--- title: University of Oklahoma SAE Racist Chant: History Behind the Scandal description: The coupling of lynching metaphors with the chanting of segregationist “never” pledge is not accidental canonical: https://time.com/3742109/history-fraternity-racism/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-12T19:00:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:55.849Z article:section: History og:title: University of Oklahoma SAE Racist Chant: History Behind the Scandal og:description: The chanting of a segregationist pledge has historical antecedents og:url: https://time.com/3742109/history-fraternity-racism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacc3567bc367ed06/6987834c5f570f94aeb15b46/1961.jpeg?branch=production&width=527&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 527 og:image:height: 296 og:image:alt: Students demonstrating in 1961 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: University of Oklahoma SAE Racist Chant: History Behind the Scandal twitter:description: The chanting of a segregationist pledge has historical antecedents twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacc3567bc367ed06/6987834c5f570f94aeb15b46/1961.jpeg?branch=production&width=527&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Historical Roots of Fraternity Racism > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Know Right Now: Racist Chant Video Shuts Down OU Frat [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Racist Chant Video Shuts Down OU Frat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LCDDxkAi.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2015-03-10. Know Right Now: Racist Chant Video Shuts Down OU Frat_ by [History News Network](https://time.com/author/history-news-network/) ## History News Network Mar 12, 2015 7:00 PM UTC  Students demonstrating against the integration of African American students at the University of Georgia in 1961 Students demonstrating against the integration of African American students at the University of Georgia in 1961 Joseph Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty by [History News Network](https://time.com/author/history-news-network/) ## History News Network Mar 12, 2015 7:00 PM UTC  History News Network _This post is in partnership with the_ [_History News Network_](http://historynewsnetwork.org/)_, the website that puts the news into historical perspective. The article below was originally published at_ [_HNN._](http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/158761) **Correction appended, March 17, 2015** The response of the University of Oklahoma to the tape of its campus Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) members cheerfully singing a vile racist chant has been one of shock and outrage. This has been reflected in public rallies on campus condemning the ugly racism on that tape and in the swift and decisive action by the university president David Boren in denouncing and closing down the offending fraternity. But while my initial reaction too was outrage at this racist display, as a historian who has researched segregationist student activism in the 1950s and 1960s South, my next thought was of how eerily familiar the fraternity behavior on that tape seemed to be. The tape shows cheerful, white, well dressed frat boys repeatedly singing “You can hang him from a tree, but he’ll never sign with me. There will never be a \[n—-r in\] SAE.” What astonished me was how reminiscent this chant by Oklahoma fraternity members in 2015 was of the chant of segregationist fraternity members at the University of Georgia in January 1961\. Though separated by more than a half century in both cases a lynching reference was combined with the chanting of a pledge to keep the segregationist fraternity tradition intact. The only difference between the racist chants in 2015 and 1961 that I can discern is that the fraternities today seem more inclined to do their chanting in private. At Oklahoma this semester the chant came in what started out as a private fraternity setting (a bus apparently transporting fraternity members from some fraternity-related event). The privacy was, of course, violated by the leaking of the tape of the chant, but clearly the chant was not designed for public consumption. The Georgia chant, on the other hand, was made in public, at a segregationist rally at the campus historic archway entrance in January 1961 at the height of the university’s integration crisis. Some 150-200 Georgia students had just hung a black faced effigy of Hamilton Holmes, who along with Charlayne Hunter, had in January 1961 become the first African American student to attend the historically segregated University of Georgia. The white students first “serenaded the effigy with choruses of Dixie and then sang “There’ll never be a \[n—-r\] in the \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ fraternity house,” whose various names they inserted. Clearly, UGA students in 1961, operating in a historically segregated university and a segregated college town (Athens, Georgia) did not feel the pressure their 21st century fraternity counterparts do — at racially integrated campuses — to keep their racist displays to themselves. But if the venue was different the racist sentiment and mode of expression were virtually identical. The coupling of lynching metaphors with the chanting of a segregationist pledge “never” to integrate is not accidental. Lynching symbolizes black powerlessness, while white pledges to sustain segregation permanently evoke the power and endurance of white supremacy. The implication seems to be that even if the university integrates the fraternity will remain an outpost of white supremacy and racial exclusion. The similarity between the racist fraternity chants in these two centuries raises questions about fraternity history and culture that should be of as much interest to university presidents as to historians. It suggests that the responsibility for the ugly racist chant at the Oklahoma SAE rests not merely with the individuals who sang on that bus but the larger fraternity culture. How, we ought to ask, is it possible that these racist chants have endured for generations? Who is it that preserves such racist traditions and transmits them to each new college generation? This seems a clear case of cultural preservation, transmission, and reproduction. And it is all the more striking because this hoary racist tradition attracts adherents and admirers well into our century when modern science and social science have long since refuted white supremacist assumptions. Finally, we need to ask why even on racially integrated campuses, such as Oklahoma, fraternities remain so racially exclusive that such vintage segregationist chants can be sung so shamelessly. The historical roots of this racist fraternity tradition and the political, cultural and demographic props that sustain it must be understood and confronted honestly if the ghost of Jim Crow is ever to be banished from frat row. _Robert Cohen is a professor of Social Studies and History at New York University, co-editor with David J. Snyder of “Rebellion in Black and White: Southern Student Activism in the 1960s” and editor of “The Essential Mario Savio: Speeches and Writings That Changed America.”_ **Correction:** The original version of this story misstated the author’s first name. It is Robert. ### What Sigma Alpha Epsilon Looked Like 70 Years Ago  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. A long-legged coed gets hoisted atop a circus wagon which will take her to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon circus masquerade party at U.C.L.A. The inside of the wagon, which normally is used for lions by a local circus, was already full of other guests. Halfway to the party the wagon broke down and the girls and their hosts continued on foot. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Bonnie, a mournful elephant, provided a lift to the party for two co-eds. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Delighted dates were carried off to the wagon by boys in bears' heads. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Sideshow "Barker" chivies coeds about their costumes as he hands out admission to "main tent." Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sigma Alpha Epsilon Circus party at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1946. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Make-believe rabbits, Bud Jones and Muriel Goodwin in ordinary campus life, made the most startling and effective appearance at the masquerade party. The costumes were sewn together by Miss. Goodwin from old bed sheeting of dark felt and cotton batting for less than a dollar. The entire party cost a little under $400. 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