Code talkers were Native Americans who used their languages to help the United States military communicate in secret. This black-and-white photograph shows two Navajo code talkers operating a radio during World War II (1939-1945). The Navajo language was unknown to the Germans and Japanese and proved impossible for them to decipher.
Credit: NARA

On November 11, the anniversary of the end of World War I (1914-1918), the United States observes Veterans Day honoring men and women who have served in the United States armed services. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as Armistice Day to remember the tragedies of war and appreciate peace achieved by the armistice (truce). In 1938, Armistice Day was made a federal holiday. Congress renamed the day Veterans Day to honor all United States Veterans in 1954. Around the world, the anniversary of the end of World War I is a day to remember those who have died in war. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand observe Remembrance Day on November 11. The United Kingdom observes Remembrance Day on the Sunday closest to November 11.

November is also Native American Heritage Month, a time to observe the cultures, histories, and traditions of Native Americans. Many Native Americans have served in the United States armed forces, contributing to the United States’ success in World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945). Most notably, Native Americans called the Code Talkers developed and used codes that enabled the United States and its allies to communicate globally without enemy interference.

The Code Talkers were small groups of Native Americans who served in the United States armed forces in World War I and World War II. Code Talkers developed and used codes in Native American languages to send secret messages, helping the United States and its allies win both wars.

The engineer Philip Johnston suggested the United States Marine Corps use Navajo language as a code during World War II. He grew up on a Navajo reservation and knew that the Navajo language is unwritten, difficult to decipher (decode), and unknown to most people who are not Navajo. In 1942, the United States Marine Corps recruited 29 Navajo men to develop the code. The code talkers used familiar wards to represent U.S. military terms. For example, bombs were called eggs in Navajo. They also created a new phonetic alphabet with Navajo words.

Similarly, in World War I, 19 Choctaw men had served in the U.S. Army, sending and receiving messages based on the Choctaw language. During World War II, 17 Comanche men used their language for code in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Lake Surprise fills a volcano crater at Budj Bim National Park in southeastern Australia.
Credit: Peter (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Australia is famous for its unique culture, metropolitan cities, and unusual wildlife, among other things. Each week, this seasonal feature will spotlight one of Australia’s many wonders.

The inactive volcano and cultural site Budj Bim made history when, in 2019, it became the first World Heritage site listed exclusively for its value to Aboriginal culture. Such sites are places of unique cultural or natural importance as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Budj Bim, once known as Mount Eccles, is located in southeastern Australia. The overlapping craters of Budj Bim hold lakes in which Aboriginal people maintained systems of aquaculture (the raising of water animals and plants) for thousands of years. Budj Bim means High Head in the language of the Gunditjmara people (also called the Dhauwurd Wurrung) of southwestern Victoria state. Budj Bim sits about 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Melbourne. It is part of the 20,700-acre (8,370-hectare) Budj Bim National Park (formerly Mount Eccles National Park).

Gunditjmara tradition holds that Budj Bim is part of the body of an ancient creator being, who was revealed to Aboriginal people in an eruption around 30,000 years ago. The last known eruption of Budj Bim occurred about 8,000 years ago. Starting at least 6,600 years ago, the Gunditjmara people began creating a system of channels and dams to trap eels and other fish among the rock formations of Budj Bim. The result was an aquaculture system that provided plentiful food, and permanent Aboriginal settlements were established at nearby Lake Condah and Lake Gorrie. European settlers arrived in the area in the 1830’s.

Budj Bim—named Mount Eccles by European settlers—became a protected area in 1926 and a national park in 1960. Mount Eccles National Park was renamed Budj Bim National Park in 2017. The area is popular for camping, hiking, and picnicking.

