Flint

Flint, city, seat (1836) of Genesee county, eastern Michigan, U.S. It lies along the Flint River, 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Detroit. It originated in 1819 as a trading post opened by Jacob Smith. Laid out beginning in 1830 and named for the river (which the Native Americans called Pawanunking, “River of Flint”), the settlement progressed as a fur-trading, lumbering, and agricultural centre. Abundant local supplies of timber led to the development in 1886 of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, and by 1900 Flint was producing more than 100,000 horse-drawn vehicles a year. The body, spring, and wheel companies of the carriage industry became suppliers for the Buick Motor Company, which moved from Detroit to Flint in 1903. The next year Buick came under the direction of William C. Durant, who in 1908 consolidated Flint’s major manufacturing resources into the General Motors Company. In 1936–37 the General Motors plant was the site of a three-month sit-down strike by workers protesting deteriorating working conditions at the plant; the strike settlement, negotiated by the United Automobile Workers of America, helped to establish that union as the bargaining agent for most American autoworkers and as an important force within labour relations.

The city’s growth paralleled the success of the automotive industry, and by the 1950s it was the site of the largest single manufacturing complex of General Motors. Flint became second only to Detroit in the manufacture of automobiles, auto parts, and supplies in the United States. However, the closing or relocation elsewhere of various General Motors plants in Flint in the 1980s and early ’90s left the city with a shrinking economy and dwindling population. Those plant closings and the economic and social devastation they caused the residents of Flint were the subject of the documentary film Roger & Me (1989), by Flint native Michael Moore. Flint again became the focus of national attention in the 2010s when gross mismanagement of the city’s water supply led to a crisis that left residents exposed to dangerous levels of lead.

Kettering University (founded 1919 as the Flint Institute of Technology, later the General Motors Institute), Mott Community College (founded as Flint Community Junior College, 1923), and the University of Michigan–Flint (1956) are located in the city. The Flint Institute of Arts, the Robert T. Longway Planetarium, and the Alfred P. Sloan Museum (which displays carriages and antique autos) form part of the Flint Cultural Center, a cultural complex founded in 1957. Inc. city, 1855. Pop. (2010) 102,434; Flint Metro Area, 425,790; (2020) 81,252; Flint Metro Area, 406,211.