Past Stories

In 1945, Sarah Elizabeth Ray was denied passage on a steamboat on the Detroit River because she was Black. She fought the injustice, and today her trailblazing civil rights role is being preserved — including through a new collection.

A student’s senior film project revisited the long-buried history of McCarthyism at U-M. More than 70 years later, the fight for academic freedom lives on through the legacy of Chandler Davis.

The Whimsies was an anonymously published literary magazine that became massively popular on U-M's campus in the early 1920s. But who was behind it?

The carillon bells in Burton Memorial Tower on U-M's campus are played or their original keyboard thanks to an unlikely savior: a U-M Egyptologist.

When a faculty member recommends his prize pupil for a daring expedition in Greenland, disaster strikes on multiple fronts.

A police raid in 1931 brought national attention to drinking on U-M's campus. Archived records show what the fallout was like.

Before Jackie Robinson, there was Moses Fleetwood Walker, a U-M law graduate who would use the racism and discrimination he faced in baseball to fuel an incredible career.

Collaborations and partnerships enhance the understanding of what the Bentley has in its collections and shed light on how the Library can uncover or repair harm.

In 1899, Oscar W. Baker Sr. was accepted into the U-M Law School, becoming the 100th African American student to attend U-M. He would make remarkable contributions working for racial and social justice.

Michigan politician Frank Murphy was close with popular priest and radio host Father Coughlin. Until Coughlin was suddenly in the throes of a treason investigation.