Forgotten : the Murder at the Ford Rouge Plan is the Labor jazz opera composed by Steve Jones. The opera tells the dramatic stories of workers’ struggles to organize unions during the Great Depression in the 1930s. With memorable songs and a story of struggles, setbacks, and triumphs, it builds on the real-life story of Reverend Lewis Bradford, a Methodist minister who went to Detroit to work in the Howard Street Mission, a shelter for homeless and unemployed workers. Bradford started a weekly radio show, “The Forgotten Man’s Hour,” where workers could share their stories, on station WXYZ. The program became a counterpoint to Father Charles Coughlin’s right-wing radio program on a rival station.
Bradford, who took a job at Ford’s River Rouge plant in nearby Dearborn, was found fatally wounded one night in a remote part of the plant. While the company said his injury was an accident, his widow and other family members and co-workers were convinced that anti-union forces had targeted him for his organizing efforts.
Some 65 years later Bradford’s great nephew, Steve Jones, an award-winning jazz composer and musician in Washington DC, found a copy of the original autopsy report and took it to the county medical examiner who said, after reading it, that Bradford‘s death should not have been ruled an accident, but more likely was the result of homicide. Jones then proceeded to write 25 songs about work at the Rouge, the organizing struggles of the 1930s, and the fight for justice. His songs and story evolved into Forgotten.
Forgotten : the Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant performed to rave reviews. The production was directed by Elise Bryant; Bill Meyer was the musical director. The play saluted the founding of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the CIO.
Forgotten was performed at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, Silver Spring, Md. (2003) and in the Detroit area at Marygrove College (2004), Millenium Theatre (2005) and at Macomb Community College (2010). The Detroit cast also performed for the 2004 Machinists Union (IAM) Convention in Cincinatti. In 2004 students at Macalester College presented Forgotten in St. Paul, Minn.
A CD of the live performance at Millenium Theater is available at
By Dave Elsila, 2010 (edited). Dave was the former editor of UAW Solidarity from 1976 to 1998.
