How two swing states changed American voting

13:43Tova Wang:In the end, Brown v. Board was unanimous in its decision to end school segregation. Jackson had voted with the rest of the court. And to many, Rehnquist had shown his cards.

13:56John A. Jenkins:Rehnquist believed that integration was a matter of personal choice. And it should not be forced on anyone. And he also believed it was a matter for the states to decide, not the federal government. was your classic conservative position.

14:13Tova Wang:A position that would help Rehnquist establish himself as an ideological purist among a new group of rising Republican stars.

14:26John A. Jenkins:How the hell does he end up in Arizona? He has almost one criterion of where he wants to relocate. It has to be warm. Milwaukee and Shorewood, Wisconsin are very, very cold. He doesn't like it. And that lands him in Phoenix, Arizona, as he described in a graduation ceremony in 1999. I put my worldly goods in my 1941 Studebaker Champion Coupe and drove to Phoenix by way of my hometown in Milwaukee. Phoenix is something of a frontier town. As I came out of the mountains to the northeast and descended to the Salt River Valley, I saw a thermometer on a bank which registered 110 degrees. The streets emanating out of the main part of town are still unpaved.

15:22John A. Jenkins:Rehnquist joined a small private practice. He's already coming to Phoenix with his conservative philosophy fully baked. Like many other cities across the country at that time, Phoenix was reckoning with Jim Crow laws and an emerging civil rights movement. And Rehnquist was part of a new conservative voice that pushed back. When the Phoenix City Council passed an anti-discrimination ordinance, he wrote a letter to the editor and spoke at the meeting. He got noticed. And he was effective.

15:59John A. Jenkins:Rehnquist was encouraged to get involved with politics, and that meant extra scrutiny of voters in precincts that lean Democrat. Republicans believe that many of them were voting illegally. We in the Republican Party think that it is un-American for persons to attempt to vote in violation of the law. We are surprised that your party does not desire to manifest the same interest in correcting illegal voting procedures.

16:30Tova Wang:I charge the Republicans with using Mississippi tactics in Arizona to try to thwart the minority vote in the state.

16:37John A. Jenkins:Republicans said some people used vacant lots to register their addresses, or they hadn't lived in Arizona long enough to vote. So to challenge these voters. They would target mailings, they would say from Democratic precincts, but they were very predominantly communities of color. And if the mail came back as undeliverable, they would send challengers to the polls to challenge their eligibility.

17:00Tova Wang:Which brings us to November 6, 1962. Election Day. Voters lined up at an elementary school named after civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune. The precinct was predominantly Hispanic and Black.

17:20John A. Jenkins:Two white Republican voter challengers, one of whom was allegedly Rehnquist, I'm quoting now, confronted Black and minority voters at the Bethune School voting precinct on November 6, 1962.

17:33Tova Wang:This is Tova Wang.

17:34John A. Jenkins:I am the director of research projects in Democratic practice at the Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School. and I've written a book called The Politics of Voter Suppression, Defending and Expanding Americans' Right to Vote.

17:48Tova Wang:We asked Tova to read excerpts from an FBI background investigation that was requested for Rehnquist's confirmation onto the U.S. Supreme Court.

17:56John A. Jenkins:They displayed a card with an excerpt from the Constitution and asked blacks and minorities to prove they were literate by reading the excerpt aloud. We the people. The allegation was that he was showing up himself at polling places and challenging voters. In order to form a more perfect union. Asking them to read. Establish justice. The activity discouraged the black voters who then did not vote. Blessings of liberty. As the day progressed, Democratic poll watchers became incensed and telephoned party officials and law enforcement personnel, many of whom arrived at the scene and attempted to dissuade the Republican challengers.

18:36John A. Jenkins:Finally, a scuffle ensued and the Republicans departed.

18:40Tova Wang:The Arizona Republic called it a flurry of fists.

18:46John A. Jenkins:William Rehnquist doesn't seem to have been involved in a scuffle. He would later deny it, but said he would sometimes show up at precincts and provide counsel as an attorney. Under Arizona law, the different political parties were allowed to send delegates to the polls to challenge voters who they suspected were voting illegally. But election officials were the sole judges of a voter's qualification. So the question was, were Arizona Republicans going too far to challenge voters?

