Walter Reuther

This 1945 portrait of Walter Reuther (1907-1970) by Boris Chaliapin hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. It was published in Time magazine on December 3, 1945.

One of the nation's most influential labor leaders, Walter Reuther was also a staunch civil rights advocate. Only sixteen when he began working in a West Virginia steel plant, Reuther moved to Detroit in 1927, where he found a job with the Ford Motor Company. In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Reuther left Ford to study manufacturing practices abroad. 

Immersing himself in the labor movement after returning to the U.S., he began organizing auto workers into the United Auto Workers (UAW) in 1936. Reuther believed strongly in aligning the labor movement with the broader struggle for civil rights. Under his leadership, the UAW challenged “Jim Crow” segregation and championed the integration of the nation's factories. After Reuther galvanized union support for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Time magazine observed, “Of all prominent labor leaders, Reuther maintained the closest ties to the poor, the black and the young.” -- NPG