The history of racism behind #BamaRush: What you need to know about the segregationist roots of Greek life at the University of Alabama

• #BamaRush refers to the sorority recruitment process at the University of Alabama, and has become a viral sensation.
• The university was desegregated by force in 1963, but its Greek organizations remained largely white until 2013.

The sensation known as #BamaRush was in full swing this August, with around 2,500 girls vying for a coveted spot at the University of Alabama's prestigious sororities.

While Greek life at the school is no new phenomenon, it's taken on a life of its own, exploding into fame and notoriety when it became a viral trend on TikTok in 2021. Potential new members, referred to as PNMs, posted daily outfits and shared their hopes and reflections on rushing, offering viewers a glimpse into the secretive rush process of sororities.

#BamaRush and #RushTok have since ballooned in popularity, attracting more than 3.3 billion and 1.6 billion views on TikTok, respectively. The trend also includes videos of sororities' highly-choreographed dance routines and cost breakdowns of PNMs' outfits. The University of Alabama's rush process was also the subject of the recent MAX documentary "Bama Rush."

But what the dizzying confection of synchronized dancing and Lululemon athletic skirts belies is the barely-disguised exclusionary and segregationist roots of the rush process in Greek sororities.

"Greek organizations are very much an outgrowth of the separatist culture that was predominant in the US South," Riché Richardson, professor of Africana studies at Cornell University, told Insider. "The inclusion of Black people and people of color was something that ran counter to the social preferences pervasive in the South for many years, and is very much inherited from Jim Crow, which was premised on racial hierarchies that presumed Black inferiority."

Rooted in exclusion

The first Greek fraternities were founded in the late 1700s on the basis of exclusion. Back then, universities were largely only open to wealthy, white male students.

These fraternities "mirrored the politics and structures of the universities themselves, which often excluded Black people," Richardson said.

Many early fraternities had official "whites-only" policies, and retained these policies until the 1960s and 70s, according to Matthew Hughey, professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut.

The first sororities weren't founded until around a century later in the mid- to late-1800s, and were seen as success stories of women who fought to overcome misogyny and restrictive social customs.

But even as Greek life has flourished and diversified over the years, fraternities and sororities in the United States have continued to grapple with issues of exclusion, particularly along wealth and racial lines.

Desegregated by force

Greek life at universities across the country have been criticized for their exclusionary practices, but the lack of diversity is especially stark at University of Alabama, which has a long history of segregation.

The university itself was desegregated by force in 1963, nearly a decade after the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed segregation in schools. That year, Alabama governor George Wallace had promised his supporters, "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!"

Wallace refused to desegregate the University of Alabama, even physically blocking Black students from entering the door of its enrollment office with the help of state troopers.

On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy deployed the National Guard to the university to force its desegregation.

Greek life wasn't desegregated until 2013

Greek life at the University of Alabama, however, remained segregated until 2013.

The first sorority at the school was founded in 1904, but not a single woman who was identifiably Black was offered a bid — the formal invitation to join a sorority — until 2003.

"We've made a big step today, and hopefully it is something that we can build on," Heather Schacht, Panhellenic Association's then-president, told the Tuscaloosa News.

But the traditionally white sororities remained that way in the years that followed: None of the 16 Panhellenic sororities offered bids to a Black student, despite the fact that 90% of women who rush are offered a bid, according to a 2014 Marie Claire story.

In 2013, an explosive story from the University of Alabama's student newspaper, The Crimson White, revealed that the all-white sororities at the school were still denying Black students. (The sororities named in the article denied discriminatory practices.)

"We were told we do not take Black girls, because it would be bad for our chapter — our reputation and our status," Yardena Wolf, a member of Alpha Omicron Pi, told Marie Claire.

Caroline Bechtel, a member of Phi Mu, added that "anyone who was a minority was automatically added" to a list of girls who were to be dropped from rush.

After the Crimson White story was published, the school moved to diversify its Greek organizations, and 14 minority women — ten of whom were Black — were accepted that year.

Acts of racism persist

Sororities at the University of Alabama have become more diverse since they were desegregated: Data from the Crimson White showed that around 97% of the 33 Black potential new members who completed the recruitment process received bids in 2021.

But reports suggest there's still vast room for growth. In 2019, just 1.2% — 88 women — of the traditionally white sororities' members identified as Black, while 90% were white.

"The [Panhellenic Council] is allowed to get away with its lack of diversity because no one is forcing them to correct their ways," a Black female graduate told the Crimson White in 2020. She said she had only been accepted to her sorority to meet the diversity quota.

In January 2018, videos of an Alpha Phi member — including one where she said, "I love how I act like I love Black people because I f–king hate [n-word]" — led to her expulsion from the sorority and from the university. In 2021, two members of the same sorority, including its president, were removed from the organization after they sent racist text messages in a group chat.

Other graduates have shared their experiences with racism and microaggressions at their sororities on TikTok. One woman who graduated from the University of Alabama in 2021 said her secret handshake to get into meetings was a handshake used in a movie about the Ku Klux Klan. A sorority member at another Alabama university said she "repeatedly" had to remind other members "not to use the n-word," and that one member made comments about "certain races smelling bad."

The importance of diversifying

Both students and experts alike have called for a need to reflect and reform. Some schools have abolished Greek life entirely.

But Greek life can play a positive role in campus life, including providing networks and a sense of community for students, Richardson said. In addition to traditionally white sororities, the University of Alabama also has the nine historically Black Greek-letter organizations, referred to as the Divine Nine.

The problem comes when organizations like sororities and fraternities "persist in enforcing these retrograde forms of exclusion," according to Richardson.

"It's not just about the sororities and fraternities, because the networks that are established in the undergraduate context are carried over to the real world," Richardson said. "Students are likely to become gatekeepers of the workplaces they go to, perpetuating ideas of minority exclusion. That's when they become the enemy of progress for diversity and inclusion."