19:19John A. Jenkins:Voter intimidation and interfering with someone's right to vote, if it crossed the line into that, then it was a problem. And according to one FBI interview, the plan was to clog polls in heavily minority Democratic precincts. by sending an army of challengers to the polling place at peak voting periods and thereby intimidate some voters and scare them away from voting or frustrate voters by causing such a time delay that they would give up and leave without voting.

19:49Tova Wang:What was happening in Phoenix, Arizona was a field test for something much bigger, an operation that would be launched two years later during a presidential election.

20:04Tova Wang:Coming up, the strategy to challenge voters goes national.

20:20Hey, this is Douglas from Arizona, and you're listening to ThruLine from NPR.

20:27John A. Jenkins:This message comes from Thumbtack. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin? Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. Ten years ago, Colin Kaepernick took the knee during the national anthem, and it cost him his NFL career. He's rarely talked about it since.

21:04John A. Jenkins:Now he tells the story of that decision and why he still trains every day to play. But I am not at the point of accepting I will never step on a field again. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get fresh air.

21:17Tova Wang:How do products end up on big box shelves? Well, we at Planet Money pitch the Planet Money board game. I'm trying not to think how much of a big deal it is and how much work has gone into.

21:28John A. Jenkins:It's really big. Is it helpful if I remind you how big it is? It's sort of the whole thing.

21:33Tova Wang:We go inside the minds of the people who decide what goes on store shelves. Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

21:44John A. Jenkins:From this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man.

21:58Tova Wang:Part 2. Operation Eagle Eye.

22:02John A. Jenkins:Together we will win.

22:10Tova Wang:While William Rehnquist was making a name for himself in Republican circles in Phoenix, another Arizona man had been rising through the ranks.

22:20John A. Jenkins:I accept your nomination with humbleness, with pride, and you and I are going to fight for the goodness of our land. Thank you.

22:35Tova Wang:Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona before it was even a state. He had run his family's department store before running for the Senate in the 1950s and had become a popular voice advocating individual freedoms, limiting the federal government's power, and he launched the modern conservative movement.

22:55John A. Jenkins:They say Barry Goldwater is against civil rights.

22:58Tova Wang:He opposed social welfare programs and believe school integration should be left to the states.

23:04John A. Jenkins:Laws are not the whole answer. The real answer is in the hearts of men.

23:08Tova Wang:In 1964, when he was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, he became the foil to the Democrats' Lyndon Baines Johnson.

23:18John A. Jenkins:A strong voice, a clear choice. Goldwater.

23:25Tova Wang:Goldwater and Rehnquist were part of the so-called Arizona Mafia. a small political powerhouse that had made a name for itself within the Republican Party. And there was a lot at stake. LBJ was promoting the Great Society, which was a radical government plan to end poverty and racial injustice. Earlier in 1964, the 24th Amendment was ratified, outlawing taxes as a condition for voting in federal elections. And the Civil Rights Act would be passed that summer.

23:57John A. Jenkins:Rehnquist convinces Goldwater that he should oppose the Civil Rights Act that is going to become law, and he should vote against it in the United States Senate. Now, in this summer of 1964, the Civil Rights Bill is the law of the land. In the words of the president, it restricts no one's freedom so long as he respects the rights of others.

24:26John A. Jenkins:The momentum was in the Democrats' favor heading into the election. But the National Republican Party had a plan. It would become known as Operation Eagle Eye. The director of Eagle Eye, Charles Barr, told the media, including the New York Times, that he expected to challenge or deter from voting 1.25 million voters all across the country. Republicans had already claimed that the 1960 election, four years earlier, was stolen. Operation Eagle Eye was the response. It was the same blueprint Rehnquist and his Republican colleagues were accused of using in Phoenix, dating back to at least 1958. Send mailers to Democratic precincts.

