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Dearborn is the city built by Henry Ford -
engineer, car manufacturer, and clairvoyant of the interstate
highway. It's where, back in 1903, he created the first mass-produced
car: the Ford Model T; today it's the international
headquarters of the Ford Motor Company.
Who was Henry Ford?
Henry Ford was born in 1863 and early in life his practical
side led him to invent new farm tools. At thirteen he successfully
made his first self-propelled steam engine, trying it out
in a field. Fifty years later, Ford was producing 57 percent
of the automobiles sold in American and around half the cars
sold worldwide.
The Ford Model T was the first mass-produced car,
thanks to a novel manufacturing process: the fast assembly
line. This was a key ingredient in the industrial revolution
of the late nineteenth century as it put many unskilled workers
into full-time employment. He was also in the first group
of manufacturers to increase the wage of his workers with
the intention that they would spend their extra money on his
products. This formed the start of America's extensive middle
class. The Model T made Henry's fortune and at least in part
instigated the capitalist culture that defines America today.
Ford had a more totalitarian side. He built accommodation
for his workers, but his entourage would be very nosy and
spy on them, inquiring into their lifestyles. His style of
management became very intrusive and his paternalist ways
weren't appreciated by many of his employees. Ford had no
patience with people who were in his way. In 1933 he waged
a war against the unions. He hired an army, some said of 2,000,
to shut them up, but a photo journalist captured a vicious
beating up of a union boss and courts ordered Ford to cease
interfering with union activities.
Visiting historic Dearborn today
Dearborn is best known for the museum founded and named after
Henry Ford. It's vast grounds include a museum, an Imax cinema,
and a huge outdoor museum called Greenfield Village,
which is filled with dozens of historic buildings which Henry
Ford hoarded to save from extinction. It includes the workshop
of Thomas Edison - pioneer of electricity and inventor
of the light-bulb - fathers of flying, the Wright Brothers
Cycle Shop, George Washington Carver Cabin, and the railroad
turntable. In Greenfield Village you can see Henry Ford's
birthplace house and Harvey Firestone's Farm - the
farm where he grew up.
Dearborn's other famous historic figure was Rosa Parks,
a black woman who refused to give up her bus seat to a white
passenger on the 1st December 1955. As a consequence, she
affronted the segregation laws of the State of Alabama that
forbade whites and blacks to share any kind of space. Her
courageous actions propelled the Civil Rights movement
of Martin Luther King Junior, putting successfully into
practice his philosophy of direct, non-violent action. Sit-ins,
stand-ins, and all manner of protest marches soon followed,
thanks to the dignity of this humble little lady who reflected
upon this stance soon after and declared: "My feets are
tired but my souls is rested". The Henry Ford Museum
holds what they claim is the exact bus this famous historic
act occurred on. Other key automobile exhibits include the
1961 Lincoln convertible, once driven by Lyndon Johnson,
in which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Other things to see and do in Dearborn
When in Dearborn, you can do no worse than spend an evening
at the Ford Wyoming Cinema, the largest drive-by movies
in the United States, holding up to 3,000 cars. Tickets cost
around $6.25.
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