Later, as political director for the UAW, he spearheaded efforts to expand voter participation, and was deeply involved in the civil rights movement.

[1][4][5] In 1934 Reuther obtained a job as an instructor for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), starting in Detroit and later transferring to Flint, Michigan.

He helped formulate and execute the daring plan to capture the Chevy 4 engine plant, which broke the stalemate in the strike and paved the way for victory.

[4][6] After the end of the Flint sit-down strike, GM still pursued a strategy of trying to break the union, by firing activists and instituting speed ups.

But deep factional divisions split the Union, and the UAW’s president, Homer Martin, got the credentials committee to disallow 8 delegates from Flint to swing the election to Reuther’s opponent.

After he was transferred to the Labor Morale Division of the WPB in Los Angeles, he was instrumental in convincing workers to stay on the job despite the harsh working conditions in the aircraft factories.

[1][2] Following the 1947 convention, Reuther was appointed to be an administrative assistant to the new director of the UAW’s GM Department, Vice President John Livingston.

[3] In April, 1948, while eating dinner at home, Roy’s brother Walter was struck by a shotgun blast that shattered his right arm.

In January 1954 a Detroit prosecutor obtained a confession from Donald Ritchie that he had participated in Walter’s shooting at the best of a gangster named Santos “the Shark” Perrone, a Sicilian mobster who was afraid the UAW would interfere with his gambling operations in their plants and his lucrative scrap metal contracts with the Briggs Corporation.

After the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, California, he was appointed to serve as Vice Chairman of the National Voter Registration Committee for the Kennedy presidential campaign.

[2][3] In 1962 and 1964, Reuther was appointed by AFL-CIO president George Meany to direct voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts for the entire labor movement.

[3] In 1963, President Kennedy appointed Reuther to serve on a National Commission on Registration and Voter Participation, chaired by Richard Scammon.

The Commission later presented its report to President Lyndon Johnson, calling for abolition of literacy tests and the poll tax, which historically had been used to disenfranchise Blacks; making registration easily accessible to everyone, with residency requirements reduced and registration periods extended close to election day; and making it easier for people to vote, including extending voting hours and expanding the availability of absentee ballots.

In 1959, while lobbying to reform the filibuster rule to make it easier to pass civil rights legislation, he had a public confrontation with Robert “Bobby” Baker, the chief aide to then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson.

Reuther complained that Johnson and Baker were twisting arms to get Democratic Senators to oppose reform of the filibuster rule.

Reuther also attended funerals for martyrs of the civil rights movement, including Medgar Evers, James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo.

During the funeral procession for Medgar Evers, angry whites spit on him and called him a “race traitor.”[2][3] Reuther was the first national labor leader to go to Delano, California to support Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union (UFW).

A member of the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSLs), she later was involved in supporting the UAW during the Flint sit-down strike, participating in the Women’s Emergency Brigade.

The first African American Judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Wade McCree, eulogized Reuther saying: “Tough-minded honesty, all embracing humanity, indefatigable energy, self-effacing participation, great good humor, these were some of the qualities he contributed to his many community activities which others today will relate in detail.”[3] Reuther’s ashes are buried at the UAW’s education center near Black Lake, Michigan.

As political director for the UAW, he helped make the Union a preeminent force for progressive policies in the United States.

He also worked for passage of major civil rights legislation during the sixties, and provided vital support to the farm workers union.

Materials include personal papers, such as correspondence and notes, photographs, administrative files relating to his activities as political director for the Union, and other types of records.