'They Had to Serve Us All'
Local 599 Honors Civil Rights Pioneers

Story by Jennifer John

When you think of the civil rights movement, you might see a mental image of snarling Southern sheriffs turning the dogs loose on 1960s-era protest marchers.

But the civil rights movement didn’t just happen in the South, and it didn’t start in the 1960s. Civil rights activists spent decades working to overturn unjust racial laws and practices, not only in the South, but in communities all across the country.

Flint’s Foot Soldiers
In Flint, Mich., in the 1940s and 1950s, three of the feistiest foot soldiers in the battle for equal rights were UAW Local 599 members John Hightower, Bill Barnum and Bill Williams.

The three men served on the Local 599 Fair Employment Practices Committee, breaking down barriers wherever they went: at lunch counters, bars and restaurants, and even at hotels in Washington, D.C.

Now, more than a half-century later, they’ve been honored with the local’s first Civil Rights Pioneer Awards.

“We saw a lot of things happening and decided to do something,” said honoree Bill Williams, 80, at a March 3 banquet which drew about 200 people.

Williams worked as a furnace operator at GM’s Buick City plant for 35 years and retired in 1977.

He recalled a long-ago trip to the nation’s capitol for a union meeting, when Local 599 members were told they had to stay at separate hotels--whites at the Dupont Plaza and blacks at the Hampshire Plaza.

“The white members made reservations for black members at the Dupont and black members did the same for white members at the Hampshire,” Williams said. “The Dupont Plaza ended up letting the black brothers stay there, and the Hampshire Plaza had to let white brothers stay there.”

The families of eight other deceased committee members received posthumous awards. They were: Harry Eaton, Russ Easton, Zeke Holmes, Edgar Holt, Don Sorenson Sr., Carl Thrasher, Fred Tucker and Don Winans.

Trouble in Buick City
Bill Barnum, who is white and the group’s “youngster” at 70, recalled how many establishments near Flint’s Buick City plant refused to serve black patrons, even though they were located in black neighborhoods. So, teams of black and white members were sent out by Local 599 to test for discriminatory practices.

“I’d go in and then John (Hightower) or Bill (Williams) would come in. We’d demand service, and they’d call the police. They’d ask us to leave, but we’d come back. Then the white workers wouldn’t go there, and they lost a lot of business. So then they just had to serve us all,” said Barnum, who retired in 1979 after 30 years as a production worker.

“Our honorees led the way,” said UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker, who addressed the banquet audience. “We all owe them a debt of gratitude for their efforts.”

A Career Cut Short
Hightower, former Fair Employment Practices Committee chair, worked in the GM foundry from 1952-1955. Then 25, he was an electrician and wanted to work in that trade. But GM only assigned blacks to the foundry.

Hightower demanded that blacks receive jobs as foremen and skilled tradesman. His outspokenness led to a fistfight with a foreman that cost him his job, and cut short his career at GM. But in the years since, the plant has become a very different place, with workers of all races eligible for all positions.

“I made a promise that I’d change the system in the foundry, that there would be black foremen, carpenters and electricians working there,” said Hightower, 77. “I’m honored that a group of white men helped us change things.”