title: Amelle Berrabah

text: Following Mutya Buena's departure from Sugababes, Berrabah was brought in as a replacement by the group's management. Their manager had seen Berrabah perform at an American showcase a few years prior in 2003 and Berrabah had impressed him. As soon as Buena left, he gave Berrabah a call about the opportunity and got her to record three songs to audition for remaining members Keisha Buchanan and Heidi Range. They liked the demos and Berrabah was then announced as the newest member of the trio. The first single to feature Berrabah's vocals, "Red Dress", entered the UK Singles Chart at number four. "Taller in More Ways" was re-released in early 2006 with re-recorded vocals by Berrabah. Because of the hastiness of the replacement, she could only re-record vocals for three of the tracks on the album. She also contributed the song, "Now You're Gone" to the new track listing. They performed the 2007 Comic Relief single with fellow girl band, Girls Aloud, "Walk This Way", which went to number one. On 28 April 2007, Berrabah was arrested over allegations that she had assaulted a girl on the dancefloor in a club. No charges were brought.


title: Amelle Berrabah

text: The first single from their album "Change", the Dr. Luke-produced "About You Now", topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. In October 2007, "Change" became the group's second UK Albums Chart number one, giving the group the top position on the singles and albums charts simultaneously. Berrabah was credited with co-writing five songs on the album. Berrabah was arrested again on 10 January 2008 on suspicion of causing criminal damage and a public order offence. The arrest was made in connection with an alleged attack on a car in her hometown of Aldershot on 9 January 2008. The charges were quickly dropped when it was revealed that she was not even in town at the time. Despite announcing a break after the Change tour, the group quickly began working on "Catfights and Spotlights", which was released in late 2008 and became their lowest charting album at the time.


title: Amelle Berrabah

text: After the commercial disappointment of "Catfights and Spotlights", the group began working on the album "Sweet 7", signing with Roc Nation and working with their in-house producers in the US. Around this time, Berrabah also featured on "Never Leave You" by Tinchy Stryder in 2009, the single debuted at number one in the UK. The first single, "Get Sexy", from "Sweet 7" was released soon after and reached number 2 on the UK charts. Prior to shooting the video for the second single, RedOne production "About a Girl", Berrabah was rumoured to have left the group. She had missed two engagements promoting the album. It was later revealed that in fact Buchanan had been removed due to disagreements with Berrabah and Range, and replaced by Jade Ewen. Berrabah and Range had earlier quit the Sugababes claiming that they could not work in the group any longer, their management then retained them and removed Buchanan instead. Following these events, Berrabah checked into a European health clinic for a three-week stay, citing "severe nervous exhaustion". "Sweet 7" was released in early 2010 after multiple delays from late 2009. It charted at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Amelle Berrabah

text: The Sugababes began recording a new studio album soon after, leaving Island Records for a distribution deal with RCA Records in 2011. The planned first single, "Freedom" was released for free in August after it failed to gain any traction in airplay. A few months after the release, Range explained that the Sugababes were taking a break while they pursued individual endeavours.


title: Amelle Berrabah

text: Berrabah began working on solo material in 2011 with producer Pete Kirtley, who had previously produced her co-writing contribution, "Now You're Gone" from "Taller in More Ways" and material by Boo2. In January 2012, Berrabah confirmed she had been working on a solo album. A clip of the song "God Won't Save You Now" was posted to the SoundCloud account of Kirtley and fellow producer Sacha , who are collectively known as D-B-X. The full song leaked a few weeks later. On 6 March 2012, it was reported Berrabah had gone to Los Angeles to record new material for the album. Berrabah was featured on the song "Ordinary Me" by rapper Mr. Bigz on the latter's mixtape "The Bigz Bang Theory" in late 2012.


title: Amelle Berrabah

text: In May 2013, Berrabah confirmed she had nearly completed work on her solo album, and was looking to release the collection some time in the summer. Berrabah had earlier stated that she had written every song on the album apart from two. Berrabah teamed up with British DJ Adam J for his single "Love (Is All We Need)", and featured production team The Nightcrashers. Berrabah released another single, "Summertime", on 21 September 2014. The video premièred on Vevo on 9 August. During this time, Berrabah also made a series of appearances on reality competitions, competing in the BBC celebrity gymnastics show "Tumble" in mid-2014 and "Celebrity Masterchef" in 2016. She made her theatre debut in 2019, with the jukebox musical "Club Tropicana".


title: Amelle Berrabah

text: Berrabah married Marcio Sousa Rosa on 17 October 2014 and the couple filed for divorce in 2020. They share a daughter, Amirah Hope.


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: Park Hoon-jung () is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Park first attracted notice within the Korean film industry for writing the screenplays for Kim Jee-woon's "I Saw the Devil" (2010) and Ryoo Seung-wan's "The Unjust" (2010). He made his debut as a director in 2011 with the period film "The Showdown". With his second film, gangster epic "New World" (2013), Park scored a critical and commercial success.


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: Park Hoonjung went to natural science department in College. In the middle of his college years he enlisted to mandatory military service. He then applied for a noncommissioned officer and was discharged as a sergeant five years later. After five years of military leave, he naturally dropped out of college.


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: At the time of his discharge, he participated in a game scenario contest held by the Venture Association, which was when he was elected and joined a game company as a special recruit. However, the company changed its business course to something else. Park then started another game company with the people he worked with, but the business didn’t go well. In the meantime, he was elected to a synopsis contest hosted by Sidus HQ. That's when Park entered the movie business.


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: He made his breakthrough as a screenwriter for writing the screenplays for Kim Jee-woon's "I Saw the Devil" (2010) and Ryoo Seung-wan's "The Unjust" (2010). The two films released in 2010 imprinted the name of 'Park Hoon-jung' in Chungmuro."I Saw the Devil" was released in South Korea on August 12, 2010. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2011. It also received screenings at several other international film festivals, including the Fantasporto Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival and the London Korean Film Festival. The movie received mostly favorable review from international movie critics.


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: "The Unjust" has screened at numerous film festivals around the world, including the Panorama section of the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival, the New York Asian Film Festival, the Fantasia Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Vladivostok International Film Festival - Pacific Meridian, the Sitges Film Festival, the London Korean Film Festival, and the Udine Far East Film Festival. Park won many awards from his screenplay for "The Unjust" (2010).


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: His directorial debut was "The Showdown" in 2011. Since then, he has been praised for pioneering a new path for Korean-style noir with "New World".


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: His subsequent works "" and "V.I.P." were disappointing in terms of box office success. In particular, "V.I.P.", which was released in 2017, portrayed excessive violence against women.


title: Park Hoon-jung

text: In 2016 he founded a film production company, 'Geumwol'. The name of the production company is derived from the Chinese characters for the criminal organization 'Goldmoon' in the movie "New World". Park said, “There are many well-known works, but not many successful works,” said that he set up the company “to do the work he wanted to make” and “to not feel sorry for the production company when it didn’t do well.”


title: Mars One

text: Mars One was a small private Dutch organization that received money from investors by claiming it would use it to land the first humans on Mars and leave them there to establish a permanent human colony. From its announcement in 2012 to its bankruptcy in early 2019, it is estimated to have received tens of millions of dollars. The organization was not an aerospace company and did not manufacture hardware.


title: Mars One

text: Mars One consisted of two entities: the not-for-profit "Mars One Foundation", and the for-profit company "Mars One Ventures" which was the controlling stockholder of the for-profit Interplanetary Media Group that also managed the broadcasting rights. The Mars One Foundation, based in the Netherlands, managed the project. The small organization had four employees, and intended to make profits by selling media (documentaries) about the personnel selection, training and colonization. The first mission was estimated by its CEO Bas Lansdorp to cost about $6 billion as of the 2010s.


title: Mars One

text: The concept had been criticized by scientists, engineers, and those in the aerospace industry as glossing over logistics and medical concerns, and lacking critical concepts about hardware. The concept had been called a suicide mission by academia, the spaceflight industry, and international news. On 15 January 2019, a court decision was settled to liquidate the for-profit company, bankrupting it in the process.


title: Mars One

text: Mars One's original concept included launching a robotic Mars lander and Mars orbiter as early as 2020, to be followed by a human crew of four in 2024, and one in 2026 which would not be returning to Earth. Although the announcement garnered much international publicity, the concept has been criticized by scientists, engineers, and those in the aerospace industry. Mars One is noted as being very short on funding, lacking critical concepts about hardware, life support, electrical power supply, and has been criticized as glossing over logistics, medical concerns, and protection against space radiation. The concept has been called a suicide mission in academia, spaceflight, and international news.


title: Mars One

text: By February 2015, two conceptual studies were done by contractors. Despite the criticism and lack of funding, about 2,700 people applied to become one of the 24 finalists "to settle Mars".


title: Mars One

text: In December 2013, Mars One announced its concept of a robotic precursor mission. Originally scheduled for launch in 2020, the roadmap called for the launch to occur in 2022. If funded, the robotic lander would be "built by Lockheed Martin based on the design used for NASA's "Phoenix" and "InSight" landers, as well as a communications orbiter built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd." In February 2015, Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology confirmed that contracts on the initial study phase begun in late 2013 had run out and additional contracts had not been received for further progress on the robotic missions. Plans were set in motion to raise the needed to support the initial robotic mission, but some critics did not find the economic plans to raise money from private investors and exclusive broadcasting rights to be sufficient to support the initial, or follow-on, mission(s).


title: Mars One

text: Mars One selected a second-round pool of astronaut candidates in 2013. Mars One received interest from over 200,000 applicants for the first round. However, as candidate Joseph Roche asserted, the number of initial applicants who completed the application process was only 2,761, which Mars One later confirmed via YouTube video. The second-round pool was whittled down to 705 candidates (418 men and 287 women) in the beginning of May 2014. 353 were removed due to personal considerations. After the medical physical requirement, 660 candidates remained. The third round of candidate selection concluded in 2015. The remaining 100 candidates, known as The Mars 100, consisted of 50 men and 50 women who were slated to move forward to the next round, where 40 individuals would have been chosen through an interview process.


