The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
10A — Tuesday, September 29, 2015
One Hundred Twenty-Fifth Anniversary
1817
At Fort Meigs, Ohio: A treaty
is reached between Michigan’s
Territorial Governor, Lewis
Cass, and Native American
Tribes (Ottawa, Chippewa and
Potawatomy). Cass persuades
Native Americans to give 3,840
acres of land in exchange for
Native Americans becoming
eligible to enroll at the
University. Native Americans
are never allowed to enroll and
sue the University in 1971, but
lose their case as the court ruled
that the land grant was a “gift.”
1890
George Jewett becomes the
first African American to
play varsity football. Jewett
played even though he faced
explicit racism on the field.
For example, when he played
against Purdue, students
cheered as he left the field with
an injury.
1929
The University’s Board of
Regents proposes University-
run housing for African-
American women on Glen
Avenue. African-American
women activists, seeing this as
segregation, protest, and the
proposal is dropped.
1934
African-American student Jean
Blackwell claims she was denied
residency at Martha Cook
Residence Hall because of race,
despite meeting the academic
requirements of holding a B
average, and despite there being
vacancies.
1949
Orval Wardell Johnson is the
first non-white student elected
LSA senior class president,
beating out a white football
player for the spot.
1968
The Black Student Union
takes over the Administration
Building, now the LSA
Building, in protest. Their
demands include more
scholarship funding for
African-American students
and more faculty members
who are African American.
1970
The Center for Afroamerican
and African Studies forms in
response to the BSU takeover.
In this same year, the Black
Action Movement organizes
a 12-day shut-down, which
includes hundreds of classes
cancelled, and results in
University President Robben
Wright Fleming agreeing to
work to reach 10-percent
African-American enrollment
by 1973. This goal was not met.
1971
The William Monroe
Trotter Multicultural
Center opens as a result of
the Black Action Movement
strike throughout campus,
and continues to be the only
University building named
after a person of color.
1983
Native American
Studies program
is founded within
American Culture.
1987
United Coalition Against
Racism and the University
of Michigan Asian
Student Coalition are
both formed.
1992
The highest point of minority
undergraduate enrollment
occurs in this year, at 21.4
percent.
2000
The Students of Color
Coalition occupies the office
of Michigamua, a secret
society of senior students, now
known as Order of Angell,
following a name change
in 2006, in the Michigan
Union. They protest the
appropriation of Native-
American culture, along with
a history of excluding minority
students and women.
2003
Gratz v. Bollinger: U.S. Supreme
Court rules that the University’s
affirmative action policy — which
awarded points to applicants who
came from underrepresented
minorities — is unconstitutional
for a state school.
2013
On July 18, the University’s
Board of Regents passes a
proposal to extend in-state tuition
rates to U.S. military veterans
and undocumented students
who graduated and attended a
Michigan middle school for three
years and a Michigan high school
for at least two years.
2014
The #BBUM movement, which
was started by students on
Twitter in response to a poor
racial climate on campus, makes
national headlines. Later this year,
the #UMDivest movement seeks
an agreement from the University
to divest from companies
allegedly involved in human rights
violations against Palestinians.
2015
Reports from Fall 2014
enrollment data show that
non-white students make up
34.04 percent of all students
on campus.
This timeline was compiled using the work of the University Library MLK Planning Committee
from their 2014 exhibit.
A history of race
and activism
at U of M
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Sara Krulwich, the Daily’s first female photographer, celebrated her 19th birthday by shooting at Michigan Stadium.
Krulwich breaks a barrier
Famous speakers at the ‘U’
In 1968, Daily photographer Sara Krulwich became the first woman to
step on the field at Michigan Stadium when she refused to obey the
“no women or children” rule on her press pass.
The Daily’s archives hold countless stories covering notable speakers on
campus. Pictured here are just a few from a list that includes Frederick
Douglass and Lyndon Johnson, among many others.
Compiled by the Daily’s
Michigan in Color editors.