson, whom he expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638 for her insistence on practicing religion as she chose, and on preaching herself.” Anne believed that faith by itself was not enough to achieve salvation: one must actively engage one’s faith and put it into practice.
The development of religious thought was paramount and took precedence over medial advancement. Midwifery offered a unique niche for woman in the 17th Century.

Medicine Colonial America. 2002. Stanford Hall. 16 Sept. 2009


Bryan Community Webs. 2004. Bryant University. 16 Sept. 2009


The History of Midwifery and Childbirth in America:
A Time Line. 2009. Midwifery Today. 16 Sept. 2009


Midwifery in the United States. 12/31/1999. Parkland school of nurse midwifery. 16 Sept. 2009


Anne Hutchinson. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
Retrieved 2007-10-23