Updated: 3:56 p.m.

This report was written by features editor Melissa Turley.

An alumnus is fighting back against the University’s planned festivities for George Washington’s birthday, saying the celebrations gloss over the controversial parts of the president’s life.

Alumnus Joe Rogers, Jr. drafted a petition urging GW to  reexamine its “rituals and routines and how they may be hurtful and offensive.”

“To ‘party like it’s 1732’ as the University has encouraged us to do on February 22nd, 2012 on the proverbial graves of our enslaved ancestors is ahistorical and offensive. This is not joyous; this is sad and disrespectful,” the petition reads.

Washington, a slave owner, was also a signer of the 1790 Naturalization Act, which prohibited African-Americans from gaining citizenship, and the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act.

Rogers and student participants will attend celebratory events on Wednesday and Thursday to circulate materials on the broader legacy of the namesake and founding father.

“It’s very appropriate to recognize and acknowledge George Washington’s positive contributions to our nation’s history, but inappropriate and ahistorical and historically dishonest to not also remember the African Americans on whose backs George Washington’s accomplishments were achieved,” Rogers said.