• The Willis Ward Petition– 78 Years Later

    Seventy eight years ago this fall the U-M campus was set ablaze.  Students and teachers held heated (heated as in objects and insults being hurled) debates/protests over the proper way to handle the Georgia Tech game. You know the story by now: The Jackets visited Ann Arbor but made it known well before the game that they would only play if Michigan’s African American end, Willis Ward, didn’t participate.  The saga, including background and the aftermath is documented in the documentary Black and Blue which you should own in your collection. The largest group, the United Ward Front, was a group of students and professors with a simple demand: Ward plays against Tech or the game should be cancelled.  They gathered over 1,500 signatures in support and led many of the protests (clip from the 1934 Michigan Daily to the left). Fast forward nearly 78 years.  The guys behind Black and Blue have a new petition —one urging U-M to honor Willis Ward on October 20, 2012.   You can sign on here: http://www.change.org/petitions/honor-willis-ward The are asking U-M to honor Ward on Saturday October 20, 2012 because this will be the 78th anniversary of the Georgia Tech game.   On top of that, Ward would have been 100 this year and the Michigan state legislature is already expected to declare that Saturday…