Shelton Tappes

Shelton Tappes (March 27, 1911 – April 19, 1991) was an American labor organizer and civil rights activist, known for his role in drafting and negotiating the anti-discrimination clause included in the first contract (May 1941) between Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers (UAW.)

Personal life Shelton Tappes was born March 27, 1911, in Omaha, Nebraska. After finishing high school, he attended the University of Nebraska for one semester, before moving to Detroit with his family.

His wife Louise Tappes was also politically active; the activist Women's Public Affairs Committee of 1000 (WPAC) she co-founded in 1964 included Rosa Parks among its members.

Career Shelton Tappes began working for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1928, first at their Briggs plant and later at the River Rouge plant. In 1932, Tappes took part in the Ford Hunger March, where unemployed auto workers tried to present a petition to Henry Ford but were dispersed by gunfire from police and Ford's security team; five marchers died from their wounds. Tappes, who worked in the River Rouge foundry, helped to organize the union's foundry unit and became its first chairman. Furthermore, many feared that Black workers were being asked to risk their jobs but would be "pushed aside and ignored" once the union had secured their votes. The foundry unit headed by Tappes became the UAW's Local 600, at that time "the largest concentration of unionized black workers in the nation."

When the UAW negotiated its first contract with Ford Motor Company, Tappes was a member of the union negotiating team. Clause #78 of that first contract was an anti-discrimination clause that has been described as "important", In 1944, after serving three terms as recording secretary, he was defeated in an election. Tappes later told the House Un-American Activities Committee that Communist Party activists in the 50,000-member CIO Ford Local 600 union had warned him in 1942 that he would lose their support if he refused to join the party.

The UAW then hired him as an "authority on contract interpretation and grievance procedure."