She was employed at the Briggs aircraft plant in Detroit when she first became active in union organizing after the company transferred a group of female employees, white and black, all of whom had children, to the midnight shift.
She graduated from Northeastern High School in Detroit and attended workers' extension classes at the University of Michigan in the early 1940s.
[1][2] In 1944 she was elected to the local's executive board and was also appointed the first Black female international representative of the UAW.
During World War II, the U.S. economy offered black women “their first meaningful opportunity for upward occupational mobility.
Thousands moved from low-paid, nonunion agricultural and service jobs to higher-paying, union-protected manufacturing jobs.”[1][2][3] Hatcher began work as an assistant director to the War Policy Division Women's Bureau.