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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 the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She was active in state and national politics, serving as vice-president of the Woman's Republican Club of Ohio and directing publicity for Warren G. Harding's presidential campaign. |
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 sons, one of whom died in childhood. All but one of her surviving siblings would follow their father into the newspaper business. |
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 society editor and feature writer. Hopley thus became known as the first woman reporter assigned to regular work in Columbus. In 1893 she became editor and owner of The Columbus School Journal, a periodical for Columbus parents, students, and teachers, and in the early 1900s was editor of the Columbus Press Post. |
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 a member of the Board of Women Managers of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. In the fall of that year she was appointed by Commissioner M. B. Ratchford, State Bureau of Labor Statistics, as special inspector of workshops and factories with a view to bettering the condition of women and children. This took her to many factories and before workers, to whom she spoke in the evenings. |
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 publicity in the municipal election. In the summer of that year, she was engaged on the publicity force at the time of the World's Methodist Centenary in Columbus. In 1920 she was chosen by the Republican State Chairman of Columbus to supervise publicity in the Republican pre-primary campaign for Warren G. Harding and in the fall was engaged to conduct the same work for the presidential campaign. She was one of the hostesses at the Congress Hotel when the Republican National Convention was held in Chicago. |
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, and women's voting issues. Haynes told Congress that Hopley was employed not as an enforcement agent but to give information as part of "wise propaganda work". She decried films that belittled or made light of prohibition. She also highlighted the problem of women bootleggers, telling a reporter: "There you have the worst problem for prohibition officials. [Women] resort to all sorts of tricks, concealing metal containers in their clothing, in false bottoms of trunks and traveling bags, and even in baby buggies." Her hiring encouraged local law enforcement agencies to hire more women to investigate women bootleggers. In August 1922 she estimated that "dry laws" of the Volstead Act had decreased liquor drinkers in America by 17,500,000, and urged women to actively support dry laws through civic and religious organizations. Her philosophy was driven by a quote from Abraham Lincoln: "Let reverence for the laws be the political religion of the nation." |
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 part of his reorganization of the Bureau. Despite support from Haynes and prominent Ohio politicians, Hopley resigned from the Bureau in July 1925, when it was determined her activities were outside the scope of the federal government, and publicity expenditures of around \$50,000 drew criticism. |
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 of the Year award in 1933. In track and field he was a three-time All-American and eight-time Big Ten champion. |
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 Gerald R. Ford reportedly threatened to quit the team in response to the university's decision. After being excluded from the Georgia Tech game, Ward went on to score all 12 of Michigan's points that year outside of the Georgia Tech game, without another Wolverine even having an extra point or a field goal. |
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 also served as a probate court judge in Wayne County, Michigan. |
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 hurdles (with a time of 15.8). Ward also won the 220 hurdles at Ann Arbor (with a time of 25.9) and Class A (with a time of 26.1). |
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 freshman year. Ward's best jump in 1932 was two inches above the mark that won the gold medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics (Canada's Duncan McNaughton won the gold with a jump of 6 feet, 51⁄2 inches), but Ward did not qualify for the team. |
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 43 feet without prior experience, and it believed he might be developed into a world champion weight man. He unquestionably could be trained to do the springs. He is only 19. Ward has an ideal build for a track man, six feet, one inch tall, 185 pounds of well-distributed weight, good legs, natural co-ordination. He is quiet and unassuming, and popular with coaches and fellow members of the squad." |
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 the greatest track man ever to compete for the Maize and Blue—if he doesn't get hurt. ... Ward is a good football player and loves the game. . . . Well wishers even have told him about the advantages of competing only in track and staying away from the gridiron, but he is determined to play on the eleven, and he is good enough to make the grade." Michigan's track coach, Chuck Hoyt, noted that "Ward is his own boss and football is his recreation." |
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 Yost's tenure as coach several African-American students joined the football team, but records indicate that none of them ever saw game action and only one earned even a "reserve letter". Some reports attribute the de facto segregation of the football team to racism on the part of Yost, who was the son of a Confederate soldier. |
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, the author of a book on the history of African-American athletes at Michigan, Kipke "threatened to fight, physically fight, those alumni and fellow coaches who opposed his playing Ward." Behee wrote that "on several occasions Kipke took off his coat and was prepared to fight with those who bitterly opposed having a Negro play for Michigan." |
