University of Virginia Library

'this place has got to change...'

just followed us around."

Not all houses were like this-some
were pleasant surprises. "There was a
warm welcome at ZBT," Byron Harris
recalled. Chi Phi and Pi Lam impressed
Sam Thompson as friendly, "but it was
forced, like they were determined to
show they weren't prejudiced." Bob
Berryman, who was "completely
shocked" by SAE, found AEPi and Phi
Epsilon Pi contrastingly friendly and
warm.

Most other houses fell somewhere in
between. "They'd shake your hand all
right, but maybe they wouldn't look you
in the eye, or the next day you'd see
someone who had talked to you and he'd
turn away. At least beer was free."

But it was inside the houses, when the
fraternities did not attempt to rush the
black students, that the great chasm
which separates the races at Virginia
appeared at its widest:

•A white student and his date are
standing, talking to a black rushee. All
the other rushees are dancing with the
dates of house members. The
conversation has been friendly, so the
rushee asks if he may dance with the
brother's date.

"That's up to her," says the fraternity
man.

"No, it's up to you," says his date.

"Whatever you like," says the
fraternity man to his date.

"Ooohh," she moans in anguish.

"What are you trying to prove?" asks
fraternity man of rushee.

•Three black students turn up the
walk and are greeted by the house's rush
chairman. He invites them in, shakes their
hands, and tells them to go downstairs
and get a beer. A brother is behind the
bar, drawing beer into his fraternity mug
from a large keg.

"Rush chairman told us to come down
and get some beer."

"I haven't got any beer," says the
brother, still pouring.

"Looks to me like you do," says the
rushee.

"Well, I haven't got any cups left.

•A brother is showing some black
rushees his house's living quarters. He
points with pride to a room whose walls
are adorned with confederate flags.

"The guys really try to make their
rooms here as comfortable as the ones at
home."

"Yeah."

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so
surprisingly in view of the fraternities'
determination to avoid charges of
discrimination, most of the black rushees
have been invited back to at least one
house for the next found of rush
functions. Some of them intend to
continue rushing, if only because they are
as partial to free food and beer as the
next man.

But when asked if they intended to
pledge, not one of the seven felt it was
very likely, several because of financial
difficulties. Financial considerations
notwithstanding, however, none of them
wants to be a token. "If I pledged, I
wouldn't know if it was me they wanted
or whether I was just supposed to be the
integrated fraternity system," said one of
the group.

About the only way one of these
men would join a fraternity would be if a
house that all of them liked asked several
of the black first-year men to pledge.
They don't feel it's very likely.

"This place has got to change,
man," said one. "Most of the people
around here are still fighting the Civil
War."