title: Mars One

text: On 30 June 2014, it was made public that Mars One was seeking financial investment through a bidding process to send company experiments to Mars. The experiment slots would go to the highest bidder and would include company-related ads, and the opportunity to have the company name on the robotic lander that was proposed to carry the experiments to Mars in 2018.


title: Mars One

text: In a video posted on 19 March 2015, Lansdorp said that because of delays in funding the robotic precursor mission, the first crew would not set down on Mars until 2027. Following the criticism reported in "The Space Review" in October 2016 about funding mechanisms, Mars One created Mars One Ventures. In late 2016 Mars One had changed its first crewed mission date to 2032.


title: Mars One

text: In December 2013, mission concept studies for a robotic Mars lander were contracted with Lockheed Martin for a demonstration mission concept. It would be based on the design of the successful 2007 NASA "Phoenix" lander, and provide proof of concept for a subset of the key technologies for a later human settlement on Mars. Upon submission of Lockheed Martin's Proposal Information Package, Mars One released a Request for Proposals for the various payloads on the lander. The total payload mass of 44 kg was divided among the seven payloads as follows:


title: Mars One

text: A robotic rover was proposed to be launched to Mars in 2022, in order to scout a landing site for the 2027 lander and a site for the Mars One colony. At the same time, a communication satellite would be launched, enabling continuous communication with the future landed assets. For 2024, six cargo missions were proposed, in close succession, consisting of two living units, two life-support units, and two supply units; a spacecraft transporting four astronauts was proposed to meet a transit vehicle bound for Mars. For 2025, the landing module transporting four astronauts was proposed to land on Mars. They envisioned the crew to be met by the rover, and taken to the Mars One colony.


title: Mars One

text: Work on robotic missions was suspended pending further review and future contract direction in February 2015.


title: Mars One

text: The Mars One team consisted of Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Bas Lansdorp, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder Arnold Wielders, Chief Medical Officer Norbert Kraft, Mission Concept Artist Bryan Versteeg, Senior Marketing Strategist KC Frank, and Chief Information Officer Tom Van Braeckel.


title: Mars One

text: Mars One's team of advisers consisted of over 30 industry and scientific experts, including Mason Peck, Peter Smith, James R. Kass, K.R. Sridhara Murthi, Esther Dyson, and Robert Zubrin.


title: Mars One

text: Mars One was not an aerospace company and would not have manufactured hardware. Lansdorp had assumed all major components would be available in the aerospace market, and had said Mars One had identified at least one potential supplier for each component of the mission.


title: Mars One

text: SpaceX mentioned in 2014 that they had been contacted by Mars One, but that accommodating Mars One requirements would require some additional work and that such action was not a part of the current focus of SpaceX. SpaceX had no contracts with Mars One. The first Mars One cargo mission to Mars was proposed to launch by 2022, followed by a crewed mission in 2024, but without funds, hardware, and without a launcher it did not happen.


title: Mars One

text: A hypothetical crewed interplanetary spacecraft, for which there were no concept design studies, was to have been assembled in low Earth orbit and comprise two propellant modules: a Transit Living Module (discarded just before arrival at Mars) and a lander (see "Human Lander" below). In 2012, Mars One speculated that the Transit Living Module might potentially be designed and built by Thales Alenia Space.


title: Mars One

text: A concept study was produced by Lockheed Martin for a demonstration lander based on the 2008 "Phoenix" lander.


title: Mars One

text: In December 2013 Mars One awarded a contract to Surrey Satellite Technology for a study of the satellite technology required to provide 24/7 communication between Earth and the Mars base. Mars One proposed at least two satellites, one in areostationary orbit above Mars and a second at the Earth – Sun L4 or L5 point to relay the signal when Mars blocks the areosynchronous satellite from line of sight to Earth. It is possible that a third satellite would be required to relay the signal on the rare occasions when the Sun blocks the first relay satellite from line of sight with Earth.


title: Mars One

text: An early notional crewed lander was shown in concept art as a -diameter variant of SpaceX Red Dragon, but SpaceX declined to collaborate with Mars One.


title: Mars One

text: The crewed Mars rover was to have been unpressurized and claimed to be designed to be capable of supporting travel distances of 80 km (50 miles). One mentioned supplier for the rover in 2012 was Astrobotic Technology.


title: Mars One

text: On 12 March 2013, Paragon Space Development Corporation was contracted to develop concepts for life support and the Mars Surface Exploration Spacesuit System, and it included the pressure suit and the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) that could have permitted survival outside the habitat. The suggested supplier of the suits was ILC Dover. The study was stated to be finished late summer 2013; Mars One released the results of this (ECLSS portion only) study to the public in June 2015, but did not fund its research and development.


title: Mars One

text: In 2013, Mars One signed a contract with Paragon Space Development Corporation, for a preliminary life support system concept study based on the International Space Station. The idea was criticized because that system, as modern as it is, requires significant maintenance and supplies not available while on Mars.


title: Mars One

text: The application was available from 22 April 2013 to 31 August 2013. This first application consisted of applicant's general information, a motivational letter, a résumé and a video. More than 200,000 people expressed interest. By 9 September 2013, 4,227 applicants had paid their registration fee and submitted public videos in which they made their case for going to Mars. The application fee varies from US$5 to US$75 (the amount depending on the relative wealth of the applicant's country).


title: Mars One

text: The applicants selected in this round were declared on 30 December 2013. A total of 1,058 applicants from 107 countries were selected. The gender split was 586 males (55.4%) and 472 females (44.6%). Among the people that were selected to move on to round two, 159 have a master's degree, 347 have bachelor's degrees and 29 have Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degrees. The majority of the applicants are under 36 and well educated.


title: Mars One

text: Medically cleared candidates were interviewed, and 50 men and 50 women from the total pool of 660 from around the world were selected to move on to the third round of the astronaut selection process:


title: Mars One

text: Applicants were remotely interviewed and recorded by Mars One over a relatively short Skype/SparkHire call regarding Martian-related orbital, temp/pressure, geological and historical parameters and the specific elements of the Mars One one-way mission. Joseph Roche, one of the finalists, has accused the selection process of being based on a point system that is primarily dependent on how much money each individual generated or gave to the Mars One organization, despite many of the round three selectees having not spent any money in the process, apart from the application fee, which varied as a function of each applicant's country GDP. Lansdorp acknowledges a "gamification" point system but denies that selection is based on money earned. Roche also stated that if paid for interviews, they are asked to donate 75% of the payment to Mars One. This was confirmed by Lansdorp.


title: Mars One

text: The company had intended that the regional selection may be broadcast as a reality television show documenting group challenges, but no deal was reached with TV producers. The audience was to select one winner per region, and the experts could select additional participants, if needed, to continue to the international level. Of the 100 candidates, 40 individuals were to be chosen through an interview process. Round 3 would take place after enough funding is secured for an "Earth-based simulation outpost."


title: Mars One

text: The remaining 40 candidates would be spending nine days in an isolation unit. The candidates are observed closely to examine how they act in situations of prolonged close contact with one another. It takes a specific team dynamic to be able to handle this, and the goal of this selection round is to find those that are best suited for this challenge. After the isolation round, 30 candidates would be chosen to undergo in a Mars Settler Suitability Interview.


title: Mars One

text: The Mars Settler Suitability Interview would have measured suitability for long-duration space missions and Mars settlement, and would last approximately 4 hours. 24 candidates would be selected after the interview and would be offered full-time employment with Mars One.


title: Mars One

text: From the previous selection series, six groups of four were to become full-time employees of the Mars One, after which they were to train for the mission. An MIT team noted that since the company is not developing the technology needed, it is unclear what the astronauts would be training for. Mars One has stated that the teams selected were going to undergo a battery of training, ranging from psycho-social skills to engineering and scientific observation.


title: Mars One

text: Mars One funding came from astronaut application fees, donations, undisclosed private investment, intellectual property (IP) rights, and mostly, the potential sale of future broadcasting rights. Over three-quarters of the funds reportedly went to concept design studies. Mars One states that "income from donations and merchandise have not been used to pay salaries". To date, no financial records have been released for public viewing. Mars One initially estimated a one-way trip, excluding the cost of maintaining four astronauts on Mars until they die, at US$6 billion. Lansdorp has declined questions regarding the cost estimate.


title: Mars One

text: A proposed global reality-TV show was intended to provide funds to finance the expedition, however, no such television show emerged and no contracts were signed. The astronaut selection process (with some public participation) was to be televised and continue on through the first years of living on Mars.


title: Mars One

text: Discussions between Endemol started in June 2014, producers of the "Big Brother" series, and Mars One ended with Endemol subsidiary Darlow Smithson Productions issuing a statement in February 2015 that they "were unable to reach agreement on the details of the contract" and that the company was "no longer involved in the project." Lansdorp updated plans to no longer include live broadcasts, but instead would rely on documentary-style short films produced by the company Stateless Media.


title: Mars One

text: On 31 August 2012, the company announced that funding from its first sponsors were received, and that the funds were used mostly to pay for two conceptual design studies performed by aerospace suppliers Lockheed Martin (lander) and Surrey Satellite Systems (orbiter).


title: Mars One

text: On 3 March 2014 Mars One announced a working agreement with Uwingu, stating that the program would use Uwingu's map of Mars in all of their missions.


title: Mars One

text: Since the official announcement of their conversion to a "Stichting" foundation, Mars One began accepting donations through their website. As of 4 July 2016, Mars One had received $928,888 in donations and merchandise sales. The 2016 donation update adds the Indiegogo campaign ($313,744) to the private donation and merchandise total.


