On this day in 1995: Detroit labor leader Horace Sheffield Jr. dies 

On March 1, 1995, noted Detroit labor union official and civil rights crusader Horace Sheffield Jr. died at age 79. 

Sheffield, an important figure during the second half of the 20th century, was born in Vienna, Ga., a one stoplight town in the state’s southern region. 

Detroiters celebrate Black Bottom historical marker 

Sheffield’s family migrated to industry-bustling Detroit in 1918 when he was only 2. Between 1910 and 1930, the Motor City’s Black population rose from about 5,700 in 1910 to about 130,000 in 1930. It was a period when Detroit was well on its way to becoming America’s fourth largest city. (In 1940, only New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia had more residents). 

The Sheffields established themselves on the city’s lower east side in the Black Bottom community and became founding members of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in 1920. His father, Horace Sr., landed a job at Ford Motor Co. in 1922 and served as a supervisor there for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1961.

At 18, Horace Jr. went to work in Ford’s River Rouge Plant and was active in the successful effort to unionize workers in 1941. 

“Horace had the sound truck visibly and vocally supporting the union,” former Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young recalled in 1995. “That was a revolutionary thing for him to do at that time and certainly brought him to the attention of all concerned.”

Sheffield rose to become a prominent United Auto Workers (UAW) official. He, along with Robert “Buddy” Battle and others, would establish the Trade Union Leadership Council in an effort to increase the influence of African Americans in the union. 

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Sheffield organized voter registration campaigns in the South for more than 10 years during the 1950s and 1960s. He helped to encourage Detroiters to vote for Democrat John F. Kennedy for president in 1960. Sheffield also marched in Detroit’s “Walk to Freedom” that featured the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, as well as the seminal Selma to Montgomery, Ala. voting rights march in 1965. The Alabama effort helped to lead to the passage and signing of the federal Voting Right Act of 1965.

Sheffield founded the Detroit Association of Black Organizations (DABO) in 1979. The institution provides a variety of services to the community, including financial literacy and health care counseling and practicing. The institution is now led by Sheffield’s son, Horace Sheffield III.  

Sheffield Jr. retired from the UAW in 1981 after serving as an administrative assistant to President Douglas Fraser. He also penned columns for The Detroit News and Michigan Chronicle; moderated the weekly talk show, “Focus Detroit,” on WJBK-TV2; and hosted the radio program, “The Freedom Forum,” on WCHB radio for nearly 14 years.

Sheffield’s oft-stated refrain to fellow Detroiters and others was: “Never have a Wall Street mentality in a blue-collar town.”

Horace Sheffield Jr.’s granddaughter is Mary Sheffield, the president of the Detroit City Council. 

In February, Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs announced that its Horace Sheffield Jr. Papers collection is open for public review. 

“This is a very important collection of an iconic figure in both the civil rights and labor movements, ” said Louis Jones, the library’s field archivist.