A woman carries the Pan-African flag, a symbol of Black unity, at a Juneteenth parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Juneteenth celebrations commemorate the freeing of slaves in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.
Credit: © Tippman98x/Shutterstock

June 19 is Juneteenth, a festival held in many Black and other communities to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The name of the festival refers to the date, June 19—the day the last slaves were freed in the southern state of Texas in 1865. Juneteenth festivities often include plays and storytelling, parades, prayer services, and family reunions. Some communities hold longer Juneteenth festivals spanning several days as a celebration of civil rights and freedom.

People wait for floats to pass by during a parade celebrating Juneteenth in the historically Black town of Bastrop, near Austin, Texas USA. Credit: © Bob Daemmrich, Alamy Images

Last year’s Juneteenth looked different than celebrations past, because of the ongoing pandemic (global outbreak) of the coronavirus disease COVID-19. This year, festive Juneteenth celebrations have resumed in many places. Parades and festivals throughout the country will commemorate and celebrate Black life in America. If attending crowded events does not yet feel safe to you, you can celebrate Juneteenth by supporting Black-owned businesses, including stores and restaurants.

One way the national government is celebrating Juneteenth this year and for years to come is by making it a federal holiday. This week, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law a bill to officially recognize Juneteenth each year.

Juneteenth originated in Texas at the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for the slaves in Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. However, many slave owners in Texas suppressed information about the emancipation even after the war ended in April 1865. On June 19, Gordon Granger, a Union general, entered Galveston, Texas, and ordered all slaves in the state to be freed. About 250,000 people, among the last slaves remaining in the United States, were freed.

Juneteenth celebrations were held only in Texas and a few communities in other southern states in the years following the Civil War. Black people carried the celebration with them, however, as they migrated to other regions of the country. The push to make Juneteenth a federal holiday gained momentum in 2020, during the widespread Black Lives Matter protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd.

James Baldwin
Credit: Allan Warren (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature LGBTQ+ pioneers in a variety of areas.

The Black novelist, essayist, and playwright James Baldwin (1924-1987) has gained fame for his works about racial injustice and sexual identity. Baldwin was born in the United States, but he lived much of his life in France. Whether writing in the United States or abroad, he offered fiery protests against racial inequality.

Baldwin promoted civil rights and encouraged people to accept social differences in several powerful essay collections. These include Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). These five collections and other nonfiction pieces were compiled in The Price of the Ticket (1985).

Baldwin also explored interracial conflict in his fiction and drama, including the novel Another Country (1962), the play Blues for Mister Charlie (1964), and the short-story collection Going to Meet the Man (1965). In his novel Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968), Baldwin presented his most detailed portrayal of civil rights activities during the 1960′s.

James Arthur Baldwin was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in the Harlem district of New York City. He was a minister as a teenager, and many of his works use the rich language and tone of Biblical scripture, Black sermons, and gospel and blues music. His early writings explore the characters’ psychological struggles with their religious faith and relationships. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), and first play, The Amen Corner (1955), portray tensions within Black families and churches. Baldwin explored the subject of homosexuality in his second novel, Giovanni’s Room (1956), and in other works of fiction.

Baldwin’s other works include the novels If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) and Just Above My Head (1979). A motion picture adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk was released in 2018. Baldwin also wrote poetry and nonfiction with other writers and civil rights activists. He wrote one children’s book, Little Man, Little Man, that portrays the world of a black child growing up in Harlem during the 1970′s. The book was originally published in 1976 and reissued in a new edition in 2018. His essays were gathered in Collected Essays (published by the Library of America in 1998) and The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (2010). The Library of America also published two volumes of Baldwin’s fiction, Early Novels & Stories (1998) and Later Novels (2015). Baldwin died on Dec. 1, 1987.

A thriving Black neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street” lies in ruin following the Tulsa race riot of 1921.
Credit: Library of Congress

May 31, 2021, marked 100 years since the start of the Tulsa race riot of 1921. It was one of the deadliest acts of racial violence in United States history.