25:08John A. Jenkins:If the mail got kicked back, challenge those potential voters at the polls. The Republican Party was not at all hiding what they were trying to do at the time. So on the day of the 1964 presidential election, the New York Times reported Republican officials saying 100 ,000 trained Republican workers were in 35 key cities across the country. Operation Eagle Eye was underway. Voters by the hundreds, perplexed and downright scared, were snarled yesterday in partisan poll watching Miami Herald. You may have heard of something called Operation Eagle Eye. This is a campaign ad that Democrats released before the 1964 election.

25:48John A. Jenkins:Well, a better name for it would be Operation Evil Eye. Mexicans and Negroes complained to elections officials that they had received anonymous phone calls warning them of challenges at the polls. The New York Times. It has been launched in nearly every state in the union. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was asked to investigate handbills distributed today in Negro precincts. To create delays, confusion, and fear. Well-dressed persons will not be challenged. Warning, you may be voting illegally. Only the kind of guy you can buy for a buck or a bottle of boots. Washington Post. I hope you will not be one of its victims.

26:29John A. Jenkins:By this time, Goldwater's vote against the Civil Rights Act at William Rehnquist's urging had become a symbol of just how far right his conservative values were. Even within his own party, Goldwater was seen by some as too extreme, and Republicans started abandoning him, but not Rehnquist. Now he's basically screwed up because of the instructions and tutoring that he's been getting from this great constitutional expert, William Rehnquist. And so by the time of the election, there's only a few people that are helping address stamps and raise money and so forth. And Rehnquist is the guy. Just to be clear, Operation Eagle Eye did not deliver Goldwater to the presidency.

27:17John A. Jenkins:The voice of the people was heard in the land. 68 million citizens of the United States go to the polls to exercise their cherished franchise, and an overwhelming mandate is handed to Lyndon Baines Johnson, who becomes 36th president of the United States. The man who was thrust into office through the hand of tragedy...

27:36Tova Wang:Goldwater loses, big time. Rehnquist writes his concession speech.

27:42John A. Jenkins:Congratulations on your victory. I will help you in any way that I can toward achieving a growing and better America and a secure and dignified peace. The role of the Republican Party will remain in that temper.

27:55Tova Wang:Goldwater went back to the Senate and was re-elected until he retired in 1987. The run for president marked the height of his national fame. But William Rehnquist was nowhere near the pinnacle of his.

28:12John A. Jenkins:Here's the thing that I think is important to know. William Rehnquist was a very complex human being. He does not care what anyone else thinks of him. He is willing to be defeated on an issue rather than compromise in a belief that later he will be able to prevail.

28:48Tova Wang:Rehnquist was playing the long game. He was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 at just 47 years old. During his confirmation hearings, the allegations of voter suppression came up, but there wasn't enough evidence to support them. Then in 1986, when he was being confirmed for chief justice, new witnesses stepped forward, including a former assistant U.S. attorney named James Brosnahan, who, along with an FBI agent, was called to the Arizona precinct.

29:20John A. Jenkins:I saw William Rehnquist, who was known to me as an attorney practicing in the city of Phoenix. He was serving on that day as a challenger of voters. That is to say, the conduct and the complaints had to do with his conduct.

29:37Tova Wang:Even with the new eyewitness accounts, it was their word against Rehnquist.

29:42John A. Jenkins:As to harassing or intimidating, I certainly do categorically deny. Any time, any place.

29:49Tova Wang:William Rehnquist served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years until his death in 2005. When he was chief justice, more federal laws were struck down than any previous court. He was considered one of the most successful chief justices ever, all while staying true to his conservative values. In 2000, he was part of the majority that voted to end the Florida election recount, handing a presidential victory to Republican George W. Bush.

30:23John A. Jenkins:Today, Phoenix, Arizona, where William Rehnquist rose through the ranks of conservative politics, has changed a lot. Maricopa County has been one of the fastest growing counties in the country, and its diversity helped flip the state for Joe Biden in 2020. Since then, Maricopa County has been at the center of election fraud conspiracies. Arizona is refusing to remove illegals from voter rolls. A cauldron for conspiracies and misinformation. They think that this election is being stolen. And the story about Rehnquist challenging voters in Phoenix that went national with Operation Eagle Eye has become like many stories about mass voter challenges across the country.

