RESPONSE TO INTEGRATION
A week after UGA students rioted against the federal ruling for integration circa 1961, a Calculus professor had his class write an essay on how they felt about integration in lieu of a test. These essays did not include names nor affiliations, so Greek life was not mentioned; however, these primary sources do offer an insight into white southern reasoning and racist traditionalism. A word that struck me as hyperbole and was used in several essays was “force”.
“Integration has been forced upon us by the federal courts.”(Math 254 Essays, 6)
“I believe that if the schools are mixed that I will be forced to associate with persons whom I think have a substandard set of standards” (Math 254 Essays, 10)
Only one of the twelve iterations of “force” mentioned in various essays notes the imposition of power against black people, “In the first place the Negros [sic] did not ask to come to America but they were forced” (Math 254 Essays, 6). It is evident that there exists a false equivalency of the government “forcing” integration on students and the excessive force used in the oppression and subjugation of Black people. Moreover, in the eyes of white UGA students at this time, the inconvenience of integration to the white way of life was the only one worth noting.
The logic around those opposed to integration often mentioned tradition, morals, and the Southern way of life. Even those who were in support of integration were rarely supporting it because they thought that Black people were their equals, rather they thought it practical/ economical to only have to provide one set of public facilities, didn’t think integration was worth sacrificing their own education for, or thought integration was inevitable and fighting it would only cause the South to fall behind the North’s progress. While these ideas are not exclusive to Panhellinic organizations, they are certainly shared by them and their resistance to segregation can be noted by the perceived necessity to create a Black sorority 8 years after the university had officially been integrated.
The reason that Greek Life institutions are particularly slow to integrate (with Black and other minority groups vastly underrepresented in terms of proportions relative to the University) is due to the selective nature of rushing. Where general body UGA students felt forced to comply with government ruling and Yankee ideals, there was no such pressure on these Greek organizations to comply. Outdated traditions, close-minded upbringings, and the exclusionary attributes of Greek life allowed it to delay integration. There are no records of a Black student in a greek organization prior to the first Black greek sorority, a Zeta Psi Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, in 1969 and founders of said sorority were denied access to rushing in white sororities in 1968. While this Black sorority chapter did offer an opportunity for Black female students to be a part of Greek life and participate in their own sisterhood, Black sororities and Fraternities on the national level were not as respected.
Black sororities and fraternities were delayed membership into the national Greek organizations, Interfraternity Council for fraternities and Panhellenic Council for sororities though the Interfraternity Council had seen their first full-member status Black Greek organizations by 1967 which is two years before UGA had its first Black sorority. The Panhellenic Council remained quiet on the issue of segregation and maintained its distance from Black sororities with different rushing schedules and lack of includance to nation-wide events. There was never a proper integration of the Panhellenic Council; in 1975 the “Black Greek Alliance, made up of six black Greek-letter organizations, three fraternities and three sororities, was established as a governing board for black fraternities and sororities,” which convened with the Office of Greek Affairs, “allowing them to unite with the rest of the Greek system,”(Going Greek).
Greek life was able to delay integration years past universities integrated and still remains heavily segregated today. Minority members who do get into predominantly white houses are often the victims of persistent racism and made to participate in those outdated Southern traditions mentioned in essays opposed to integration in 1961. There has been no clear initiative from the Panhellenic community to actively engage in integration thus all forms of diversity that have entered into the Greek life culture must assimilate in order to remain in those spaces.