title: Mars One

text: On 10 December 2013, Mars One set up a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help fund a 2018 demonstration robotic mission that was not built. The alleged 2018 mission would have included a lander and a communications satellite to prove technologies in addition to launch and landing. The campaign goal was to raise US$400,000 by 25 January 2014. Since the ending date was drawing near, they decided to extend the ending date to 9 February 2014. By the end of the campaign, they had received $313,744. Indiegogo received 9% ($28,237).


title: Mars One

text: Trading of the shares of Mars One Ventures AG, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, was suspended on 5 February 2019 for non-compliance with the FSE regulations when the number of shares was increased in 2017. In February 2019, it was reported that Mars One had declared bankruptcy in a Swiss court on 15 January 2019, and was permanently dissolved as a company. The total debt is approximately €1 million.


title: Mars One

text: Mars One received a variety of criticism, mostly relating to medical, technical and financial feasibility. There were also unverified claims that Mars One was a scam designed to take as much money as possible from donors, including reality show contestants. Many criticized the project's US$6 billion budget as being too low to successfully transport humans to Mars, to the point of being delusional. A similar project study by NASA estimated the cost of such a feat at US$100 billion, although that included transporting the astronauts back to Earth. Objections had also been raised regarding the reality TV project associated with the expedition. Given the transient nature of most reality TV ventures, many believed that as viewership declined, funding could significantly decrease, thereby harming the entire expedition. Further, contestants reported that they were ranked based on their donations and funds raised.


title: Mars One

text: John Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University, criticized the program, saying it appeared to be a scam and not "a credible proposition".


title: Mars One

text: Chris Welch, director of the Masters Programs at the International Space University, said "Even ignoring the potential mismatch between the project income and its costs and questions about its longer-term viability, the Mars One proposal does not demonstrate a sufficiently deep understanding of the problems to give real confidence that the project would be able to meet its very ambitious schedule."


title: Mars One

text: Gerard 't Hooft, theoretical physicist and ambassador to Mars One, has stated that he thought both their proposed schedule and budget were off by a factor of ten. He said he still supported the project's overall goals.


title: Mars One

text: A space logistics analysis conducted by PhD candidates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that the most optimistic of scenarios would require 15 Falcon Heavy launches that would cost approximately $4.5 billion. They concluded that the reliability of Environmental Control and Life Support systems (ECLS), the Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), and in situ resource utilization (ISRU) would have to be improved. Additionally, they determined that if the costs of launch were also lowered dramatically, together this would help to reduce the mass and cost of Mars settlement architecture. The environmental system would result in failure to be able to support human life in 68 days if fire safety standards on over-oxygenation were followed, due to excessive use of nitrogen supplies that would not then be able to be used to compensate leakage of air out of the habitat, leading to a resultant loss in pressurization, ending with pressures too low to support human life. Lansdorp replied that although he has not read all the research, supplier Lockheed Martin said that the technologies were viable.


title: Mars One

text: Another serious concern uncovered in the research conducted by MIT was replacement parts. The PhD candidates estimated the need for spare parts in a Mars colony based on the failure rates of parts on the ISS. They determined that a resupply mission every two years would be necessary unless a large space in the initial launch were to be reserved for extra materials. Lansdorp commented on this saying, "They are correct. The major challenge of Mars One is keeping everything up and running. We don't believe what we have designed is the best solution. It's a good solution."


title: Mars One

text: In March 2015, one of the Mars One finalists, Joseph Roche, stated to media outlets that he believed the mission to be a scam. Roche holds doctorate degrees in physics and astrophysics, and shared many of his concerns and criticisms of the mission. These claims include that the organization lied about the number of applicants, stating that 200,000 individuals applied versus Roche's claim of 2,761, and that many of the applicants had paid to be put on the list. Furthermore, Roche claimed that Mars One was asking finalists for donations from any money earned from guest appearances (which would amount to a minimal portion of the estimated $6 billion required for the mission). Finally, despite being one of 100 finalists, Roche himself never spoke to any Mars One employee or representative in person, and instead of psychological or psychometric testing as is normal for astronaut candidates (especially for a lengthy, one-way mission), his interview process consisted of a 10-minute Skype conversation.


title: Mars One

text: In April 2015, Mars One's CEO Bas Lansdorp admitted that their 12-year plan for landing humans on Mars by 2027 was mostly fiction.


title: Mars One

text: Robert Zubrin, advocate for crewed Martian exploration, said "I don't think the business plan closes it. We're going to go to Mars, we need a billion dollars, and we're going to make up the revenue with advertising and media rights and so on. You might be able to make up some of the money that way, but I don't think that anyone who is interested in making money is going to invest on that basis – invest in this really risky proposition, and if you're lucky you'll break even? That doesn't fly." Despite his criticisms, Zubrin became an adviser to Mars One on 10 October 2013.


title: Mars One

text: Canadian former astronaut Julie Payette said during the opening speech for an International Civil Aviation Organization conference that she did not think Mars One "is sending anybody anywhere".


title: Mars One

text: In January 2014, German former astronaut Ulrich Walter strongly criticized the project for ethical reasons. Speaking with Tagesspiegel, he estimated the probability of reaching Mars alive at only 30%, and that of surviving there more than three months at less than 20%. He said, "They don't care what happens to those people in space... If my tax money were used for such a mission, I would organize a protest."


title: Mars One

text: Space tourist Richard Garriott stated in response to Mars One, "Many have interesting viable starting plans. Few raise the money to be able to pull it off."


title: Mars One

text: Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin said in an interview that he wants to see humans on Mars by 2035, but he does not think Mars One will be the first to achieve it.


title: Mars One

text: "Wired" magazine gave it a plausibility score of 2 out of 10 as part of their 2012 Most Audacious Private Space Exploration Plans.


title: Mars One

text: The project lacked current funding as well as sources for future funding. The organization had no spacecraft or rocket in development or any contracts in place with companies that could provide a spacecraft or rocket. While plans point to SpaceX for both resources, the company had no contracts with Mars One in an industry that typically plans contracts decades in advance.


title: JR Motorsports

text: JR Motorsports (pronounced "Junior Motorsports") is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, CARS Tour, and occasionally in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. The team is based in Mooresville, North Carolina, co-owned by former NASCAR Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Kelley’s husband and former racer L.W. Miller, and the owner of his former Cup Series team, Rick Hendrick. As of 2022, the team fields four full-time entries in the Xfinity Series: the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro SS full-time for Sam Mayer, the No. 7 Camaro full-time for Justin Allgaier, the No. 8 Camaro full-time for Josh Berry, and the No. 9 Camaro full-time for Brandon Jones. The team also fields the No. 88 Camaro part-time for team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr..


title: JR Motorsports

text: JR Motorsports began in a shed on the property of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. in 1998 with just one employee, as the marketing division of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race team. The original intent of the business was to help Earnhardt Jr. sell T-shirts and negotiate sponsorship deals. It wasn't until 2002 that Earnhardt Jr. turned the business into a race team when T. J. Majors drove street stock division at Concord Motorsport Park in North Carolina. Upon Earnhardt Jr.'s signing with Hendrick Motorsports, the Hendrick and JR Motorsports Nationwide Series teams were merged.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The first win for the team came at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA, in 2004. (At the time, Earnhardt Jr. was co-owner of another racing venture, Chance 2 Motorsports.) JR Motorsports in its current form, competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series started in 2006 when sponsorship from the United States Navy funded the team. The team originally wanted to open in 2007, but the Navy sponsorship accelerated the operations.


title: JR Motorsports

text: In early 2019 it was announced that JR Motorsports had formed a driver development program with GMS Racing, Drivers Edge Development, to train young drivers. Drivers in the program would race in JR Motorsports' Late Model and NASCAR Xfinity Series teams, as well as GMS Racing's NASCAR K&N Pro Series, ARCA Menards Series, and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series teams. JR Motorsports drivers Noah Gragson, Zane Smith, Sam Mayer, and Adam Lemke were among the inaugural members of the program.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On April 11, 2021, Earnhardt Jr. hinted that JR Motorsports may move up to the Cup Series, given the proposed savings associated with the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022. The challenges for the team are acquiring a charter and securing sponsorship for a Cup program.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On August 24, 2022, Director of Competition Ryan Pemberton parted ways with JR Motorsports after working with the team since 2012. On September 1, Mike Bumgarner was announced as Pemberton's replacement.


title: JR Motorsports

text: It was announced in late 2015 that Elliott Sadler would drive the new No. 1 OneMain Financial Chevy, replacing Chase Elliott as he moved up to take over the No. 24 replacing Jeff Gordon. Sadler started the season with a fourth-place finish in the season opener at Daytona. He would win three races in 2016 and ended up finishing second in the overall standings after a controversial restart with less than ten laps remaining at Homestead that cost Sadler and his teammate, Justin Allgaier, a shot to win the title. In 2017, Sadler didn't win a race but ended up finishing 2nd in points behind only teammate William Byron.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On September 25, 2018, Noah Gragson was announced as the new driver of the No. 1 after Sadler announced his retirement earlier that year; However, on January 25, 2019, it was announced that Michael Annett would drive the No. 1 car with the points from the 5 car going over to the 1 car while Gragson would drive the No. 9 car. Annett scored his first career victory at Daytona International Speedway in the NASCAR Racing Experience 300. Annett returned to JRM in 2020 and qualified for the playoffs. He was eliminated after the first round. In July 2021, Annett missed the races at Atlanta and New Hampshire due to a stress fracture in his right femur. Austin Dillon served as his replacement in the No. 1 for Atlanta, while Josh Berry did so for New Hampshire. On October 6, 2021, Annett announced his retirement from Full Time racing.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Sam Mayer was announced the new full-time driver of the No. 1 on January 4, 2022. He started the season with a 30th place finish at Daytona and scored four top-five finishes in the first 10 races. On May 3, crew chief Taylor Moyer was suspended for four races due to a tire and wheel loss at Dover. Andrew Overstreet was announced as the crew chief of the No. 1 for Darlington.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The No. 5 car joined in 2008 as part of the merger with Hendrick Motorsports' Nationwide teams. It was driven by Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Mark Martin, Landon Cassill, Ron Fellows and Adrian Fernandez, with sponsorship from Lowe's (Johnson and Fernandez), National Guard (Truex Jr, Earnhardt Jr and Cassill), Delphi, (Martin) and Godaddy.com (Earnhardt Jr and Fellows). The No. 5 car won two races in 2008, with Martin at Las Vegas and Ron Fellows in Montreal, the first NASCAR race run in the rain.