From May 31 to June 1, 1921, groups of armed white men attacked Black residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The riot began after white vigilantes gathered to lynch (put to death without a lawful trial) a Black man who had been accused of attacking a white woman. The riot probably caused about 300 deaths and destroyed Tulsa’s Black business district.

On May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner, entered an elevator in the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa. He encountered Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator. What occurred next is unclear. Many historians believe that Rowland may have either stepped on Page’s foot or tripped and grabbed Page’s arm to steady himself. Page screamed. A clerk from a nearby store, assuming that the girl had been the victim of an assault, called police. Rowland fled the scene and was arrested the next day.

Newspaper accounts and rumors about the incident led to widespread talk of lynching. On the evening of May 31, hundreds of white people, including many armed men, gathered near the courthouse where Rowland was held. Groups of armed Black men—many of them veterans of World War I—then arrived at the scene. They offered their services to the sheriff to help protect Rowland, but their offers were refused.

At around 10 p.m., shots were fired during a commotion near the courthouse. The Blacks who had gathered there were outnumbered, and they retreated. They went to Greenwood Avenue—the heart of the Black business district known as “Black Wall Street.” A white mob followed.

Scattered shootings then occurred near Greenwood Avenue in the early hours of June 1. Groups of armed Blacks assembled to hold off the white mob. Many Black residents fought to protect their businesses or families, while others fled to the countryside. Law enforcement officials deputized (appointed as agents of the law) hundreds of members of the mob. Members of the Oklahoma National Guard—all of whom were white—gathered near boundaries of Black and white neighborhoods. Among some whites, rumors attributed the violence to a “Negro uprising.” The mob grew to more than 5,000 white men.

Around 5 a.m., a whistle sounded, and thousands of armed white men marched into the Black business district. They burned and looted homes and businesses. National Guardsmen led thousands of Blacks at gunpoint to makeshift detention centers. Many who resisted were shot. Police did little to stop the arson and violence, and they spent most of their resources protecting white neighborhoods. In many instances, local members of the state National Guard joined in the attacks. Black eyewitnesses recalled white pilots firing on Black neighborhoods from airplanes above.

Thousands of armed white men burned and looted Black homes and businesses during the riot.
Credit: Library of Congress

Around 9 a.m., members of a National Guard regiment from Oklahoma City arrived in Tulsa. Locals called them the “state troops.” Order was restored around 11:30 a.m., when Governor James B. A. Robertson declared martial law (emergency military rule) in Tulsa County. By the time the riot ended, more than 1,200 structures—nearly the entire “Negro Quarter”—had been destroyed by fires.

There is documented evidence of at least 40 deaths in the Tulsa riot. Of this number, about two-thirds were Black. However, many historians estimate that around 300 people were killed. Some unidentified Black victims may have been interred in mass graves.

Authorities never brought criminal charges against Rowland. Authorities also brought no charges against white rioters. Neither the City of Tulsa nor insurance companies compensated Black property owners for losses. The Greenwood business district was eventually rebuilt, but many of its residents remained homeless for months.

Rebuilding begins in the Black neighborhood destroyed by the riot.
Credit: Library of Congress

Newspapers reported on the riot in the days and weeks after the event. Over time, however, the incident received little coverage. The riot was omitted from most Oklahoma history books and classroom lessons.

Blacks displaced by the neighborhood’s destruction line up outside a refugee camp at the Tulsa fairgrounds.
Credit: Library of Congress

In 1997, state officials formed the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The commission released an extensive report about the event in 2001. Tulsa’s John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park commemorates the victims of the riot. The park, named for a leading Black scholar whose own father survived the riot, officially opened in 2010.

Yo-Yo Ma is a world-famous cello player known for his performances as a soloist with symphony orchestras and in chamber music groups.
Credit: © Fulya Atalay, Shutterstock

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature AAPI pioneers in a variety of areas.

Long before such teenage stars as JoJo Siwa and Olivia Rodrigo, there was a teenage cello-playing star named Yo-Yo Ma. Nearly 50 years later, Ma continues to be one of the world’s greatest and most popular cello players.

