In late 1967, Herbert Hill, labor director for the NAACP, visited Wayne State University in Detroit to conduct oral histories with African American men and women on their experiences in the labor movement. Between 1967 and 1970, Hill, with local interviewers Roberta McBride, Jim Keeney, and Norman McRae, completed numerous interviews in Detroit. Hill also visited New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Berkeley for several additional interviews to round out what would become known as the Blacks in the Labor Movement Oral History Project. The collection consists of transcripts of oral history interviews. The primary focus is on the experiences of African American men in the automobile industry in and around Detroit, from as early as the 1910s to the late 1960s. Some women were interviewed and discuss their varying labor experiences, including work in the garment industry and the compounded effects of racial and sex-based discrimination. Pullman workers were interviewed as well. Significant events affecting the local automobile industry and the city of Detroit are also touched upon, including the 1943 and 1967 race riots, as well as racial discrimination in aspects of day-to-day life such as housing. Notable among the interviews were those conducted with Robert "Buddy" Battle, Horace Sheffield, and Shelton Tappes, pioneering African Americans in the automobile industry and in the United Automobile Workers in Detroit. Their reminscences include accounts of internal conflict within the UAW on racial issues. Brief descriptions of each individual interviewee and interview topics are available upon request.