title: JR Motorsports

text: In 2011, the 5 car returned as JR Motorsports' 3rd entry, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ron Fellows running a handful of races part-time. The car returned in 2012 once more with Dale Jr. and Fellows driving, and Regan Smith would win the Ford 300 after announcing his addition to the team. Ron Fellows would nearly win a few races at Road America in 2011 & 2012, and then at Watkins Glen in 2012 before running one last race for the team in the inaugural race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2013. Fellows would part ways with the team at year's end, due to a sponsor conflict related to NAPA Auto Parts joining the team for 2014.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The car was originally slated for Smith in 2013, but he was moved to the No. 7 when Jr's Cup teammate Kasey Kahne and USAC driver Brad Sweet signed to drive the No. 5 with sponsorship from Great Clips.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On Monday, October 14, 2013, JR Motorsports announced that Kevin Harvick would begin driving the No. 5 car in at least 12 races for the 2014 season. In four of the races, the car was sponsored by Hunt Brothers Pizza. Super Late Model driver Austin Theriault drove the car in a three races for the team starting at Iowa. JR development driver Josh Berry drove two races starting at Iowa in August. For 2015, the No. 5 was driven by Kahne in a single race at Charlotte as a 4th team car, where he finished 3rd.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Michael Annett drove the car full-time in 2017 with Pilot Flying J as the sponsor en route to a 9th-place finish in the standings as well as earning a career-best 2nd-place finish at Road America.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On January 25, 2019, it was announced that Annett would be piloting the No. 1 car with the points from the 5 car going over to the 1 car with the 5 car being shut down.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The team fielded the No. 7 with Danica Patrick driving about 12 races for JR Motorsports with GoDaddy.com sponsorship in 2010. The remainder of the schedule was filled out with Scott Wimmer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Landon Cassill, Steve Arpin, Josh Wise and J. R. Fitzpatrick. Patrick recorded a best finish of 4th at Las Vegas. Wise returned to the team for 2011, recording three top tens and one top-five in fourteen starts. Earnhardt Jr. drove the car at Talladega, and Cup drivers Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Jamie McMurray drove the car for a combined six starts that season.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Danica Patrick returned to the No. 7 in 2012, this time running a full schedule with sponsorship from GoDaddy, Tissot, and Hot Wheels. Patrick departed JR Motorsports to compete full-time in the Cup Series for the 2013 season.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Regan Smith, a former teammate to Dale Earnhardt Jr. at DEI who served as his substitute driver in the Cup Series late in 2012, was signed to drive for the team in 2013. Initially announced to drive the No. 5 car, he would be moved to the No. 7. Smith won twice at Talladega and Michigan, but suffered a run of bad luck in the summer and finished third in points. In 2014, Regan Smith returned to drive the No. 7 car, starting the season with a win in the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona. From there, he would go on to help JRM complete a one-two points finish behind Chase Elliott. In 2015, Regan Smith returned to the No. 7 full-time. He also gained two victories including Mid-Ohio and Dover. Following the Kansas race, Smith stated that he will not return for JR Motorsports in 2016.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Justin Allgaier would be later announced to be the new driver of the No. 7 Chevy, bringing sponsorship from BRANDT. After finishing the 2016 season 3rd in the final standings while going winless, he picked up two wins at Phoenix and Chicagoland in 2017 en route to another 3rd-place finish in the standings. In 2018, Allgaier had a career-best season winning 5 races at Dover, Iowa, Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Indianapolis while also clinching the regular-season championship, but he ended up finishing 7th in the final standings after being eliminated in the round of 8. At the second-to-last race of the 2019 season at Phoenix, Allgaier had possibly been set to finish 2nd for the sixth time of the year until he suddenly witnessed race leader Christopher Bell getting flagged for speeding on pit road at the end of Stage 2, nabbing his 1st victory of the season and 3rd Championship 4 appearance in the last four years after leading 85 laps. He finished 4th in the final points standings after finishing 14th at Homestead. In 2020 Allgaier rebounded from a sluggish first half of the season to win 3 races at Dover and sweeping the Richmond races. He would make the final four and would finish 2nd in points to Austin Cindric. In 2021 he won twice early in the season at Atlanta and Darlington and finished the season fifth in points. In 2022, Allgaier ended a 34-race winless streak at Darlington. He would also win at Nashville and New Hampshire.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The No. 8, long driven by Earnhardt Jr. during his early Cup career with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., became a JRM number in 2019 after acquiring it from B. J. McLeod Motorsports. The team inherited the No. 1 car points and it was shared by Zane Smith, Brett Moffitt, Jeb Burton, Ryan Truex, Ryan Preece, Regan Smith, and Sheldon Creed. Elliott and Earnhardt returned to the car for one-off races at Daytona and Darlington, respectively. For 2020, Jeb Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Daniel Hemric all share the No. 8 for 2020 with Hemric doing a majority of the driving.


title: JR Motorsports

text: After driving the No. 8 car for 12 races in 2021, on August 16, 2021, it was announced that Josh Berry will drive the car full-time in 2022. He began the season with a 16th place finish at Daytona. Berry scored wins at Dover and Charlotte to make the playoffs. During the playoffs, he won at Las Vegas to make the Championship 4.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The No. 9 car made its debut in 2014, when an 18-year-old Hendrick development driver named Chase Elliott was signed to drive a fourth entry for JR Motorsports. The car was renumbered to 9, the longtime number of Chase's father Bill Elliott. In a surprise move, NAPA Auto Parts, which recently left Michael Waltrip Racing and was rumored to depart from the sport, signed on to sponsor the full season. After the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the team was revealed to have violated Sections 12–4.2 (P2 penalty) and 20A–12.8.1B (car exceeded minimum front height) of the NASCAR rulebook. As a result, crew chief Greg Ives was placed on probation until December 31. At the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300, Elliott passed teammate Kevin Harvick for his first Nationwide Series win. Elliott's second win came in the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway, where he led 52 laps. A late race caution and a slow pit stop would find Elliott restarting in 6th with just 2 laps to go. Elliott managed an outstanding feat of passing the 5 cars in front of him en route to his second win of the season. Elliott would win his third race of the season in the EnjoyIllinois.com 300 at Chicagoland Speedway after holding off Trevor Bayne. Elliott won the 2014 Nationwide Series championship, the first rookie to win a NASCAR national series championship.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On August 18, 2016, William Byron and Hendrick Motorsports announced a multi-year driver development agreement, with Byron running full-time in the Xfinity Series driving the No. 9 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports in 2017. It was the first time since 2014 that the No. 9 was driven by a rookie driver. At the 2017 Ford Eco Boost 300, as William Byron and Elliott Sadler were battling late, Byron took advantage of Sadler's mistake of trying to pass Ryan Preece when he was too far back, slowing Sadler and allowing Byron to pass both drivers. When Sadler tried to follow, he made contact with Preece, sending Preece sideways and Sadler into the wall. After that Byron pulled away and finished 3rd, ultimately winning the championship and Rookie of the Year honors while winning four races at Iowa, Daytona, Indianapolis, and Phoenix.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Tyler Reddick was signed to a full-time schedule for the 2018 Xfinity season, replacing William Byron, who was promoted to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. On February 17, 2018, Reddick beat teammate Elliott Sadler in a photo finish to win the season-opening race at Daytona. At a margin of .0004 seconds, it is the closest finish in NASCAR history. At the Ford EcoBoost 300, Reddick took advantage of pitting while leader Cole Custer stayed longer than him and won the race while also winning the championship, joining Chase Elliott and William Byron as the third different driver to win the championship and Rookie of the Year honors in the No. 9. Despite winning the championship, Reddick opted to leave JRM for Richard Childress Racing in 2019, winning his second Xfinity championship that year before jumping to the Cup Series in 2020.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On December 18, 2018, it was announced that the No. 9 car would be driven by Zane Smith for eight races while other drivers fill out the other 25 races; however, on January 25, 2019, it was announced that Noah Gragson would drive the No. 9 car full-time while Smith will run 8 races in the new No. 8 entry. In his first year with JRM, Gragson scored no wins, but had six top-fives and 22 top-10s while finishing eighth in the points standings.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Gragson began the 2020 season with his first career win at Daytona. He also scored his second victory at Bristol. In addition, Gragson recorded 17 top-fives and 25 top-10s, finishing fifth in the points standings.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The 2021 season for Gragson began with a 32nd place finish at Daytona. His run that season was marred by six DNFs, but back-to-back wins at Darlington and Richmond put him in the playoffs for the third season in a row. Gragson won again at Martinsville and finished the season third in the standings.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Gragson began the 2022 season with a third-place finish at Daytona. He also scored wins at Phoenix, Talladega, and Pocono. At Road America, Gragson had an on-road scuffle with Sage Karam, resulting in him triggering a 13-car pileup on lap 25. He was fined 35,000 and docked 30 driver and owner points for the incident. On August 10, 2022, it was announced that Gragson would leave JRM to go drive the Petty GMS Motorsports No. 42 in the NASCAR Cup Series. At the September Darlington race, Gragson won a three-car battle with Sheldon Creed and Kyle Larson on the closing laps. He also won the next three races at Kansas, Bristol, and Texas, becoming the first driver since Sam Ard in 1983 to win four straight Xfinity Series races. Gragson won at Homestead to make his second Championship 4 appearance.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On September 14, 2022, it was announced that Brandon Jones would depart Joe Gibbs Racing and replace Gragson in the No. 9 for 2023. Jones' sponsor Menards confirmed they would follow him for the full 2023 season.


