"A man came up behind Henry Ford with an axe and was going to kill him. William Perry grabbed the axe out of the man's hands and then Mr Ford said, you have a job with me for life, and he did - until the day he died."
Excerpt from the oral reminiscences of Irene Johnson, neighbour of William and Melinda Perry.
William Perry's friendship had a significant influence on Henry Ford and the hiring of African-Americans at the Ford Motor Company. In later years, Henry used the metaphor of having shared a cross cut saw with William Perry, to explain his belief that African-Americans and whites should work together in harmony, with "The coloured man (sawing) at one end of the log and the white man at the other. "
This is a story of William Perry's life and adventures before and after this historic encounter with Henry Ford.
Although the story is fictionalized, the facts are true.