Ford Strikers Riot is a 1941 photograph that shows an American strikebreaker getting beaten by United Auto Workers (UAW) strikers who were picketing at the Ford Motor Company 's Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan . Milton Brooks , a photographer for The Detroit News , captured the image on April 3, 1941, and it won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1942. The photograph has been called a portrayal of the struggle in America between capital and labor. During the incident, a peaceful picketing of the Ford Motor Company was interrupted when a single man clashed with the UAW strikers. The man ignored the advice of the Michigan State Police and crossed the picket lines. Brooks, who was waiting with other photojournalists outside the Ford factory gates, took only one photograph and said: "I took the picture quickly, hid the camera ... ducked into the crowd ... a lot of people would have liked to wreck that picture."