Opal Bailey was a friendly and warm Psychology major at the University of Michigan during the years of 1964 to 1969. In the fall of 1967, Bailey was crowned the University’s first African American Homecoming queen, a tradition that had only been around for one year before her reign. As the competition judges began to announce runner-ups, it was her and a pretty blonde, white girl from an elite sorority on campus who were the last ones standing. When she was announced queen, Bailey recalls watching both of their mouths drop open. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Bailey in a Michigan Today article (1). The crowd went wild due to a large population of black students who attended the election ceremony in support of Bailey’s finalist spot. Throughout the next couple days, Bailey would ride in the Homecoming parade and be escorted across the Big House field during the 1968 Homecoming game against Indiana.

​

         However, her “crowning achievement” was unfortunately met with much disdain from the majority white population that attended the University. Bailey’s family and friends recall the entire student section remaining silent during her walk across the famed Michigan field, along with a plethora of “boos” from students and bystanders alike. This overt racism luckily did not taint Bailey’s experience of being honored as Queen until a day later when her family told her what they saw and heard (1). Bailey was never confronted by angry students directly until she received a racist letter from an anonymous reader of the Detroit News. She recalls being taken aback by the letter, and rightfully so. In some ways, the letter motivated her to take action with student activist groups.

​

        The following year’s contest was immediately ridden with controversy when the lone black contestant, Janice Parker, was singled out with pointed questioning she deemed racist and hurtful (2). This caused her to drop out of the running for Queen. Bailey had been asked to attend the ceremony in order to present the new queen with her crown. However, once she and other black students heard of the unfair treatment of the single black candidate, she decided to fight back. At the ceremony, instead of handing the newly appointed Homecoming queen her crown, Bailey handed the crown to one of the judges on stage and grabbed the mic for a speech of resistance towards how the University handled the 1968 election. “To those of you who hissed at me last year, I’m black and I’m proud of it,” the Ann Arbor News reportedly said Bailey told the crowd (1). She walked briskly off the stage.

​

        News spread across the country including articles in the New York Times and the African American publication The Chicago Defender. Bailey had no idea she would be making headlines, but was happy that her actions seemed to make a difference. The University would eventually stop hosting Homecoming queen elections (minus a couple in 1980 and 2007 - where in 1980 an African American woman would be elected with shockingly equal controversy as the first) (1). Opal Bailey is a true example of a Michigan woman warrior, a woman who fights for equality in spaces riddled with deeply-rooted systemic oppression towards women of color. Post grad, Bailey would go on to be a psychologist and a lawyer (1).