31:07John A. Jenkins:700 ,000 challenges to voters across the country so far. A mass voter challenge lawsuit in Georgia was dismissed. Will there be voter fraud? All of a sudden, in certain states, they found all these votes.

31:19Tova Wang:The Pigpen Project that's filing all of these mass challenges in the state of New Orleans.

31:23John A. Jenkins:Thousands of voter registrations in Denton County. Eagle AI, or as its founder calls it Eagle Eye, is software developed by a Columbia County, Georgia doctor named John W. Rick Richards Jr. Eagle Eye promises to streamline and speed up the process, creating challenges at volume. There has been no evidence to support claims by Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen or that Democrats stuffed the ballot box with illegal votes.

31:54Tova Wang:And still throughout 2026, President Trump continues to push claims of fraud, along with new voting rules like restricting mail-in ballots. 80 to 90 percent of Arizonans vote by mail. something Arizona's attorney general fought hard to stop.

32:12John A. Jenkins:Dates run our elections, period. And that's why we sued the federal government. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected President Trump's push

32:24Tova Wang:for new restrictions on mail-in ballots. The court's decision, 50 days before Election Day, didn't rule the strategy unconstitutional and left the door open for future attempts at restrictions. say, in 2028. Coming up, we go to Michigan to see how people in one immigrant community built power in another way.

32:55Tova Wang:I'm Audrey Sparshu from Detroit, Michigan, and you're listening to ThruLine. I love your show. Thank you for helping us to make sure we don't forget about things that have happened in the past.

33:06John A. Jenkins:This message comes from Thumbtack. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin? Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Hey, what's your problem? No, seriously. Are your grocery bills too high? Are you spending too much time on your phone? Maybe you're searching for a new job, or you're trying to figure out how to set boundaries with your family.

33:43Whatever's on your mind, Life Kit has you covered,

33:46Tova Wang:with three episodes every week on health, money, mental health, and so much more. Listen to the Life Kit podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

33:57John A. Jenkins:The Emmys were a big night for a lot of shows we really love. The Pitt and Pluribus picked up awards and Widows Bay really cleaned up. We'll tell you why we're quite happy with your crop of winners in a recap on Pop Culture Happy Hour. Listen via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

34:14Tova Wang:This November, Michigan voters will decide a key Senate race, a must win for both sides. Talk to me. What do you see? Democrats need to net four seats to win back the Senate. We know this. Can they get a 51 seat majority without Michigan? The outcome could sway the balance of power in Washington.

34:32John A. Jenkins:For the math and for the morale, if you will, and for the moment, Michigan's critically important.

34:37Tova Wang:Michigan flipped for Trump in 2016. It flipped to Biden in 2020. And then back to Trump in 2024. This midterm election, the state is living up to its battleground reputation. Arab Americans aren't the biggest voting bloc in Michigan. Around 400 ,000 residents identify as having Middle Eastern and North African ancestry. But these are numbers that can decide the state. Democrats lost 22 ,000 Arab American votes in 2024. And that impacted the results of the race. Now that voting bloc could swing back. And notably on the ballot, one of their own. They could send the first Arab American to the Senate.

35:18Tova Wang:The work the state's Arab Americans have done to build political power began decades ago, in the neighborhoods and factories that helped make the state reliably democratic for years, where labor organizing laid the groundwork for political organizing.

35:54Tova Wang:Ismail Ahmed arrived in the U.S. at 10 years old aboard a massive overseas freighter that he was working on. The ship had come from Egypt, and when it docked in New York City...

36:05John A. Jenkins:He walked off that ship. Nobody asked him a question.

36:09Tova Wang:This is his son speaking, also named Ismail Ahmed. By the 1950s, Ismail's father had moved the family to Detroit because what they had found in Michigan was community.

36:25Tova Wang:When the Ahmed family arrived, thousands of Arab Americans already lived in the Detroit area. Many of them landed in Dearborn, which is 20 minutes outside of Detroit, in a neighborhood called the South End. And as this small community grew in numbers, it would also grow its political power.

