posts and bio
Brad Sommer
Brad Sommer is a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University studying working-class and radical history. He received his MA from the University of Cincinnati and his BA from the University of Toledo. His MA thesis, which partially inspired this piece, was entitled “From Fifteen to Ten Thousand: The Electric Auto-Lite Strike of 1934 and the Alternative Unionism of Toledo, Ohio.”
It has been 81 years since the workers of the Toledo Electric Auto-Lite Company went on strike. A modest but extremely profitable auto parts company, Auto-Lite had gained a level of success before and during the Depression as a major supplier of parts to Ford and Chrysler.
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