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Philo Hutcheson, an education professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, says that among white Greek organizations "there are examples all across the country of things like blackface minstrel shows and slave auctions...These are overt statements of racism, and they happen in the North as much as in the South." Efforts to integrate white fraternities and sororities are made more difficult, Hutcheson says, because blacks often self-segregate in their own Greek organizations.
Some schools say they're trying to change this pattern. At the University of Alabama, where none of the 37 traditionally white fraternities and sororities have ever had a black member, the white groups last month moved the date of their rush week, hoping to attract more pledges of all races. Membership in sororities and fraternities increased 14%, but no blacks wound up applying to white organizations. The University of North Carolina offers diversity training to its student groups. So does the University of Virginia. But only a handful of blacks have tried to join the white Greek organizations at those universities.
Feeling ostracized, Ali Davis withdrew from the University of Georgia and moved home to Tennessee. Her whistle blowing, however, has caused a dialogue on campus. A group of black and white students put together a two-hour forum on race called "Break the Silence." Two weeks ago, they held a multicultural fashion show. It was arranged by Chi Chi Patrick, an African-American who was recently elected homecoming queen. --Reported by Leslie Everton Brice/Atlanta