36:47John A. Jenkins:The South End neighborhood is this little sliver of land sandwiched between the Ford Rouge factory and the city of Detroit. ...in what is now the city of Dearborn to build the crown jewel of American industry, the Ford Rouge plant.

37:08John A. Jenkins:It was the largest industrial complex in the world. You can see it from miles away. At its height, it had 90 ,000 workers.

37:18Tova Wang:Ismail Ahmed is a longtime activist in Dearborn and the co-founder of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.

37:27John A. Jenkins:You would put glass and steel at one side and out would come cars, full-blowing cars.

37:37Tova Wang:The factory was the whole reason a community had blossomed in Dearborn. In the 1920s, when it opened, it drew people from across the country.

37:46John A. Jenkins:And if you were newly arrived to America and you were told that, you know, you could make$5 a day, you know, you would get on a train and you would go to Detroit. This is Sally Howell. She's a professor of history with a focus on Arab-American studies at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. It was the auto industry that pulled these Arab Americans, just like it pulled so many other immigrants to Detroit.

38:14John A. Jenkins:Dearborn was a city of immigrants. Ismail's neighbors, a blend of Lebanese, Yemeni, Polish, Italian, Irish, and German people. Ismail was part of a thriving community that was both Arab and American. But during his childhood in the 1960s, this idyllic little slice of American life between the Rouge Factory and Detroit came under threat.

38:44John A. Jenkins:There was another company that was located just right there on the other side of the neighborhood. The Edward C. Levy Company would take the byproducts from the Ford factory and use it to make asphalt and other materials for building roads. And so this was a very successful relationship between Levy and Ford. These two companies weren't always the best neighbors to Dearborn residents. They would drive these big trucks through the south end between the factories. Open bed trucks just with this industrial waste just, you know, spewing from the top of it. People started protesting. Saying you can't drive your big trucks through here.

39:23John A. Jenkins:So the mayor of Dearborn, his administration, they were tired of the complaints of the people in this neighborhood. So City Hall thought, hey, we could kill two birds with one stone here. The city decided to rezone the neighborhood for heavy industry. Expand industry, make Ford and Levy happy, and push all the people who live there, who had been complaining, out of the South End. And so Dearborn's Arab Americans knew they had to fight back. The city would send a bulldozer to tear down a house, and you would have a human chain of women and their children blocking the street, not allowing the bulldozer to go by.

40:07John A. Jenkins:They were really trying to defend the neighborhood one block at a time or one house at a time.

40:12Tova Wang:At the same time that the South End was rallying to save their neighborhood, Dearborn's Arab autoworkers were getting active in the factories too.

40:21John A. Jenkins:But it's a sunny day in Dearborn. I started working in the Rouge plant. A brand new car eager to go is on the way to its new owners. Built to order, built to order, built to order.

40:39John A. Jenkins:I started out on the assembly line. Now, at the time that you were working, what do you remember about general working conditions? Horrible.

40:48Tova Wang:These are interviews from people who worked inside the auto plants. The state of the assembly lines was often dire.

40:56John A. Jenkins:Ten hours, seven days a week. Not even people with very severe hands, arm, leg injuries. I mean, the safety conditions don't even exist. and stays the way it is now, then the workers are going to steadily be losing life and land, and the company doesn't lose anything. And in all the plants, Arabs and African Americans had the very worst jobs. They were being discriminated against. They weren't allowed to complain or make trouble. In some ways, we always had much in common with the African American community.

41:31Tova Wang:During the civil rights movement, when Detroit was a hotbed of black activism, movements started in the factories, organized by black workers. Movements like DRUM, the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.

41:53Tova Wang:These movements wanted better working conditions and more rights for black workers. And they folded Arab auto workers into their organizing, too.

42:05John A. Jenkins:And so this alliance was formed in the factory.

42:08Tova Wang:By the 1970s, Dearborn had changed. There were now second and third generation Arab Americans. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act had loosened immigration restrictions. And conflicts in the Middle East had led more Arabs to resettle in Dearborn, including Palestinians. There were more university students from Arab countries, too. And all of these changes were, in turn, changing the resistance in the South End.