He has won praise for the warmth and sensitivity of his performances. Ma performs equally well playing solo cello, as part of chamber groups, and as a soloist with orchestras. He plays a broad repertoire that includes music from the 1600′s as well as the works of modern composers. In his live performances and recordings, he has united the Western classical music tradition with the music of non-Western cultures.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs for people waiting in line at a COVID-19 vaccination site at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on March 13, 2021.
Credit: © Berkshire Community College

Ma was born in Paris on Oct. 5, 1955, to Chinese-born parents. He moved to the United States with his family at the age of 7. He studied with the famous cellist Leonard Rose from 1964 to 1971. Ma gained his first major exposure at the age of 15 when conductor Leonard Bernstein presented him on a television program.

After studying at Harvard University from 1972 to 1976, Ma began his career as a soloist. Since then, he has appeared with the world’s major symphony orchestras and played chamber music with many distinguished musicians.

In 2009, Ma became a creative consultant with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, in 2011. That year, Ma also became a Kennedy Center Honoree.

Frances McDormand as Fern in the film “Nomadland” (2020).
Credit: © Searchlight Pictures

On April 25, 2021, the 93rd Academy Awards—commonly known as the Oscars—were held in a ceremony split between Los Angeles’ Union Station and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Because of the ongoing pandemic [global outbreak] of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, several nominees gathered at other venues in such cities as Sydney, Australia, and London, England.) For the third year in a row, the ceremony went without a host. A variety of comedians, actors, and musicians introduced and handed out the awards.

The drama Nomadland took home the coveted best picture award. The film tells the story of a widow named Fern who travels across the United States in a van. The film’s director, Chloé Zhao, became the first woman of color to win the award for best director. The American actress Frances McDormand, who plays Fern, won her third award for best actress in a leading role.

Many people expected McDormand’s win. However, the British actor Anthony Hopkins took the award for best actor in a leading role, surprising many. The American actor Chadwick Boseman—who died last August—was expected to win for his performance as a trumpet player named Levee Green in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Hopkins won for his role as a man suffering from dementia in The Father. At age 83, he became the oldest actor to win an Oscar.

As for other top awards, the British actor Daniel Kaluuya won for best actor in a supporting role for Judas and the Black Messiah. Kaluuya portrayed Fred Hampton (1948-1969), an African American civil rights activist and leader of the Black Panther Party. The actress Yuh-Jung Youn became the first Korean to take home the award for best actress in a supporting role, for the film Minari. She played Soon-ja, the grandmother in a Korean-American family that moves from California to Arkansas in pursuit of a better life.

The winners used their speeches to bring attention to such themes as racism and police brutality. The American actress, author, and deaf activist Marlee Matlin presented an award in American Sign Language. Her remarks called attention to a teenager named Darnella Frazier who, in May 2020, used her cellphone to capture the death of George Floyd. (Former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder after kneeling on the neck and back of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, for more than nine minutes leading up to his death on May 25, 2020.) Frazier’s video of the killing was perhaps the most-watched film of 2020, inspiring millions of people around the world to protest racism and to demand justice.

Kamala Harris
Credit: California Attorney General’s Office

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas. 

Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams have reshaped the American political landscape not only for women and people of color, but for all Americans. Regardless of political affiliation, both have opened doors for women, rising to new heights in government and politics.

Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on Oct. 20, 1964. Her mother, a physician and cancer specialist, was born in India. Her father, who was born in Jamaica, became an economics professor. In 1986, Harris received a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Howard University. In 1989, she earned a law degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

From 1990 to 1998, Harris served as deputy district attorney for Alameda County, in California. In 1998, she became the managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. In 2000, she was named to lead the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children.