title: JR Motorsports

text: In 2006, the team fielded the No. 83 team as a part-time second car. The car was driven by Shane Huffman with sponsorship from the Make a Wish Foundation. The car returned in 2008 driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. with the US Navy sponsoring. In 2010, JR Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing announced that the number would switch from No. 83 to No. 3 with Dale Earnhardt Jr. driving the car at Daytona in July with Wrangler sponsoring the car. This was a tribute to Dale Earnhardt, being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in May. Earnhardt Jr. won the race in the No. 3 car.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The No. 88 debuted in 2005 at the Ford 300 with Mark McFarland driving with sponsorship from the United States Navy, qualifying eighteenth and finishing twentieth. McFarland was named the full-time driver and had a seventh-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, but was replaced by Shane Huffman after twenty-one races, with Martin Truex Jr. and Robby Gordon filling-in for certain races. Huffman was hired as the full-time driver in 2007, and had two top-ten finishes before he was released from the ride as well.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Brad Keselowski, son of former Craftsman Truck Series driver Bob Keselowski, was hired to replace Huffman for three races, with SCCA driver Andy Pilgrim to be in the car for the road course races in Montreal and Watkins Glen. Keselowski then returned at his hometown track Michigan. He was involved in a hard crash at Fontana, in which he was tagged by a spinning car, collided head first and then driver side with the turn 1 wall, temporarily was airborne, and then rode the guardrail while his car was on fire before coming to a stop. Keselowski was taken to a local hospital, and was later cleared to race at Richmond the next week. Keselowski finished the season with five top-ten finishes


title: JR Motorsports

text: Keselowski signed a two-year contract with JR Motorsports with the Navy returning as sponsor in 2008. He won his first race at Nashville Superspeedway and later picked up another win at Bristol Motor Speedway, finishing third in points but lost the Navy sponsorship for 2009. GoDaddy.com and Delphi Corporation sponsored the No. 88 for a total of 24 races in 2009, with Unilever brands sponsoring 11 races on the No. 88 car. Keselowski won four races and finished third in points for the second consecutive season before leaving for Penske Racing.


title: JR Motorsports

text: At the end of the 2009 season, Kelly Bires signed a two-year contract to drive for JR Motorsports in the No. 88 Chevy through 2011, with Earnhardt eager to see what Bires could do in his equipment. Bires drove the No. 5 Ragu Chevy for Junior at Homestead in preparation for running full-time in 2010. Due to sponsorship obligations with Unilever and their Hellmann's Mayonnaise brand, owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the No. 88 car at the 2010 season opener at Daytona and Danica Patrick ran the No. 7 car with her sponsor GoDaddy.com, forcing Bires to sit out. In his debut at Fontana, Bires scored a seventh-place finish. Even more curious than his missing Daytona was when Bires was removed from the No. 88 car in favor of Cup driver Jamie McMurray after only five races run, with only one finish below 17th (a crash at Las Vegas). Earnhardt Jr. cited chemistry issues between Bires, JR Motorsports management, and the team including Tony Eury Sr. and Jr., and implied that Bires was taking a seat from "the next Brad Keselowski, the next Jeff Gordon." Bires was the third young driver to be hastily removed from the 88 car. Elliott Sadler, Greg Sacks, Aric Almirola, Steve Arpin, Coleman Pressley, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ron Fellows all ran races in the car to finish out the season. The No. 88 team took home one win in 2010, with McMurray victorious in the Great Clips 300 at Atlanta. They also came close to winning the inaugural race at Road America with Ron Fellows.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Former DEI development driver Aric Almirola moved up from the Truck Series to drive the car full-time in 2011 as a part of a 2-year deal. With sponsorship from Unilever, Grand Touring Vodka, and TaxSlayer, Almirola ended up fourth in points in his first full-time season.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Almirola then left JRM after 2011 to join Richard Petty Motorsports in the Cup Series, while the No. 88 was taken by former Red Bull development driver Cole Whitt in 2012 for his rookie season. Whitt had a consistent rookie season despite switching crew chiefs from Tony Eury Sr. to Bruce Cook. Whitt recorded a best finish of 4th at Daytona, Talladega, and Michigan, finishing 7th in the point standings but lost the Rookie of the Year battle to Austin Dillon.


title: JR Motorsports

text: With the team unable to find sponsorship for Whitt for 2013, the No. 88 was used by Dale Jr. in his limited Nationwide Series schedule (to keep consistency with his Cup Series number).


title: JR Motorsports

text: Dale Jr. and Kevin Harvick drove the car for the first two races of the 2014 season before switching the owner's points to the No. 5. In 2015 the No. 5 team became the No. 88 team, and was driven by Dale Jr. in 4 races, Kevin Harvick in 12 races, Kasey Kahne in 7 races, and Ben Rhodes in 10 races. On April 23, 2016, Dale Earnhardt Jr. piloted the No. 88 to victory at Richmond International Raceway, his first Xfinity win in six years and first with JR Motorsports.


title: JR Motorsports

text: It was announced in late-2016 that the No. 88 would be downgraded to a part-time ride for 2017 for Earnhardt Jr. and Kahne.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Chase Elliott drove the No. 88 in the 2018 season opening race at Daytona. Despite being black flagged after losing a window, he still managed to finish 12th. Earnhardt Jr. raced the car at the Federated Auto Parts 250 in Richmond, where he led a race-high 96 laps before finishing in fourth place. Impressed by his finish, Earnhardt Jr. said he will try to run another race in the 2019 season.


title: JR Motorsports

text: With Josh Berry driving the 8 full-time in 2022, Earnhardt Jr. opened a fifth part-time entry for himself at Martinsville and for Miguel Paludo at three of the road courses. Three Hendrick Motorsports drivers: Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Kyle Larson drove the No. 88 at select races. Elliott did not qualify for the Darlington spring race, which marked the first time that team did not qualify. Byron finished second at Texas and 26th at New Hampshire. Larson won at Watkins Glen after Byron (driving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17 entry) and Ty Gibbs spun off-course while fighting for the lead during the final restart.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On January 12, 2015, JR Motorsports announced that Haas Racing Development driver Cole Custer would drive a truck for the team in 10 races in 2015, marking the team's first foray into the Camping World Truck Series. Trucks were acquired from former Hendrick development partner Turner Scott Motorsports after that team ceased operations. The team operated out of a satellite facility in Mooresville, North Carolina. The truck's number (No. 00) and sponsor (Haas Automation) both came with the team from Haas Racing.Under NASCAR's age requirement rules for the Truck Series, the 17-year-old Custer ran 10 races, all at tracks under in length (and Gateway Motorsports Park), with the team planning a full-time run in 2016 for the championship. Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, and Jeb Burton also ran races in the No. 00 truck. The No. 00 ran 15 races, winning twice: with Kahne at Charlotte in May, and with Custer at Gateway in June.


title: JR Motorsports

text: In 2016, the team fielded a second truck numbered 49 for Nick Drake, like Cole Custer a Haas Racing Development driver, beginning at Dover. The entry was fielded in a collaboration with Premium Motorsports, a fellow Truck Series team which normally runs the No. 49. Drake's paint scheme is similar to Cole Custer's, with the same Haas Automation sponsorship. In Drake's first career start at Dover, he finished a solid 16th. Drake made his second start at Iowa Speedway. The truck did not make any other starts with JR Motorsports equipment. Like the No. 00, the No. 49 was shut down due to sponsor Haas Automation leaving the team.


title: JR Motorsports

text: In 2016, JR Motorsports entered a second truck in collaboration with Contreras Motorsports for Chase Elliott in the Texas Roadhouse 200 at Martinsville Speedway


title: JR Motorsports

text: with NAPA and Valvoline as co-sponsors. Elliott started on the pole and led 109 of 200 laps before finishing in 2nd.


title: JR Motorsports

text: During a press conference at Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 16, 2008, Earnhardt stated that once the Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series started using the Car of Tomorrow chassis, which debuted in July 2010 at the Daytona International Speedway, his Nationwide teams would possibly leave the series, due to the costs of switching cars. When asked if he would move JR Motorsports to the Sprint Cup Series, Earnhardt said that due to the Xfinity Series and Sprint Cup Series almost having the same expensive costs, he might move the team to the Sprint Cup Series as early as 2009 "if the right opportunity comes along with the right sponsorship and driver...". However, JR Motorsports did not end up moving their team to Sprint Cup and has remained in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, partially due to NASCAR's Cup Series limit of four cars per team owner. Because Rick Hendrick has an ownership stake in JR Motorsports and already fields the maximum of four cars with Hendrick Motorsports, JR Motorsports cannot field an entry in the Cup Series without Hendrick releasing his interest in the team. However, on April 11, 2021, Earnhardt Jr. hinted that JR Motorsports may move up to the Cup Series, given the proposed savings associated with the debut of the Next-Gen car in 2022. The challenges for the team are acquiring a charter, not continuing their professional relationship with Rick Hendrick (as a JRM Cup team with Hendrick's involvement would max out the four-car limit of Hendrick Motorsports), and securing sponsorship for a Cup program.


title: JR Motorsports

text: JRM has competed in six ARCA Racing Series events. Landon Cassill made the team debut in 2008 driving the No. 88 Chevrolet at Daytona and finished 7th. He returned at Talladega but finished 39th due to a crash.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The team would not compete in 2009 but returned for the 2010 ARCA Racing Series' season. Danica Patrick drove the No. 7 car at Daytona and finished 6th.