42:42John A. Jenkins:They were all resisting the city of Dearborn. That was sort of the thing that pulled everybody together. You know, this was in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, where Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai. So people sort of transposed the conflict into the neighborhood. You know, OK, so we're being displaced. Israel's occupying the West Bank and taking this territory away from us. And then here in America, the one neighborhood where we have a foothold, people are trying to take things away from us here, too.

43:19John A. Jenkins:In 1971, the community decided to take their fight to the courts. Two years later, in August 1973, a district judge in Michigan issued his ruling. The court finds that the city and its officials have taken plaintiff's property without due process of law.

43:40John A. Jenkins:It was a huge win for the community. But just a few months after the court's decision, Arab Americans and Dearborn would be rocked again. This time on a global level. It is an all-out war. On October 6, 1973, Arab forces from Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack to recapture territories that Israel had taken in the 1967 war. President Nixon has instructed Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to contact all parties involved in the fighting and try to arrange for a ceasefire. While the fighting rages in the Middle East, supporters of both sides in this country are engaging in fundraising efforts.

44:20John A. Jenkins:Back in Dearborn, the 1973 war was big news. It shot through the community like a tidal wave. Dearborn knew it had to be heard. They started organizing big demonstrations in Dearborn to call attention to what was happening overseas. And by this point, they had momentum. Ismail and other activists could build off the organizing infrastructure they created while saving the South End neighborhood. We all worked in different auto plants and agreed to put together an Arab Workers Caucus.

44:56Tova Wang:The first meeting of the Arab Workers Caucus had about 70 representatives from nearly every auto plant in Detroit. It was during this meeting they decided to focus their attention on one major action. The funding of what Ismail called the murder of their brothers and sisters back home.

45:15John A. Jenkins:The Israelis are running out of reserve weaponry, and they must turn toward the United States for assistance.

45:22Tova Wang:The Arab Workers' Caucus found out that their local UAW had bought over$300 ,000 in Israeli bonds, and the National Union owned even more. This meant that Ismail and the UAW's estimated 15 ,000 Arab members were spending money to support Israel in what they saw as a violent occupation.

45:45John A. Jenkins:So these are your dues. How is the UAW spending your money? And so a divestment was the only right thing to do.

45:57Tova Wang:They took out an ad in the Detroit Free Press. Purchase of Israeli bonds is regarded by these workers similarly as would a UAW investment in racist South Africa would be regarded by Black workers. The organizers of the Arab Workers' Caucus gained support and backing not by just focusing on what was going on in the Middle East, but also how workers in the plants were being treated. In this way, they were able to amplify their organizing power. And how did the UAW respond?

46:32John A. Jenkins:We petitioned the UAW and got no progress.

46:42John A. Jenkins:Then we found out that Leonard Woodcock, the president of the UAW, would be given a award and so decided that we would try to put together a walkout strike and with that call for a demonstration.

47:08John A. Jenkins:A call to action. Rank and file union members and their supporters are called on to participate in a peaceful assembly to protest this arbitrary purchase by the UAW of Israeli bonds on the occasion of an award ceremony for UAW President Leonard Woodcock. So they organized a wildcat strike.

47:31Tova Wang:A wildcat strike. Basically a strike by unionized workers without the permission of the union. So Ismail, along with other members of the Arab Workers Caucus, began organizing in their respective plants.

47:46John A. Jenkins:We spent over a month organizing in all of those plants.

47:51Tova Wang:And in the days leading up to the strike, workers handed out flyers and even placed ads in local newspapers.

47:58John A. Jenkins:Is the UAW leadership acting in the interest of its members? Michigan Chronicle.

48:04Tova Wang:On November 28, 1973, around 2 ,000 workers at the Dodge main plant walked out.

48:12John A. Jenkins:Now, I was laid off during that time. So I wasn't in a plant and I was outside the gate of Dodge truck. When I watched workers come out, and they weren't only Arab workers. There were Black workers, too. So it was, again, one of those situations of Black-Brown solidarity.

