{"id":59104,"date":"2019-10-24T15:03:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T15:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=59104"},"modified":"2019-10-24T15:03:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T15:03:47","slug":"he-passed-as-a-white-student-at-u-m-but-was-actually-colleges-first-black-enrollee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=59104","title":{"rendered":"He passed as a white student at U-M \u2014 but was actually college’s first black enrollee"},"content":{"rendered":"

He passed as a white student at U-M \u2014 but was actually college’s first black enrollee<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Detroit Free Press<\/a>
\n2019-10-19<\/p>\n

Micah Walker<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Tylonn<\/a>
\nTylonn J. Sawyer<\/a>, 42 of Detroit<\/a>, works on the mural he’s been painting inside the University of Michigan, Modern Languages Building<\/a> on campus in Ann Arbor<\/a> on Saturday, October 19, 2019. The mural titled “First Man: Samuel Codes Watson (Acrylic)” is dedicated to the first African-American to attend the University of Michigan<\/a>, Samuel Codes Watson<\/a>. In 1853, Samuel Codes Watson was the first African American student admitted to the [University of] Michigan. (Photo: Eric Seals, Eric Seals\/Detroit Free Press)<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In 1853, Samuel Codes Watson<\/a> became the first black student admitted to the University of Michigan<\/a> at a time where higher education for African Americans was nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

Studying to become a doctor, Watson would go on to receive his M.D.<\/a> from Cleveland Medical College<\/a> in 1857, being one of the first black people to do so. He later became Detroit’s<\/a> first elected African-American city official and the city’s richest property owner by 1867.<\/p>\n

Now, Tylonn Sawyer<\/a> is bringing more awareness to Watson’s story through a work of art.<\/p>\n

The Detroit artist is working with two U-M students on a mural to honor Watson. He’s spent the last two weekends painting inside U-M’s Modern Language Building. The mural was to be completed Saturday.<\/p>\n

The project is part of Sawyer’s residency at the Institute for the Humanities, which will include his exhibition, “White History Month Vol. 1,” and a series of student engagement opportunities…<\/p>\n

…”I was trying to find something not too heavy-handed, but something that could fit the theme (of the exhibit) and then it dawned on me, I wanted to know who was the first black person to attend the school,” he said.<\/p>\n

However, since Watson was of mixed race, he passed as white<\/a> during his two years at U-M. Fortunately for Sawyer, that fact made the doctor more compelling to paint for “White History.”<\/p>\n

“That fascinates me that there was a black person who had white privilege and was cognizant of his ethnicity,” he said. “When you really think about it, he kinda wasn’t a black person when he was there. That’s such a juxtaposition for me.”…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1853, Samuel Codes Watson became the first black student admitted to the University of Michigan at a time where higher education for African Americans was nearly impossible. Now, Tylonn Sawyer is bringing more awareness to Watson’s story through a work of art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,1245,2895,459,8,6462,20],"tags":[5965,19705,5754,30416,30415,30417,30419,30418,3804],"class_list":["post-59104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-biography","category-campus-life","category-history","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-free-press","tag-michigan","tag-samuel-c-watson","tag-samuel-codes-watson","tag-samuel-watson","tag-tylonn-j-sawyer","tag-tylonn-sawyer","tag-university-of-michigan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59105,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59104\/revisions\/59105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}