title: JR Motorsports

text: The team did not run between 2011 and 2014 but returned in 2015 with Cole Custer behind the wheel of the No. 00 Chevrolet. Custer made the pole position and led 15 laps but finished 5th at New Jersey Motorsports Park. He returned at the first Pocono race but finished 24th due to an axle problem. He then returned for the second Pocono race, started 5th, and won the race, after leading 18 laps. That win was the first and only win of JR Motorsports in ARCA. That race also was the last of the team in ARCA.


title: JR Motorsports

text: JR Motorsports fields the No. 88 Chevrolet driven by Josh Berry and various other drivers in Late Models. Berry, who has driven for JRM since 2010, captured the 2012 Motor Mile Speedway championship in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, the first championship for JRM at any level, running 18 races while collecting 6 poles and 15 top 5 finishes. Berry scored a second track championship at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2014. William Byron scored a single victory to finish runner up to Berry for the NASCAR-sanctioned track championship at Hickory. Pierce, who finished second in his Camping World Truck Series debut in the Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway during the 2015 season, made his debut with JRM that year at Hickory Motor Speedway.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Christian Eckes ran the No. 1 Chevrolet for the 2016 season finishing 4th in the championship behind Berry in 3rd.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Anthony Alfredo was the Late Model development driver for the 2017 CARS Tour season, running the No. 8, and would go on to win two races and finish a close second in the championship to teammate Josh Berry.


title: JR Motorsports

text: On January 18, 2018, JRM announced the replacement of Anthony Alfredo, who announced the same day that he was moving to the K&N Series with MDM Motorsports, with 14-year-old Sam Mayer, which later on that year made his K&N Series debut and drove for MDM in his third race in the K&N Series. On August 4, 2018, Mayer will drive the 28 and Berry will drive the 73 for the throwback weekend at Hickory Motor Speedway. Mayer went on to collect one win and finish 5th in the standings behind Berry in 4th in his No. 8 Chevrolet.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Adam Lemke ran the new No. 98 in 2019 and unfortunately struggled for most of the season and finished 9th in the standings and missed two races.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Connor Mosack ran the No. 98 in the final race of 2019 and would go on to run full-time in 2020 at first in the No. 8 but would start running the No. 88 after Berry focused on an Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National Championship, he finished 6th in the standings.


title: JR Motorsports

text: William Cox III was announced to run for JR Motorsports full-time in the CARS Tour for 2021, however he was released 4 races in and was replaced by Conner Jones for majority of the remaining races. Josh Berry ran a few late model races also in 2021.


title: JR Motorsports

text: Carson Kvapil, son of former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, will run the No. 8 full-time in 2022 after closing the 2021 season for the team.


title: JR Motorsports

text: JRM's late model program has fielded rides for current NASCAR spotter T. J. Majors and Jeremy McGrath. It is currently overseen by Kelley Earnhardt Miller's husband, L. W. Miller.


title: JR Motorsports

text: In 2007, JR Motorsports supplied cars for Speed Channel's NASCAR coverage. The "Speed 1" fleet for "NASCAR RaceDay" included a superspeedway car, and car for intermediate tracks, and a Car of Tomorrow. Speed 1 was driven by Hermie Sadler.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He saw labor movements not as narrow special interest groups but as instruments to advance social justice and human rights in democratic societies. He leveraged the UAW's resources and influence to advocate for workers' rights, civil rights, women's rights, universal health care, public education, affordable housing, environmental stewardship and nuclear nonproliferation around the world. He believed in Swedish-style social democracy and societal change through nonviolent civil disobedience. He cofounded the AFL-CIO in 1955 with George Meany. He survived two attempted assassinations, including one at home where he was struck by a 12-gauge shotgun blast fired through his kitchen window. He was the fourth and longest serving president of the UAW, serving from 1946 until his death in 1970.


title: Walter Reuther

text: As the leader of five million autoworkers including retirees and their families, Reuther was influential inside the Democratic Party. Following the Bay of Pigs in 1961, JFK sent Reuther to Cuba to negotiate a prisoner exchange with Fidel Castro. He was instrumental in spearheading the creation of the Peace Corps and in marshaling support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Fair Housing Act. He met weekly in 1964 and 1965 with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House to discuss policies and legislation for the Great Society and War on Poverty. The Republican Party was wary of Reuther, leading presidential candidate Richard Nixon to say about John F. Kennedy during the 1960 election, "I can think of nothing so detrimental to this nation than for any President to owe his election to, and therefore be a captive of, a political boss like Walter Reuther." Conservative politician Barry Goldwater declared that "[Reuther] was more dangerous to our country than Sputnik or anything Soviet Russia might do."


title: Walter Reuther

text: A powerful ally of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, Reuther marched with King in Detroit, Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Jackson. When King and others including children were jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, and King authored his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, Reuther arranged $160,000 for the protestors' release. He also helped organize and finance the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, delivering remarks from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial shortly before King gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech on the National Mall. An early supporter of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, he asked Robert F. Kennedy to visit and support Chavez. He served on the board of directors for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was one of the founders of Americans for Democratic Action. A lifetime environmentalist, Reuther played a critical role in funding and organizing the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. According to Denis Hayes, the principal national organizer of the first Earth Day, "Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!"


title: Walter Reuther

text: Reuther was born on September 1, 1907, in Wheeling, West Virginia, to Anna (née Stocker) and Valentine Reuther, who were German-Americans. His father Valentine was a horse-drawn beer wagon driver and Socialist union organizer who at age 11 had emigrated from Germany. Walter was one of five children, oldest to youngest: Ted, Walter, Roy, Victor, Christine. Valentine would facilitate debates every Sunday for his sons, training them to think on their feet about social issues of the day such as yellow journalism, child labor, women's suffrage, and civil rights. Reuther later recalled, "At my father's knee we learned the philosophy of trade unionism. We got the struggles, the hopes and the aspirations of working people every day." As a child, he and Victor accompanied their father on a visit to a jail to meet Eugene V. Debs, who was being incarcerated for his pacifism during World War I.


title: Walter Reuther

text: The Reuthers were frugal and learned not to waste. To save money, Walter's mother Anna would make underwear for her sons out of used flour sacks. When Valentine was partially blinded by an exploding bottle, Walter began doing odd jobs to bring in family income at the age of nine. He later dropped out of high school during his junior year and worked in a local factory to help support the family. He learned firsthand about inadequate worker safety when a 400 pound die that he and three other men were lifting fell and severed his big toe.


title: Walter Reuther

text: From an early age, the Reuther boys received lessons on racism. One day they saw local boys throwing rocks at black people being transported north through their hometown in open railways cars. Their father gave them a stern warning to never treat another human being like that. The Reuther boys never forgot that lesson, spending the rest of their lives fighting for racial and economic equality for all people.


title: Walter Reuther

text: In 1927, at the age of 19, Reuther left Wheeling for Detroit and argued himself into an expert tool and die maker job at Ford Motor Company that required 25 years experience. The foreman was baffled that at his young age he could read blueprints and dies, becoming one of the highest paid mechanics in the factory. He finished high school while working at Ford and enrolled at Detroit City College, which is today known as Wayne State University. In 1932, he was fired for organizing a rally for Norman Thomas who was running for President of the United States as the nominee for the Socialist Party of America. His official Ford employment record states that he quit voluntarily, but Reuther himself maintained that he was fired for his increasingly visible socialist activities. Regardless, Walter and Victor decided it was the perfect time to fulfill their childhood dream and travel the world.


title: Walter Reuther

text: When Henry Ford retired the Model T in 1927, he sold the production mechanisms to the Soviet Union, and American workers who knew how to operate the equipment were needed. Walter and Victor were promised work teaching Soviet workers how to run the machines and assembly line. With that employment assurance, the brothers embarked on a three-year adventure, first bicycling through Europe, then working in the auto plant in Gorky,in the Soviet Union where the unheated factories were often 30–40 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. He frequently wrote letters to the Moscow Daily News criticizing the many inefficiencies associated with how the communists operated the plants.


title: Walter Reuther

text: After almost two years in the Soviet Union, the brothers travelled through Turkey, Iran, British India, and China. After crossing the East China Sea, they finished their Far East tour by bicycling throughout Japan. Finally, after being gone from home for almost three years, they found work for passage on the steamship "SS President Harding" to San Francisco and hurried back to Detroit where their brother Roy was already deeply involved with organizing autoworkers. Walter later stated the world tour taught him that "all people long for the same basic human goals of a job with some degree of security, greater opportunity for their children, and of course, freedom. We felt we could make a contribution by helping American workers build strong and democratic labor unions. That's why we went into the labor movement."


title: Walter Reuther

text: Before joining the Democratic Party, Reuther was a member of the Socialist Party of America. Although Reuther always denied it, some, including J. Edgar Hoover, have suspected that at one time he was a member of the Communist Party. On this subject, Reuther said in 1938, "I am not and never have been a member of the Communist Party nor a supporter of its policies nor subject to its control or influence in any way." Nevertheless, people have suspected that he may have paid dues to the Communist Party for some months in 1935–36 and one source listed him as attending a Communist Party planning meeting as late as February 1939. Reuther did cooperate with the Communists in the mid 1930s; this was the period of the Popular Front, and the Communist Party agreed with him on internal issues of the UAW; but his associations were with anti-Stalinist Socialists. Reuther remained active in the Socialist Party and in 1937 failed in his attempt to be elected to the Detroit City Council when the AFL and blacks opposed his CIO ticket. (Historian Martin Glaberman found proof of Reuther's less-than-one-year CPUSA membership in the papers of UAW activist Nat Ganley.) However, impressed by the efforts by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to tackle inequality, he eventually joined the Democratic Party.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Upon returning from Europe to Detroit, Reuther hitchhiked to South Bend, Indiana to attend the second annual convention as a delegate of the fledgling UAW. Upon his return he became president of newly formed Local 174 on Detroit's west side and with brother Victor, led the first successful strike against the automotive giants at Kelsey Hayes, which supplied brake drums and wheels to Ford Motor Company. The main complaint was the speed-up of the assembly line was intolerable. Workers were losing limbs and even their own lives trying in vain to keep up with the ever-increasing speed of the assembly line. It was December 1936 when the workers pulled a surprise strike and sat down in the plant refusing to leave until management negotiated with their representative, Walter Reuther.