In 2003, Harris won election as San Francisco district attorney. She was reelected in 2007 and served through 2010. Her victory in the 2010 campaign for state attorney general marked the first time that a woman and—because of her mixed ethnicity—a person of Black and South Asian ancestry won the post. Harris took office in 2011. As attorney general, she gained attention for her work to combat transnational gangs and investigate banks that engaged in mortgage fraud. She was reelected in 2014 and served until 2017.

In June 2016, Harris finished first in California’s open primary for a U.S. Senate seat. She defeated Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, a fellow Democrat, in the November election. As a U.S. senator, Harris served on a number of committees, including the Judiciary Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

In January 2019, Harris began a campaign for her party’s 2020 nomination for president. She dropped out of the race in December 2019, while trailing her competitors in fundraising and in support in public opinion polls.

In August 2020, Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, named Harris his vice presidential running mate. Issues in the campaign included the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and tensions between Black communities and police. Biden and Harris won the November 2020 election. Harris resigned her Senate seat in January 2021, days before she and Biden took office. On Jan. 20, 2021, Harris became the first woman to serve as vice president of the United States. She also became the first person of Black and South Asian ancestry to serve in the position.

Stacey Abrams
Credit: © Cheriss May, NurPhoto/Getty Images

Stacey Abrams also played a major role in the 2020 election. Get-out-the-vote drives championed by Abrams are widely credited with helping Biden and Harris to win the state of Georgia. They are also said to have helped two Democrats to victory in state runoff elections, tipping the balance of the U.S. Senate.

Stacey Yvonne Abrams was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 9, 1973. She grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi. When Abrams was 16, her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1991, Abrams graduated from Avondale High School, where she was the first Black valedictorian. The valedictorian is the graduate with the highest marks. In 1995, she graduated magna cum laude (with great honor) from Spelman College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies. The major combined political science, economics, and sociology. She then attended the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a master’s degree in public policy in 1998. The next year, Abrams earned her J.D. degree from the law school of Yale University.

After graduating law school, Abrams began working at a law firm in Atlanta. In 2003, she started her career in government. She became the deputy attorney for the city of Atlanta’s law department. In 2006, Abrams was elected to Georgia’s House of Representatives from the state’s 84th district.

After four years as a representative, Abrams was chosen by the Democratic Party to serve as minority leader in the House of Representatives of Georgia. She became the first woman to serve as leader of either party in the Georgia General Assembly, the state’s legislature.

In 2018, she became the first Black woman nominated by a major political party to run for governor of Georgia. In the primary contest, Abrams defeated the Democrat Stacey Evans. But, in the general election, she was narrowly defeated by the Republican candidate Brian Kemp.

In addition to holding political office, Abrams has founded several political organizations. In 2014, she founded the New Georgia Project to counteract challenges to voter rights and increased barriers to voter registration. In 2018, she founded Fair Fight, an organization promoting voter education and fair elections.

Credit: © michaeljung, Shutterstock

February 25th marks the founding, in 1837, of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the first of a number of institutions now known as historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU’s). These prestigious and storied schools have educated many leading figures in U.S. cultural, legal, and political life. Just a few notable examples include the actor Chadwick Boseman; Vice President Kamala Harris; civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.; filmmaker Spike Lee; and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Historically Black colleges and universities are institutions established before 1964 to educate Black students in the United States. Today, there are approximately 100 of them. About half are public and half are private institutions. Although HBCU’s continue to focus on educating Black students, more than 20 percent of their students are non-Black. A growing number of HBCU students come from other countries.

Some educational institutes for free Black adults were founded in the Northern States before the Civil War (1861-1865). The first university owned and operated by Black people, Wilberforce University, was founded in Ohio in 1856.

The Thirteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. Philanthropists and religious organizations soon established dozens of educational institutes for newly freed Black people, including the first such institutions in the South. Many of these schools initially taught such basic subjects as arithmetic and reading and writing, because teaching Black people had been illegal in the pre-war South.

