The Ford Hunger March, sometimes called the Ford Massacre, was a demonstration on March 7, 1932 in the United States by unemployed auto workers in Detroit, Michigan, which took place during the height of the Great Depression. The march started in Detroit and ended in Dearborn, Michigan, in a confrontation in which four workers were shot to death by the Dearborn Police Department and security guards employed by the Ford Motor Company. More than 60 workers were injured, many by gunshot wounds. Three months later, a fifth worker died of his injuries. The march was supported by the Unemployed Councils, a project of the Communist Party USA. It was an important part of a chain of events that resulted in the unionization of the U.S. auto industry. Background In the 1920s, prosperity came to the Detroit area, because of the successes of the U.S. auto industry in that decade. Concentrated in the Detroit area, the industry produced 5,337,000 vehicles in 1929, as many individuals bought their first cars. The 1930 U.S. Census reported the U.S. population as 122,775,046 people. (As a point of reference, the U.S. auto industry produced 8,681,000 vehicles in 2008, and the U.S. population was estimated at 304,375,000 that year. Therefore, the U.S. auto industry was producing 50% more vehicles per capita in 1929 than in the early 21st century, when there is more competition from foreign auto makers.) On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, leading to the Great Depression. Vehicle production in the country plummeted. In 1930, production declined to 3,363,000 vehicles. In 1931, production fell to 1,332,000 vehicles, only 25% of the production of two years before. As a result, unemployment in Detroit skyrocketed, and the wages of those still working were slashed. In 1929, the average annual wage for auto workers was $1639. By 1931, it had fallen 54% to $757. By 1932, there were 400,000 unemployed in Michigan. In 1927, there were 113 suicides in Detroit. That number increased to 568 in 1931. In that year, the welfare allowance was 15 cents per person per day. At the time, neither states nor the federal government provided unemployment insurance or Social Security. A wave of bank closures took the life savings of many unemployed workers and retirees, as every neighborhood bank in Detroit went out of business. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, established by Congress to secure bank deposits and protect