48:34John A. Jenkins:Later that evening, protesters gathered outside the building in Detroit, where the awards ceremony for UAW President Leonard Woodcock was taking place. No more bombs, no more bonds. Outside, about 1 ,000 Arabs picketed the building entrance, protesting the UAW purchase of some$750 ,000 in Israeli bonds. Woodcock snuck into the building through a back door to avoid the protests. While accepting his award, he announced that the UAW was trying to work with labor unions in Israel and Egypt in the hopes of bringing them together for a peaceful resolution. But later, UAW's Secretary-Treasurer, Imal Mazin, said that the Israeli bonds were a good investment.

49:20John A. Jenkins:Air protesters were aligned with communists.

49:25Tova Wang:The workers who protested and walked out of the factory put their jobs on the line, put their livelihoods at risk for this bigger political cause.

49:36John A. Jenkins:In many cases, many of the workers still didn't quite understand what was going on, to be frank, because of language issues and other things. But they took the chance anyway. I mean, it's a job-threatening. It was family-threatening for them. And yet they felt strongly enough to do it.

49:57Tova Wang:And the Wildcat strike left its mark.

50:00John A. Jenkins:I think for two reasons. One, it was big enough. So it would have meant the mass firing of, you know, critical workers. And also, they didn't want to make a bigger deal out of this than it already was. And so after that, we began to talk more with the UAW. Leadership changed. And I think convinced them that, yes, they should get rid of the bonds. The UAW did sell off some of its bonds. It didn't sell them all. And their wildcat strike was so successful that they really did become a threat to the leadership of the UAW in the period. In fact, an Arab American became the president of the UAW. It was an incredibly empowering moment in the history of Arab American activism.

51:00John A. Jenkins:It was the Arab community becoming its own and being recognized as a political force. They started running for city council. They started running for the school board. they started demanding that the city pay attention to the needs of their newly arriving immigrant community.

51:24Tova Wang:In 2023, Dearborn became the first Arab-majority city in the U.S. Over a half-century, Ismail Ahmed watched his community become a driving political force, not just in Dearborn, but across the entirety of the state and now the country.

51:44John A. Jenkins:There's not a ticket in Michigan that doesn't have an Arab American on it, ever. It's just part of the formula.

51:53Tova Wang:And in June this year, by a vote of 321 to 287, the UAW passed a resolution to officially divest from Israel, fulfilling a demand first made by Arab American auto workers almost 60 years ago. A divestment Ismail Ahmed did not live to see. He died in January at the age of 79.

52:24Tova Wang:And that's it for this week's show. On our next episode, the DSA is having a political moment. But is it the left wing of the possible that its founder envisioned? The story of the revolutionary socialist turned Democratic Party loyalist who dreamed up the DSA. Don't miss it. I'm Randa Abdufattah, and you've been listening to Throughline from NPR. This episode was produced by Mian Ramteen and...

52:53John A. Jenkins:Lawrence Wu.

52:54Tova Wang:Julie Kane. Anya Steinberg. Casey Miner. Christina Kim.

52:58John A. Jenkins:Devin Kadiyama.

52:59Tova Wang:Sarah Wyman. Rachel Horowitz. Lina Mohamed. Julia Redpath. Molly Marcelo. Liana Simstrom. Irene Noguchi. Thank you to Johannes Dergy, Nina Puchalski, Puneet Motiwala, Edith Chapin, and Colin Campbell.

53:17John A. Jenkins:Thanks also to the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Maryland.

53:23Tova Wang:Voice-over work in this episode was done by Devin Katayama, Emily Muir, Kenny Colston, Jonathan Bastion, Sandia Dirks, Ryan Muzzy, Sarah Wyman, Lauren Swoo, and Anya Seinberg.

53:37John A. Jenkins:Fact-checking for this episode was done by Kevin Vocal. The episode was mixed by Maggie Luthar.

53:44Tova Wang:Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band, Drop Electric, which includes...

53:54John A. Jenkins:And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, write us at throughline at npr.org. Thanks for listening.

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