The trim department of the Chrysler Corporation's Dodge Main Plant in Hamtramck, Michigan, was an unlikely spot for carnival. It was a massive space-it covered two floors, each 1,080 feet longbut it seemed much smaller, its cramped walkways filled with boxes of material, its windows blackened with paint and years of dirt. The congestion was intensified by the 750 men and women who worked there each shift, applying roofs, molding, body chrome, windshield wipers, instrument panels, and other final parts to the car chassis moving inexorably down the line. Production quotas were high, and many workers struggled to keep up the pace. On the last day of production before Christmas, though, plant management lifted the burdens of industrial labor. Though the line kept moving, workers were welcome to celebrate the holiday in their own fashion. Alcohol flowed freely as the entire trim department foremen and everybody, according to a participant wish[ed] their Christmas tidings as the year's work well done. In 1955, the celebration fell on December 22.1 The incident began innocently enough. James Major, a thirty-five-year-old African American, and Catherine Young, a Caucasian.probably in her late twenties, regularly worked together installing hard tops and side chrome. About halfway through their shift that evening, they managed to get ahead of their production quota. As she had many times before, Young suggested that she and Major move