College Newspaper Scores Big Story

We’re still going to school here at the US campus of the Back Road Café.  We’ve already sat in on a high school US history class  and tried to find a preschool. Today we visit the offices of The Crimson White, student newspaper at The University of Alabama 

CNN and Jesse Jackson both came to call this week at the offices of The University of Alabama student paper The Crimson White after student reporters broke a big story; sororities of the legendary Tuscaloosa school continue to refuse membership to black students.  

“Are we really not going to talk about the black girl?” began the story “The Final Barrier: 50 Years after the integration of the University of Alabama, the greek system remains segregated.” A member of Alpha Gamma Delta, one of many elite residences and societies known as sororities (and fraternities for men) that play a large role in student status and success on many US campuses, told the paper that she asked this question during a closed meeting to vote on new sorority members.  The meeting ended abruptly with no votes, she said, because alumna on the committee did not want to accept any black members. 

The “black girl” in question had a 4.3 grade point average (4.0 is all A’s), was a track star and salutatorian of her high school class, and granddaughter of UA trustee and retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice John Englander, Jr. 

That is, she was qualified, over-qualified, to join the powerful sorority. And well connected.   But they have never had black members.  This at the campus where 50 years ago this fall there was the famous “Showdown at the Schoolhouse Door” between US Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, demanding the school admit black students, and Alabama Governor George Wallace blocking the door, having said, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” 

Most US colleges and universities have a newspaper with eager journalism students seeking to write more than the weekly dorm lunch menu (that’s on page 2 right next to this story) and sports stories.  This article was part of a series The Crimson White was doing to mark the 50 years since desegregation.  

When we mark anniversaries, like all these 50^ths this year – 1963  March on Washington, fire bombing deaths of 4 little girls at a church in Birmingham, the Showdown at the Schoolhouse Door – we encourage media stories; 50 years ago….What has changed? 

Not much, it seems, in the so-called greek system of sororities and fraternities at ‘Bama.  On campus (and funded and supported by student fees) are historically white sororities and black sororities and Jewish sororities.  After previous complaints and newspaper stories, the administration has simply said, essentially; these are private organizations, they can do what they want, and we can understand why people would want to hang out with “their own kind.” 

(The administration ignored the fact that the black sororities have accepted white members and the Jewish ones have taken black members.) 

And they underestimated what might happen if the story got out past the kiosks of the cute free student paper. (It’s called The Crimson White because those are the school colors, and the athletic teams are called the Crimson Tide.  “Roll On Tide!”– a cheer at the football games of their #1 nationally ranked football team.  Which is integrated – no problem having black athletes.) 

So the story went national and viral.  NY Times, CNN in nearby Atlanta, Time Magazine, The Guardian.  The school paper has been writing about this for at least three years.  Why hadn’t it caught the public attention earlier? Was it a slow news day?  Were people more interested because of the anniversary stories?  The fact that the student’s grandfather, the trustee and justice, heard, he said it was time for this to change?  I don’t know. 

But it took me to the paper’s website.  Check out page one of the issue with the original story.

Is it just me or is this photo a bit more provocative than necessary?  Sex sells, even for a free paper.  The story starts on page 3.  What’s here on page one, below the forlorn babe sorority wannabe, is another in the 50^th anniversary series, this time about ‘Bama’s legendary football coach Bear Bryant, holder of all school records, who is presented as relatively proactive on integrating football (Wow! In 1971 he welcomed two black players, almost ten years after the Schoolhouse Door.) 

Rev. Jesse Jackson, legendary civil rights leader and aide to Martin Luther King, Jr, often shows up magically at many scenes of prejudice or hate, and he happened to be in the neighborhood for a commemoration of the firebomb murder of the four girls at the 16^th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham. 

All the attention – CNN, Justice Grandpa, Jesse Jackson - seems to have taken the administration by surprise.  They started quickly backtracking on their previous helpless responses.  The president issued various statements of concern, the Faculty Senate condemned the sorority, the paper had follow up stories and letters. 

Then students organized a march, “The Final Showdown at the School House Door.”  Nice connection with their own history.   500 students, mostly white (the school is only 12% black in a state which is 26% black) were joined by faculty and staff demanding the administration be more active in desegregating the sororities (and fraternities? – they are left out of these stories.)  Even the regional federal civil rights office of the Dept. of Justice issued a warning to the school.  By week’s end the sorority had extended the deadline and raised the number of students who could be accepted.  And – surprise! – they admitted four black women. 

This is all to say that US universities are not just classrooms and research and diplomas.  They are microcosms of their communities.  They teach by example as much as by lecture.  Students learn on marches as on tests. 

And that US universities are incredibly beholden to alums, for their big money donations to sororities and athletic programs.  (And, oh yeah, maybe to faculty support and student scholarships?)  The money in college football is obscene; football coaches regularly earn far more than university presidents.  Alums fuel this mania. 

So it was no surprise that page one of the news breaking issue of The Crimson White had a story about football.  And that the current online version of the paper features, after the sorority story, a big story about how the administration is concerned that the 17,000 seat student section of the 101,000 seat football stadium is not selling out each Saturday to watch their national champion team.  

What?  The students would rather stay home and study?  Or maybe they just prefer to hang out with their own kind?

Copyright © 2013 Deborah Streeter