title: Walter Reuther

text: When management tried to enter the plant to remove the machinery, thousands of sympathizers swarmed the sidewalks and blocked the doorways. Ford needed those brake drums and wheels badly and after 10 days of striking the sides settled. The first major UAW victory to unionize the auto factories was won. Upon Reuther's insistence, women won equal pay for equal work: 75 cents an hour. The speed-up of the assembly line was slowed down and the company could not fire a worker for joining the union. UAW Local 174's membership expanded from 200 before the strike to 35,000 within the next year.


title: Walter Reuther

text: In 1936, General Motors (GM) was the largest corporation in the world and held many plants in Flint, Michigan, about 60 miles north of Detroit. Reuther's brother, Roy, was already in Flint drawing up strategy plans and organizing workers to shut down the automaker until it would recognize the rights of the workers to unionize. The strike began on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1936 when the workers sat down in the plants and refused to leave. General Motors retaliated by turning off the heat in the plant.


title: Walter Reuther

text: In solidarity with the Flint strikers, Reuther led a strike at Detroit's Fleetwood Plant, where bodies were made for GM's luxury vehicle, the Cadillac. Support strikes were also called in Oakland, California, Pontiac, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri. Autoworkers around the nation engaged in action in support of the Flint sit-down strikers.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Back in Flint, the police tried to force the workers out of the plant in what became known as the "Battle of Bulls Run." Over a hundred policemen attacked the pickets with tear gas and bullets, sending thirteen workers to the hospital with gunshot wounds. Victor manned the sound car and encouraged the workers to fight back, which they did by sling-shotting door hinges from the factory roof and turning fire hoses on the police in the 16-degree Fahrenheit winter night. Victor and Genora Johnson, a leader of the Women's Brigade, took turns in the sound car exhorting the workers to stand their ground.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Michigan Governor Frank Murphy called in 2,000 members of the National Guard, not to force the workers out of the plants, but to keep the peace. After a brilliant move, the workers were able to gain control of the only plant in the country that made Chevrolet engines. Finally, 44 days later, General Motors was forced to recognize the worker's right to unionize and signed its first collective bargaining agreement with the fledgling UAW.


title: Walter Reuther

text: The Flint sit-down strike has become known as the Lexington and Valley Forge of American industrial unionism. Roy recalled, "When the boys came out of the plants, I never saw a night like that and perhaps will never see it again. I liken it to a country experiencing independence, families reunited for the first time since the strike began, kids hanging onto daddy with tears of joy and happiness. It was a sea of humanity in which fears were no longer on the minds of the workers."


title: Walter Reuther

text: In 1950, Reuther negotiated and signed with Charlie Wilson, chief executive officer of General Motors, the Treaty of Detroit, an historic five-year labor contract that, in exchange for a commitment not to strike, gave rank-and-file workers better wages, health care, and pensions. At the time, Fortune Magazine wrote that the Treaty of Detroit “made the worker to an amazing degree a middle class member of a middle class society.”


title: Walter Reuther

text: Chrysler was next on the list of the young UAW. In March 1937, 60,000 Chrysler workers went on strike. When police started roughing up pickets and strikers, over 150,000 citizens gathered at Detroit's downtown Cadillac Square where Reuther and others led them in protest. After a four-week strike, Chrysler followed General Motors’ lead and negotiated its first collective bargaining agreement with the UAW.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Henry Ford had stated that he would never allow his workers to unionize. His main enforcer was Harry Bennett, who led a 3,000 man Security Department for Ford Motor Company, whose mandate was to intimidate, beat, and fire any worker who showed signs of favoring unionization. In 1932, when workers marched out of the giant Ford River Rouge Complex in protest to the speed-up of the assembly lines, they were attacked by Bennett's armed men and 5 workers were shot dead and hundreds suffered injuries.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Barely a month after the Chrysler signing, Reuther got permission from the City of Dearborn to pass out handbills titled, "Unionism, not Fordism" on public property at Gate Four of the giant Ford River Rouge Complex. As he and three other UAW leaders climbed the stairs to the bridge, they were attacked by Bennett's "enforcers" who severely beat them.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Reuther was instantly surrounded by at least a dozen men, knocked to the ground, kicked and punched in the head and body, picked up 4 feet parallel to the ground then slammed to the concrete repeatedly, then thrown and kicked down 3 flights of stairs. The pummeling continued as 4 or 5 men beat him in and out of parked cars, until a streetcar arrived with union women to pass out leaflets and the thugs turned their attention to viciously attack them.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Press photographers were attacked as well and their cameras confiscated but one camera was inconspicuously thrown into a convertible and the next day, the "Battle of the Overpass," was national news.


title: Walter Reuther

text: The beatings taken by the union organizers in the long run hurt Henry Ford more, as national sentiment turned against him. "Time" magazine published the photographs with descriptions of how the union men and women were mercilessly beaten by Henry Ford's paid thugs. Ford retaliated against "Time", "Life", and "Fortune" magazines by withdrawing all advertising.


title: Walter Reuther

text: It took four more years, but finally, in 1941, Henry Ford signed his first agreement with the UAW. Shortly after, Henry Ford told Walter Reuther: "It was one of the most sensible things Harry Bennett ever did when he got the UAW into this plant." Reuther inquired, "What do you mean?" Ford replied, "Well, you've been fighting General Motors and the Wall Street crowd. Now you're in here and we've given you a union shop and more than you got out of them. That puts you on our side, doesn't it? We can fight General Motors and Wall Street together, eh?"


title: Walter Reuther

text: In the 1950s, Reuther and Henry Ford II, CEO of Ford, toured a state-of-the-art engine plant in Cleveland. As they walked about the plant, Ford gestured to the cutting-edge, automated machines, saying, "Walter, how are you going to get these robots to pay union dues?" Without missing a beat, Reuther famously replied: "Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?"


title: Walter Reuther

text: In 1940, in the midst of World War II, the United States was producing fighter planes to help the allies in their war against Hitler's aggression. The production was slow, inadequate, and threatening the security of the Allies. The US planned to construct new manufacturing plants specifically to produce more planes. That plan would have taken two years to begin production. The Allies did not have that time to spare. In response, Reuther proposed "to transform the entire unused capacity of the auto industry into one huge plane production unit capable of turning out 500 Planes a Day." After getting the support of workers, he publicly announced the "Reuther Plan: 500 Planes a Day," shortly before Christmas, 1940. He said, during a national radio address on December 28, 1940:


title: Walter Reuther

text: In London they are huddled in the subways praying for aid from America. In America we are huddled over blueprints praying that Hitler will be obliging enough to postpone an "all out" attack on England for another two years until new plants finally begin to turn out engines and aircraft. We believe that without disturbing present aircraft plant production schedules we can supplement them by turning out 500 planes a day of a single standard fighting model by the use of idle automotive capacity. . . . England's battles, it used to be said, were won on the playing fields of Eton. America's can be won on the assembly lines of Detroit. Give England planes and there will be no need to give her men.


title: Walter Reuther

text: A week after receiving the plan, on December 30, 1940, President Roosevelt wrote William S. Knudsen, chairman of the War Production Board, "It is well worthwhile to give a good deal of attention to this (Reuther) program." Three days later on January 2, 1941, Reuther met with President Roosevelt at the White House to discuss the possibility of implementing his plan for 500 Planes a Day.


title: Walter Reuther

text: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler all opposed the Reuther Plan because they wanted the government to build new plane and tank factories that could be sold to them at giveaway prices after the war. They also disliked that labor had the audacity to stick their nose into production, which they felt was management's exclusive domain. Alfred P. Sloan, chairman of General Motors, scoffed at the idea, stating, "only about 10 to 15% of the machinery and equipment in an automobile factory can be utilized for the production of special defense material."


title: Walter Reuther

text: After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, many of Reuther's proposals were implemented. Detroit's automobile plants produced planes and tanks in mass volume and became known as the center of the Arsenal of Democracy, which gave the Allies a decisive advantage to win the war. By 1943, Chrysler President, K. T. Keller, reported that his company had converted 89% of its machine tools to wartime production, leading Washington Post publisher, Phil Graham, to state that meant Reuther was 89% right. At the war's end, "Fortune" magazine wrote: "Reuther was right on track. Compared with many industrialists that sat back and hugged profits and the aimless agencies of Washington, the red-headed labor leader exhibited atomic spirit of action. He never let up." In 1953, President Eisenhower wrote in a letter to Reuther, "When I last addressed a CIO Convention, I came to thank you for your magnificent performance in World War II in supplying the planes and tanks and ships and arms. You did your job, and you did it well."


title: Walter Reuther

text: After the war ended in 1945, Reuther proved he would be a different type of labor leader when he led a strike challenging GM to increase workers wages by 30% without increasing the price of their new cars. Worker pay had been restricted during World War II and Reuther sought to get them a raise but not at the cost of increased inflation. Historically, when workers won a pay increase, the company would pass on the expense to their consumers. GM refused the pay increase and after a 113-day strike, the sides settled on an eighteen and a half cent hourly raise. Reuther's bold collective bargaining leadership in this strike catapulted him into the union's top position.On March 27, 1946, Reuther won the election and became the president of the UAW in a very close race, defeating incumbent UAW president R. J. Thomas by a mere 124 votes, out of almost 9,000 cast. The new UAW president pledged his vision of "a labor movement whose philosophy is to fight for the welfare of the public at large." One of his first acts as president was to fight to integrate the American Bowling League, which had previously excluded black bowlers. He was a new kind of leader who viewed the labor movement as "an instrument for social change."


