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.

