When looking into the Confederate roots of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity I came across information that sheds some light on the origins of the vile racist song that was sung by the fraternity's Oklahoma University chapter. Here's that information.
By now we all know the horrific lyrics to the SAE song. Here's from Shaun King's earlier diary:
“There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.
There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE.
You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me
There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE."
The reference relating lynching to signing (that is, joining SAE) provides a major clue as to the provenance of the song. Below for more.
The history of the practice of lynching has recently been discussed here on DKos:
What is now known as "spectacular lynching" involved the ceremonial torture, murder--and yes, burning alive--of black Americans by whites.
A recent
NYTime article about lynching discusses this history and its significance:
“Lynching and the terror era shaped the geography, politics, economics and social characteristics of being black in America during the 20th century,” Mr. Stevenson said, arguing that many participants in the great migration from the South should be thought of as refugees fleeing terrorism rather than people simply seeking work.
these brutal deaths were not about administering popular justice, but terrorizing a community.
This form of anti-Black terrorism peaked in the period around
1880-1930, and was a key part of segregation, the Jim Crow system, and the maintenance of white supremacy.
----
Now, on to SAE history and its connection to the recent racist bus song.
The founders of SAE
The process of joining ("sign with" in the racist song) the fraternity is something that SAE historically has taken very seriously. Here's an excerpt from a letter written in 1870 from a corresponding secretary of an SAE Grand Chapter to an SAE chapter in Kentucky. The letter concerns the question whether individuals can themselves initiate the process and approach the fraternity to be admitted:
The Grand Chapter has instructed me to answer your query as best as I can and of course I take an interest in doing so as the welfare of the SAE fraternity is involved I think you are greatly mistaken when you say it is unconstitutional to ask anyone to join who has not so solicited of his own accord. It is not even contrary to the best practice. It matters little whether the person has applied or not ... Before asking him we make him promise solemnly that he will never say anything about the matter to anyone. So if he refuses no one knows it but himself. We never let anyone know anything about the internal proceedings of our chapter until they have been initiated. ... Each man judges for himself when a name is proposed. It matters not whether a person has applied or not or whether he has even hinted that he would like to be an SAE .... We never let a man know we want him to join our society until he has been unanimously elected into it.
[Source for quotes: From the Founding of the Fraternity to the Agitation for Northern Extension, by William Collin Levere (1911)].
Clearly signing on new members is something that SAE has considered to be a serious matter to be dealt with carefully. The obsession with secrecy that I've highlighted is also something that has characterized SAE history.
Now, in 1870 SAE held an important general convention in Memphis, Tennessee. SAE pondered what it called the question of "Northern Extension", meaning whether or not the fraternity should try and expand to the historically non-slavery states in the North, given its deep roots in the antebellum South. A previous decision had been made in favor of expanding to the North. This decision was being reconsidered.
The [1870] convention retraced their steps looking toward northern extension which the convention of the year before had taken. It was during the period of reconstruction in the South and many things had happened to estrange the North and the South even more than the war had done if such a thing were possible.
In the 1870 meeting that decision was repealed. The SAE branch in Virginia reacted this way:
Virginia Sigma was jubilant for it had been especially active in the movement toward repeal going so far as to declare that there was danger if the fraternity was allowed to extend to the North that negroes would be admitted. The form of the new law was: No chapter shall be established north Of the Mason and Dixon line north of California and Kansas.
Clearly at the time the desire that Black Americans never "sign" with SAE was a major concern for the fraternity members.
In 1883, in spite of much opposition, the first Northern chapter of SAE was established at Pennsylvania College.
For over a quarter of a century the question of extension had been a perpetual theme of fraternity agitation. It first appeared almost coeval with birth of the fraternity and from time to time ever had been discussed pro and con among the members in the chapters ... There were some could not conceive that the idea of the fraternity crossing the Mason and Dixon line would ever take shape.
So the spread of SAE chapters to the North, which was opposed by some members because they were concerned it might mean that blacks would join the fraternity, occurred right at the time that lynching had become a central tactic by racists to terrorize and control African Americans. The racist bus song by SAE at OU appears to have its origins in this brutal chapter of American history. How exactly the song and the politics of terrorism and the racist tradition it represents was transmitted down to March, 2015 is a different question, whose history remains to be recovered and written.
When writing this I also came across this related piece on Gawker:
SAE Is Secretly Trying To Wipe Away Its Confederate History.
This history needs to be confronted, not hidden.