title: Walter Reuther

text: Although presidents of much smaller unions were making 3 or 4 times his salary, Reuther purposely kept his salary low to stay in touch, and show solidarity, with UAW members he represented. He never made an annual salary of more than $31,000. Author David Halberstam writes: "His life was not about material things. The constant success of the union was reward enough."


title: Walter Reuther

text: The following 18 months after Reuther's election win, bitter battles erupted inside the UAW as Communist-backers of R. J. Thomas had a two-thirds majority on the UAW's Executive Board. One observer noted, "The Commies threw everything but their hammer and sickle at Walter." In November 1947, at the next UAW national convention, this time Reuther won the election overwhelmingly, severely weakening the Communist's hold on the union's leadership. "Life" magazine reported that Reuther's victory was "the biggest setback of all time for the Communists in the American Labor Movement."


title: Walter Reuther

text: Reuther became president of the CIO in 1952 until its merger with the AFL in 1955, and continued as head of the UAW until his death in 1970. As president of the CIO, Reuther sought to remove officers from Communist-dominated unions within the CIO, leading Hubert Humphrey to write, "Communist infiltration of the CIO was a direct threat to the survival of all of our country's democratic institutions. The CIO's victory over the Communist party was a significant victory for our nation." In response, Trud, a Soviet newspaper, called Reuther a "traitor and strikebreaker" and a favorite of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Republican Party called Reuther "the most dangerous man in America and a Communist." Despite removing Communists from the labor movement, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, never stopped suspecting Reuther to be a Communist for working in Russia and having early associations with Communists.


title: Walter Reuther

text: In 1959, at the request of the Department of State, Reuther met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who was visiting the U.S. They discussed, among other things, capitalism versus communism, organized labor, and US-Russia relations. The meeting happened in San Francisco and was front-page international news.


title: Walter Reuther

text: As president of the UAW, Reuther negotiated contracts that included unprecedented standard-of-living increases for automobile workers. Such increases include annual raises based on productivity advances, cost-of-living increases, supplementary unemployment benefits, early-retirement options, and health and welfare benefits.


title: Walter Reuther

text: He employed a strategy called "pattern bargaining" against the Big Three automobile manufacturers, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler. He would first target a company that seemed most likely to accept his bargaining objective. If that target company refused to offer concessions, Reuther would threaten a strike to halt production at its plants only while allowing production operations at its competitors' plants to go uninterrupted. As a result, the target company would accept Reuther's demands to prevent its competitors from absorbing its sales and market share. Once he secured the initial agreement, he would use it as a pattern against the other automobile companies, threatening to strike if they too did not match the same terms to which the initial target company agreed. Reuther employed pattern bargaining to leverage competition among automobile manufacturers, maximize the influence of labor, and reduce the frequency of costly strikes.


title: Walter Reuther

text: In 1950, Reuther proposed, in an article titled, "A Proposal for a Total Peace Offensive," that the United States establish a voluntary agency for young Americans to be sent around the world to fulfill humanitarian and development objectives. Subsequently, throughout the 1950s, Reuther gave speeches to the following effect:I have been saying for a long time that I believe the more young Americans who are trained to join with other young people in the world to be sent abroad with slide rule, textbook, and medical kit to help people help themselves with the tools of peace, the fewer young people will need to be sent with guns and weapons of war.In August 1960, following the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Walter Reuther visited John F. Kennedy at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport to discuss Kennedy's platform and staffing of a future administration. It was there that Reuther got Kennedy to commit to creating the executive agency that would become the Peace Corps. Under Reuther's leadership, the United Auto Workers had earlier that summer put together a policy platform that included a "youth peace corps" to be sent to developing nations. Subsequently, at the urging of Reuther, John F. Kennedy announced the idea for such an organization on October 14, 1960, at a late-night campaign speech at the University of Michigan.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Reuther was a strong supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. He marched with King in Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Jackson and when King and others were jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, and King authored his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, Reuther arranged $160,000 for the protestors' release. He also helped organize and finance the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, delivering remarks from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial shortly before King gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. He served on the board of directors for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Under his leadership, the UAW donated $75,000 in 1954 to help underwrite the NAACP's efforts—led by Thurgood Marshall—before the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. According to King, Reuther sent letters to all of his local unions in 1957, requesting members to attend and provide financial support to the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C.


title: Walter Reuther

text: On the 25th anniversary of the UAW, King wrote a letter to Reuther, congratulating him on his successes and observing:More than anyone else in America, you stand out as the shining symbol of democratic trade unionism. Through trials, efforts and your unswerving devotion to humanitarian causes, you have made life more meaningful for millions of working people. Through moments of difficulty and strong obstacles, you have stood firm for what you believe, knowing that in the long run 'Truth crushed to earth will rise again.' As I have heard you say, the true measure of a man is where he stands in moments of challenge and controversy, when the only consolation he gains is the quiet whisper of an inner voice saying there are things so eternally true and significant that they are worth dying for, if necessary. You have demonstrated over the years that you can stand up in moments of challenge and controversy. One day all of America will be proud of your achievements, and will record your work as one of the glowing epics of our heritage.


title: Walter Reuther

text: In the early 1930s, Reuther first challenged racism as a student at what is now Wayne State University. When a local hotel, which had agreed with the college to let students use its swimming pool, refused to let blacks swim, he organized a picket line. The protest surrounded the block. As a result, the hotel closed its pool to all students. In a 2013 interview with "The New York Times", President Barack Obama said, "When you think about the coalition that brought about civil rights, it wasn’t just folks who believed in racial equality; it was people who believed in working folks having a fair shot. It was Walter Reuther and the UAW coming down here because they understood that if there are some workers who are not getting a fair deal then ultimately that’s going to undercut their ability to get a fair deal."


title: Walter Reuther

text: The Walk to Freedom was a mass march during the Civil Rights Movement on June 23, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan. The purpose of the demonstration was to protest racism, segregation, and the brutality inflicted upon civil rights activists in the South as well as the discrimination facing African-Americans in the North such as inequality in hiring, wages, education, and housing. In some ways, it was considered a dress rehearsal for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was scheduled for two months later. An estimated 125,000 people attended and it was the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation's history up to that date.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Reuther mobilized support for the protest and donated office space at the UAW's headquarters Solidarity House for Martin Luther King, Jr. to organize the event. Along with others, including King, Reuther marched down Woodward Avenue and delivered remarks afterwards at Cobo Hall. It was there that King delivered his first version of his "I Have a Dream," speech, having penned it, at least partially, inside his office at Solidarity House.


title: Walter Reuther

text: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. The protest sought to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. Along with the Big Six and three white religious leaders, Reuther helped organize the march. Originally, the march was planned to take place outside of the Capitol Building. Reuther, however, persuaded the other organizers to move the march to the Lincoln Memorial. He believed the Lincoln Memorial would be less threatening to Congress and the occasion would be more appropriate underneath the gaze of Abraham Lincoln's statue. The committee, notably Rustin, agreed to move the site on the condition that Reuther pay for a $19,000 sound system so that everyone on the National Mall could hear the speakers and musicians.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Reuther and the UAW financed bus transportation for 5,000 of its rank-and-file members, providing the largest single contingent from any organization. The UAW also paid for and brought thousands of signs for marchers to carry. Among other things, the signs read: "There Is No Halfway House on the Road to Freedom," "Equal Rights and Jobs NOW," "UAW Supports Freedom March," "in Freedom we are Born, in Freedom we must Live," and "Before we'll be a Slave, we'll be Buried in our Grave."


title: Walter Reuther

text: Reuther was the most prominent white organizer scheduled to speak. In his remarks, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he urged Americans to pressure their politicians to act to address racial injustices. He said:American democracy is on trial in the eyes of the world… We cannot successfully preach democracy in the world unless we first practice democracy at home. American democracy will lack the moral credentials and be both unequal to and unworthy of leading the forces of freedom against the forces of tyranny unless we take bold, affirmative, adequate steps to bridge the moral gap between American democracy's noble promises and its ugly practices in the field of civil rights.


title: Walter Reuther

text: According to Irving Bluestone, who was standing near the platform while Reuther delivered his remarks, he overheard two black women talking. One asked, "Who is that white man?" The other replied, "Don't you know him? That's the white Martin Luther King."


title: Walter Reuther

text: After the march, the civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy at the White House to discuss civil rights legislation. During the meeting, Reuther described to Kennedy how he was framing the civil rights issue to business leaders in Detroit, saying, "Look, you can't escape the problem. And there are two ways of resolving it; either by reason or riots." Reuther continued, "Now the civil war that this is gonna trigger is not gonna be fought at Gettysburg. It's gonna to be fought in your backyard, in your plant, where your kids are growing up."


title: Walter Reuther

text: On March 9, 1965, two days after Bloody Sunday, where civil rights marchers were beaten by state police at the Edmond Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, Reuther sent a telegram to President Johnson, reading in part:Americans of all religious faiths, of all political persuasions, and from every section of our Nation are deeply shocked and outraged at the tragic events in Selma Ala., and they look to the Federal Government as the only possible source to protect and guarantee the exercise of constitutional rights, which is being denied and destroyed by the Dallas County law enforcement agents and the Alabama State troops under the direction of Governor George Wallace.


title: Walter Reuther

text: Under these circumstances, Mr President, I join in urging you to take immediate and appropriate steps including the use of Federal marshals and troops if necessary, so that the full exercise of constitutional rights including free assembly and free speech be fully protected.