By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva
Downriver Detroit developed during the 20th century as an industrial region, but it was never just an industrial space.
Alongside factories and working-class neighborhoods, there were wetlands, waterfront areas, nature preserves, farms and residential communities with different types of environments that shaped the region.
A close connection to the Detroit River and the everyday life of working communities shaped a region where industry and the natural environment were constantly intertwined.
This complex relationship lies at the heart of Lisa Fine’s new book, “Downriver Detroit: The Working Class, the Environment and the Bonds of Place” (University of Illinois Press, $30).
Fine, a history professor at Michigan State University, became interested in the relationship between the working class and the natural environment while working on her previous book, “The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin and Community in Autotown USA.”
During that time she noticed how important the outdoors – and especially hunting – was to the lives of working-class communities.
“I started this project almost 20 years ago. My research and writing were delayed by a range of professional and personal commitments. Over time, I came to understand one simple but very important thing: Downriver working communities were never separated from the environmental issues of the region,” she said.
“On the contrary, their everyday lives, work and family interests often shaped their relationship with the outdoors and their involvement in local environmental initiatives,” Fine said.
Her new book explores the importance of place, space and the natural world in shaping working class identity in Downriver Detroit.
Attachment to the river, landscape and local cities shaped not only everyday life, but also people’s willingness to protect the environment, resist the challenges of deindustrialization and sustain their communities.
“During my research, I became increasingly focused on the intersection of labor and environmental history. Engagement with the field of labor geography and the work of other scholars influenced my decision to focus on the role of place, space, and the natural world in the lives of the working class in a specific region,” Fine said.
For working families who had lived in Detroit and its suburbs for generations, nature was never an abstract concept.
Hunting, fishing, boating and outdoor recreation were part of everyday life and cultural identity.
“This book is inspired by the goal to break the myth that working people do not care about the environment because they care more about jobs. My book and other work in this field show that this is not the case,” she said.
As the region grew throughout the twentieth century, people living there built a strong working-class community.
Automobile factories, steel plants, the chemical industry and related manufacturing sectors provided employment for generations of Downriver Detroit residents.
For many families, these industries became the foundation of economic stability and the opportunity to remain in their region, shaping their ability to stay connected to the places they called home.
According to Fine, residents understood that industrial development brought not only jobs, but also pollution of water, air and soil.
But they were never passive observers.
On the contrary, many workers came to see a clean environment as a right and the region itself as a form of heritage that needed to be protected.
The book also provides an example of how this attachment to place led workers to buy their own company in response to their factory’s closure as a way to preserve jobs and their way of life.
The author also highlights the role of labor unions in the region.
In particular, the activities of three organizations – the United Auto Workers (UAW), the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers and the United Papermakers and Paperworkers – were especially significant.
According to Fine, a notable case occurred in 1957, when the three unions became the only official organizations to oppose the construction of a nuclear power plant north of Monroe, Michigan.
“This is a very important example because the unions were not objecting to the development of nuclear energy. They just did not want a potentially dangerous and experimental plant located near where they lived and worked. They took the case to the Atomic Energy Commission and ultimately to the Supreme Court, where they lost,” Fine said.
Moreover, the UAW played an active role in the environmental movement and can be considered one of the organizations that helped shape its beginnings through Earth Day in 1970.
The union was also involved in numerous efforts to clean up water and air pollution in the region.
Similarly, the steelworkers’ union worked on health and safety issues in the post-World War II era and, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, joined broader efforts to fight pollution.
At the same time, environmental activism in the region did not emerge only through unions and labor organizations.
One of the earliest and most striking examples outlined in the book describes a protest where thousands of oil-covered ducks that died as a result of pollution in the Detroit River were left in front of the Capitol building in Lansing, symbolizing the consequences of industrial pollution in the region.
“This incident took place in 1948 and was organized by the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, which included many working-class sportsmen. They wanted legislators and the governor to see them as they walked into the building to vote on an environmental bill. Their main goal was to preserve ducks and their habitat for hunting purposes,” Fine said.
The history of Downriver Detroit remains relevant today as the region faces questions of environmental justice, climate transition and industrial change.
The experience shows that meaningful and lasting change is possible only when local residents, whose lives, work and culture are deeply connected to the place, are actively involved.
“Downriver Detroit is both unique and similar to other regions,” Fine said. “It is unique because of its natural environment, resources, and industrial history, but it also reflects the experiences of many working-class communities in the twentieth century that faced the need to support families, balance work and pollution and preserve jobs and communities in the face of economic change.”