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 reported on the results of spring practice: "Three young freshmen at the University of Michigan—Jerry Ford, of Grand Rapids; Russell Oliver, of Pontiac, and Willis Ward, Detroit Negro—displayed such brilliance during spring football practice that they are expected to become important cogs next fall in the Wolverine varsity eleven." Another report in July 1932 described Ward, the "giant negro," as being "the outstanding athlete becoming eligible for play." |
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 Associated Press noted: "Ward would rather win an 'M' on the gridiron than be an Olympic champion." |
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 good 'un," and praised him for his unassuming character and tolerance of the spotlight of publicity. One report noted: "He is altogether likeable, for he always speaks without raising his voice and never protests a decision. ... Ward is a star now, but he is just finishing his first year of competition. Unless injuries hamper him it is likely he will be as great an attraction or possibly even greater than the two Negro track stars who preceded him here, DeHart Hubbard and Eddie Tolan." |
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 broad jump. His performance at the Big Ten meet was described as "the greatest individual performance since Carl Johnson scored 20 points for Michigan in 1918." |
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 outside the Midwest, except as a member of Michigan's football team. He was Willis Ward, 196-lb. Negro sophomore. At the Big Ten meet in Evanston last week. Willis Ward won the 100-yd. dash in 9.6 sec. He won the high jump, placed second in the broad jump. In the 120-yd. high hurdles, he forced Ohio State's Jack Keller to world's record time of 14.1 sec., finished a close second. The 18 points he won were what enabled Michigan to beat Indiana. They made his the most efficient individual performance in a Big Ten meet since Carl Johnson scored 20 points for Michigan in 1918. Quiet, unassuming, an above-average student of literature, Ward was the first Negro ever elected to Sphinx, Michigan's junior honor society." |
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 single-handed when he scored thirteen of the team's 183⁄4 points. In winning the 60 yard dash, the Flashy negro star equaled the recognized world mark of 6.2 seconds." At the Big Ten indoor track championship, the Michiganensian noted that Ward, "Michigan's all around athlete, was easily the outstanding star of the meet." Ward won the 60-yard dash, the 70-yard high hurdles and the high jump. |
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, where it has been for three years. That it did not slip was largely due to a crack halfback named Herman Everhardus and to Willis Ward, a rangy Negro end. It was Ward who, after hard-fighting Illinois had marched to a touchdown in the first period, shot through and blocked the place kick which would have given Illinois a seventh point." After the season was over, Coach Kipke also credited the play of Everhardus and his ends for the undefeated season: "Our ends, Ward and Petoskey, were near perfection." Michigan's left end, Ted Petoskey was named a first-team All-American in 1933, and Ward earned honorable mention All-American honors at right end. |
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 votes to 15 for Ward, described by the AP as "Michigan's 'one-man track team.'" The AP pointed to Ward's dual contributions in football and track: "Ward, in addition to his feats in track, was one of the bright stars of Michigan's championship football team this fall. Fast and rangy, he was classed as one of the finest wingmen in football. In track, he has run the century in 9.6, high jumped 6 feet 71⁄2 inches, leaped 24 feet in the broad jump and won his share of glory in the high hurdles." |
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 at halfback. Michigan scored only 21 points in the entire 1934 season, and Ward scored 12 of those points. In fact, Michigan scored nine points against Georgia Tech and Ward's 12 points were the only points scored by the Wolverines in the seven games in which Ward played. Michigan was shut out in the first two games, before beating Georgia Tech in the season's third game. The following week, Michigan lost to Illinois, 7–6, as Ward scored Michigan's only touchdown from the line of scrimmage of the entire 1934 season. (The season's only other touchdown came on a punt return against Georgia Tech.) Ward's touchdown came on a trick play, as fullback Johnny Regeczi passed the ball to end Mike Savage who lateraled to Ward. According to the Chicago Tribune, the lateral "enabled the fleet Negro to outfoot the Illinois secondary." After being shut out in three games after the Illinois match, Michigan closed the season with a 13–6 loss to Northwestern. Michigan's only points against Northwestern came on two field goals by Ward. Thus, all 12 of Michigan's 1934 points outside the Georgia Tech game were scored by Ward, without another Wolverine even having an extra point or a field goal. |
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 refused to allow his team to take the field if Ward played. As early as the fall of 1933, Alexander wrote to Yost asking what was going to be done about Ward, asserting that his team would not take the field if Ward played. |
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 the game should be canceled. Petitions were circulated, and formal protests were lodged with the university by the Ann Arbor Ministerial Association, the NAACP, the National Student League and many other groups. The student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, opined: "If the athletic department forgot it had Ward on its football team when it scheduled a game with Georgia Tech, it was astonishingly forgetful; ... if it was conscious of Ward's being on the team but scheduled the game anyway, it was extraordinarily stupid." |
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 played by standing in the middle of the field. Rumors of a sit-down protest on the 50-yard line during the game spread across campus in the week before the game. One alumnus recalled that, the night before the game, "bonfires lit all over the campus echoed with screams of student anger, and 'Kill Georgia Tech' was heard throughout Ann Arbor." In an attempt to thwart any attempt to disrupt the game, Yost hired a Pinkerton agent to infiltrate "The United Front Committee on Ward", a conglomerate of student organizations that supported Ward's right to play. |
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