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Georgianna Eliza Hopley (1858–1944) was an American journalist, political figure, and temperance advocate. A member of a prominent Ohio publishing family, she was the first woman reporter in Columbus, and editor of several publications. She served as a correspondent and representative at the 1900 Paris Exposition and t... |
In 1922 Hopley became the first woman prohibition agent of the United States Bureau of Prohibition, where she was involved in education and publicity. She resigned among criticism of the costs of her publicity and the scope of her duties. |
Early life |
Georgia Hopley was born April 29, 1858, in Bucyrus, Ohio. Her father, John P. Hopley (1821–1904), was longtime editor of the Bucyrus Evening Journal, and her mother, Georgianna (Rochester) Hopley was active in the temperance movement of the 1870s. Georgia was the sixth child out of a family of three daughters and seven... |
Hopley was educated in Bucyrus Union Schools and then abroad, spending one year in Paris and three in London. Her involvement in temperance began during high school. In Ohio she worked as a reporter and writer in the offices of her father and brothers. |
Journalism and politics |
While working in the office of a brother who was then secretary of the Ohio Prohibition Party, Hopley conceived the idea that a woman should be better qualified to report certain events for newspapers than a man. She wrote a letter to a Columbus, Ohio, newspaper editor stating as much, and was invited to become a socie... |
In 1900, she was appointed by Ohio Governor George K. Nash to represent Ohio at the Paris Exposition. While there she continued her newspaper work as correspondent for a bureau of United States publications as well as the Associated Press and Scripps-McRae syndicate. In 1901, she was again appointed by Governor Nash as... |
In 1918, she was appointed by E. M. Fullington, chairman of the Ohio Republican Advisory Committee to supervise the work of the women and publicity in the campaign for governor and for nationwide prohibition. In 1919 she was appointed by the Franklin County, Ohio Republican committee to conduct the women's campaign and... |
Hopley served as vice-president of the Woman's Republican Club of Ohio, chair of the Civic Improvement Committee, and was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Order of the Eastern Star. |
Prohibition agent |
In early 1922, Hopley was sworn in as the first female general agent of the Bureau of Prohibition (then a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue), serving under Federal Prohibition Commissioner Roy A. Haynes. Her appointment made news around the country. She traveled the nation, speaking on prohibition, law enforcement... |
The cost and scope of Hopley's duties drew some criticism. David H. Blair, the Internal Revenue Commissioner, requested she resign in 1924, but she was supported by Haynes. In 1925, General Lincoln C. Andrews, the new Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in charge of Prohibition enforcement, demanded Hopley resign as pa... |
Later years |
After leaving the Prohibition Bureau, Hopley returned to journalism, focusing on women's suffrage. In her later years she lived in Bucyrus with her brothers, former State Senator James R. Hopley, and Frank L. Hopley, of the Lincoln Highway Council. She died in Bucyrus on July 1, 1944, at the age of 86. |
Willis Franklin Ward (December 28, 1912 – December 30, 1983) was a track and field athlete and American football player who was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1981. |
Ward was the Michigan High School Athlete of the Year, after setting a national prep record in the high jump. At the University of Michigan, he was a collegiate champion in the high jump, the long jump, the 100-yard dash, and the 440-yard dash, and finished second in the voting for the Associated Press Big Ten Athlete ... |
In football, Ward was only the second African-American to win a varsity letter for the Michigan Wolverines football team, lettering in 1932, 1933, and 1934. In 1934, a controversy developed when Georgia Tech refused to play if Ward took the field, and university officials opted to keep Ward out of the game. Teammate Ge... |
Ward later became a lawyer in Detroit and up through World War 2 he worked for Ford Motor Company in the Service Division as a voice for black workers, but also helping Ford oppose labor unions; later he was a member of the Michigan Public Service Commission from 1966 to 1973, serving as chairman from 1969 to 1973. He ... |
Early years |
Ward was born in Alabama in 1913. His father, Henry R. Ward, was an Alabama native who moved to Detroit and worked there in a Ford Motor Company factory. His mother, Bessie, was a Georgia native. |
Ward attended Detroit's Northwestern High School where he excelled in both track and football. As a high school junior, he was named Michigan High School Athlete of the Year, after setting a national prep record in the high jump at 6–4.5. He was city champion in the low hurdles (with a time of 13.0) and the high hurdle... |
University of Michigan |
Freshman track star |
Ward attended the University of Michigan from 1931 to 1935, where he became one of the most successful track athletes in the school's history. As a freshman in 1932, Ward's specialty was the high jump. Ward won the NCAA high jump championship in June 1932 with a jump of 6–7 1/3. He jumped as high as 6-7-1/2 in his fres... |
