Sherman Wu

Sherman Hsiu-huang Wu (Chinese: 吳修潢; 1937 – May 11, 2010) was a Chinese-American social activist and professor, whose experiences at Northwestern University brought the issue of discrimination against Asian Americans to the fore. The general condemnation of the prejudice exhibited against him presaged later actions in the Asian American movement.

Wu remained at Northwestern, having joined a different fraternity, and received his bachelor's degree in 1961. He later also received a Master of Science degree in 1963 and a doctorate in 1965, both still at Northwestern. After completing his PhD, Wu worked in various space industries. He contributed to the design of reaction jet control system for the Apollo mission and digital auto-pilot for the ABM and other tactical missiles. He later became a professor at Marquette University in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He married Julianne Lezotte Agnew, a native of Wisconsin and a journalist. Following his retirement, he settled in Clearwater, Florida. He died on May 11, 2010, from esophageal cancer.

Psi Upsilon's action became national news when written about by Time magazine. The actions of the fraternity were criticized by Upton Sinclair, among others. In the wake of the publicity, two other fraternities offered to pledge Wu. The dean of students, James McLeod, took no action to force the Psi Upsilon to rescind its decision, saying that "the fraternity is a student organization which has its own rules." The president of the university, J. Roscoe Miller, stated that the university would not interfere with the selection of fraternity members. Fraternities at the university continued to practice racial discrimination until the mid-1960s.

Wu attempted to pledge at the Psi Upsilon fraternity at Northwestern University in the Fall of 1956. After originally being told that he would be able to join the fraternity, he was "depledged" after his fellow pledges objected to someone of Chinese ancestry joining the organization. Wu wrote a letter to The Daily Northwestern, the campus newspaper, criticizing the actions of the fraternity. Wu wrote that his depledging was "just one of those cases that are based on a few people's ignorance and prejudice."