Following the Civil War, Southern state-funded colleges and universities refused admission to Black students. The Morrill Act of 1890 required these states to open at least one land-grant university that accepted Black students. Land-grant universities were initially funded by the sale of land given to the states by the federal government. Southern States opened such universities, but provided much less funding for them than for schools serving white students.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited the segregation of public schools in a landmark ruling in the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination because of a person’s color, race, national origin, religion, or sex. Together, these acts forced the integration of public and private colleges and universities that had banned Black students.

Several HBCU’s closed following the desegregation of colleges and universities. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan, following through on an executive order signed by his predecessor Jimmy Carter, established the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This program works to improve the competitiveness of HBCU’s and to promote them to the nation at large.

Marion Motley
Credit: © Bettmann/Getty Images

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas. 

Today, many Black football players are in the National Football League (NFL). But, this was not always the case. Black players had played in the early history of professional football, but all had been forced out by 1934. This changed in 1946, when the Cleveland Browns teammates Marion Motley (1920-1999) and Bill Willis (1921-2007) became two of a handful of players who permanently broke football’s color barrier, opening professional football to Black players.

Marion Motley was born June 5, 1920, near Albany, Georgia. He grew up in Canton, Ohio, where he attended Canton McKinley High School. Motley attended South Carolina State College, a historically Black college, in 1939. He then played for the University of Nevada, Reno, from 1940 to 1942. In Reno, Motley played fullback on offense, linebacker on defense, and kick returner. According to local accounts, he was also a skilled kicker and passer.

Motley joined the U.S. Navy in 1944 and was stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, Illinois. There, he played football under head coach Paul Brown.

In 1946, the Cleveland Browns began play as part of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a rival to the NFL. Paul Brown, Motley’s coach at Great Lakes, was named head coach and general manager. Brown recruited Motley to the new team. Motley anchored the powerful offense alongside quarterback Otto Graham. The Browns dominated the AAFC, winning championships all four years of the league’s existence.

Motley played fullback during his professional career. He was agile enough to dodge defenders, but he was also strong enough to break tackles. He did not shy away from hits and often ran defenders over.

In 1950, the Browns and two other teams from the AAFC joined the NFL. That year, Motley led the NFL with 810 rushing yards and was named to the Pro-Bowl team. The Browns went on to win the 1950 NFL championship game.

Motley was plagued by injuries in his later career, likely the result of his aggressive style of play. Motley left the Browns before the 1954 season and was later traded to the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers. He appeared with the Steelers in a few games in 1955 before retiring. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968. Motley died on June 27, 1999, in Cleveland.

Bill Willis
Credit: © Bettmann/Getty Images

William Karnet Willis was born on Oct. 5, 1921, in Columbus, Ohio. He attended East High School. He then enrolled at Ohio State University, where he played under head coach Paul Brown. The Buckeyes won their first national championship in 1942. Willis was named to the All-American team in 1943 and 1944, his senior year.

In 1946, when the Cleveland Browns began play as part of the AAFC, Willis’s college coach Paul Brown recruited Willis to the new team. With Willis anchoring the defense, the Browns won all four AAFC championships.

Willis played middle guard, a position similar to middle linebacker in modern defensive play. He chose to play this position despite being relatively small for a defensive player, at 6 feet 2 inches (1.9 meters) and 213 pounds (96 kilograms). Despite his size, he became one of the most feared defensive players due to his exceptional quickness and strong tackling ability.

When the Browns and two other teams from the AAFC joined the NFL in 1950, Willis’s speed saved the Brown’s season during a playoff game against the New York Giants. On a play in which the Giants running back had broken away from the defense and was heading for the end zone, Willis chased him down and tackled him at the 4 yard-line. The play preserved Cleveland’s victory, and the Browns went on to win the 1950 NFL championship game.

Willis was named to three NFL Pro-Bowl teams. He retired after the 1953 season and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977. Willis died Nov. 27, 2007, in Columbus.