Ward's accomplishments were not limited to the high jump. An Associated Press article in 1932 noted: "His specialty is the high jump for which he has a mark of 6 feet 71⁄2 inches. He can run the high hurdles and the low hurdles. He has broad jumped 22 feet without training in that event. He put the 16-pound shot over 4... |
When Ward decided to try out for the football team as a sophomore, Michigan track fans worried that Ward would be injured. The Associated Press reported: "University of Michigan track fans do a lot of worrying these days because a Negro boy from Detroit insists on playing football. Willis Ward, they believe, will be th... |
First African-American football player in 40 years |
In addition to the concerns of track fans, Ward's decision to try out for the football team raised issues of race. Though George Jewett had broken the race barrier as Michigan's first African-American football player in 1890, Michigan had not played another African-American in the 40 years after Jewett. During Fielding... |
While in high school, Ward had decided to attend Dartmouth College. With head coach Harry Kipke's assurance that he would be given full opportunity to play football, Ward enrolled at Michigan. Kipke had played with African-American athletes in high school and was eager to have Ward on his team. According to John Behee,... |
Ward got the opportunity to prove himself in spring football practice in May 1932. According to one account, Kipke ordered his veterans to pound Ward "without mercy" during practice. "If, at the end of the week", said Kipke, "he doesn't turn in his uniform, then I know I've got a great player." The United Press reporte... |
Ward made the team in 1932 and started four games at end. Ivy Williamson, captain of the 1932 football team, greeted Ward at the field house and told him, "If you have any problems with anybody, let me know because we're prepared to take care of them." Reporting on his decision to play football and risk injury, the Ass... |
The 1932 Michigan Wolverines football team went 8–0, outscored its opponents 123–13, and won the national championship. |
1933 track season |
During the 1933 track season, Ward was so dominant that he was dubbed Michigan's "one-man track team" and became a national sensation. He led Michigan to Big Ten championships in both indoor and outdoor track. Going into the Big Ten track meet in May 1933, Ward was expected to dominate. Coach Hoyt described Ward as "a ... |
Michigan won the Big Ten meet with 601⁄2 points, with Ward individually accounting for 18 points. One writer noted that the Wolverines would have finished in second place "without the huge, versatile negro." At the meet, Ward won the 100-yard dash and the high jump and placed second in the 120 yard high hurdles and the... |
Even TIME magazine took note of Ward's dominating performance. Time noted: "The other entrants in the Intercollegiates last week had reason to consider with awe another athlete who—until he helped Michigan win the Western Conference title last week, with 601⁄2 points to Indiana's 471⁄2 had not often been heard of outsi... |
At the Drake Relay Carnival in April 1933, he finished second in the 100-yard dash, narrowly losing to Ralph Metcalfe. The 1934 Michigan yearbook, the Michiganensian, noted: "Michigan climaxed a successful season by winning the Annual Butler Relays and taking the title from Indiana. Willis Ward won the meet almost sing... |
1933 football season |
In 1933, Ward started all eight games for Michigan at right end and was a key player in Michigan's second consecutive undefeated football season and national championship. Time magazine credited the work of Ward and halfback Herman Everhardus: "Michigan came perilously close to slipping from the top of the Big Ten, whe... |
Runner up for 1933 Big Ten athlete of the year |
In December 1933, Ward finished second in close balloting for the Associated Press Big Ten Athlete of the Year award. The AP reported that Duane Purvis of Purdue beat Ward "by the slender margin of two votes." In the AP's polling of conference coaches and sports writers, 55 votes were cast, with Purvis receiving 17 vot... |
1934 track season |
In 1934, Ward won the Big Ten long jump championship with a distance of 23–21⁄4. |
1934 football season |
The 1934 football season proved to be one of the low points in the school's history, both because of the team's 1–7 record, and the ugly racial incident that kept Ward out of the game against Georgia Tech. Though excluded from the Georgia Tech game, Willis started every other game—five games at right end, and two games... |
1934 Georgia Tech game |
Despite his many accomplishments, the event for which Ward is most remembered is the game he did not play. In 1934, Michigan had scheduled Georgia Tech as the third game of the season. After learning that Michigan had an African-American player, Georgia Tech football coach and athletic director W. A. "Bill" Alexander r... |
As the game approached, word spread that Georgia Tech was insisting that Ward not play, and that the administration might capitulate to the demand. Ward's right to play became a major controversy on the campus. Mass meetings and demonstrations were held. Some students and faculty demanded that either Ward must play or ... |
Time magazine ran a story about the uproar on Michigan's campus: "Fifteen hundred Michigan students and faculty members signed a petition asking that the team's star end, Negro Willis Ward, be allowed to play against Georgia Tech." According to Time, 200 "campus radicals" threatened to prevent the game from being playe... |
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