Special showing of "Black and" Blue – The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game" May 22, 2012

This video focuses on President Ford and his senior year on the University of Michigan football team when Michigan faced a major civil rights crisis surrounding the benching of their star player, Willis Ward, solely on the basis of race. It highlights a mostly unheralded side of Gerald Ford and it applauds friendship, morality and individual courage. The riveting video is loaded with UM sports history and legends, pictures of "old" Ann Arbor, the collision of well-known and recognizable local personalities with the larger civil rights movement and, eventually, inspiring scenes in the White House Oval Office. A copy of the video has been delivered to all of the public libraries and high schools in Washtenaw County.

The marketing plan had originally been to get this video, and the educational support components, into the high schools by February, 2013 ( Black History Month ), but The Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Rotary, Joe Sesi Motors, Peter Fletcher of Ypsilanti Credit Bureau and Bill Ballagh of Chelsea State Farm felt that Washtenaw County high school students, including those at the 3 private high schools in Ann Arbor, needed to see it NOW when the civil rights movement and the modern presidency are being addressed in their classrooms. The rest of the state will be receiving copies as funding is made available. This video encourages positive conversations about race relations and offers a new look at our own President Ford that is missed by the history books.

PLEASE COME, BRING A FRIEND AND SHARE A WONDERFUL EVENING AT "THE FORD" WITH ALL OF US! ... Claire Dahl, AAPS, Retired American History teacher, Pioneer High School.