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(Note: When posted yesterday, the third and last, the Packard incident link, was to the wrong URL. Now remedied.)

In light of today's holiday, below is some too often overlooked automotive history, including a smart, classy move made by Cadillac alone. The simple, immutable fact is that Cadillac made a wise marketing move ahead of all other luxe automakers.

It is not enough to shrug the below off with, "Well, that's the way it was back then." Or, "Everyone thought that way."
Because, as you'll see, one man at Cadillac did not see it "that way," to Cadillac's everlasting benefit.

So, out of respect for the dark-hued men who helped build our cars, our fellow car buffs with tans, and for the sake of decency, on this national holiday, Martin Luther King Day, a good time to look at the below:

Nicholas Dreystadt and GM, Cadillacs and African-Americans ...
https://blackdaffodill.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/nicholas-dreystadt-and-gm-cadillacs-and-african-americans/ Feb 5, 2010 ... "So. I have always vaguely wondered about the rather unique love-affair between African-Americans and the Cadillac. I stumbled across this ..."

The Man Who Saved The Cadillac - Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/30/1930s-auto-industry-business-cadillac.html May 1, 2009 ... .".... of its strategy to capture that market was its refusal to sell to African-Americans. ... In June of 1934 Nick Dreystadt was made head of the Cadillac Division. ... But for that cruel fate the whole history of the American automobile ..."

This Day in Labor History: June 6, 1943 - Lawyers, Guns ...
http://206.190.45.150/search/srpcache?p=packard+race+strike+1943&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002&fr=yhs-mozilla-002&u=http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=packard+race+strike+1943&d=4901907948244767&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=XLI83PaTEyS1ISx505hOzCUC2iRUB07K&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=CQxxl5wDodFuVwIWksoGow--

"On June 6, 1943, nearly 30 leaders of the Packard Hate Strike in a United Auto Workers-organized plant in Detroit were suspended from their jobs.

After the U.S. entry into WWII, the federal government took over all private industries capable of producing war material. This meant for the duration of the war no more cars would be produced. The world famous Packard Motor Car Company was humming 24/7 with the vital production of the giant Rolls-Royce aircraft engines and twelve cylinder Packard marine engines used to power PT boats.
While the UAW hierarchy outwardly supported integration of its work force, its rank and file did not. Whites didn't mind so much that blacks worked in the same plant, but they refused to work side by side with them. Three weeks before the riot, Packard promoted three blacks to work on the assembly line next to whites. The reaction was immediate and swift. A plant-wide hate strike resulted as 25,000 whites walked off the job, bringing critical war production to a screeching halt. A voice with a Southern accent barked over the loudspeaker, 'I'd rather see Hitler and Hirohito win than work next to a N*.'
Although the matter was rectified within a few days by relocating the black workers, the wheels were quickly coming off Mayor Jeffries' wagon. Detroit was spinning out of control and on a collision course with disaster."

Some time in the winter of 1959-60, I was a high school Freshman from a Blue Collar neighborhood who went to a private Catholic school, somewhat above our family's status. On cold winter mornings, my friends and I would wait at the bus stop hoping to spot some passing motorists who would take pity on us, shivering in our school jackets and give us a ride in a warm car.

One of our school friends came from a family with whispered Underworld connections. His father was always well-dressed and drove a new Olds Ninety Eight. When they'd stop, we'd load in as many boys who could fit, and rode in comparative luxury through the school gates. On one of those cold, but lucky rides, the father was asked by his son as to why he didn't choose to have a Cadillac, since the Olds cost nearly that much. Using language that we don't use today, the father explained that a Cadillac was the choice of Negroes, while White business men and doctors should choose a Roadmaster, Ninety Eight or New Yorker. Had it not been five years after the last true Packards were made, they might have been included on the select list.

Some time later, I asked my Chevrolet-driving father about the Cadillac theory that I had overheard. Pop's business included employees of all sorts of talents, colors and ethnicities. Pop never wanted to drive the best car in the lot, so we mostly had Chevies, although he could have afforded better. A few years later, Pop switched to senior Buicks when business got better, but he never owned a Cadillac. Not wanting to bring up the subject, I never asked why. He did, once mention that one of his best employees, a Black man, had bought a used DeVille, and kept it as the cleanest car on the lot.