The Alabama Experience; One for All

the thank you ha ha ha ha yeah welcome to the university of la and one of the buildings that survived the civil war still loved the air at alabama

tradition as a mantra dotted with rice to past glories it was once the singular birthplace of the state's leadership class especially perhaps for politicians of student government here journalist marshall friday rights at the battle of waterloo was one on the fields of reading that many a governor or senator has been born in the dorms and sidewalks of tuscaloosa matt air yet all but a few have though their success in part to a tradition of membership in a powerful secret all white political machine now in the light of a new day the

university grapples with the tradition and its own heritage to balance political principal and practicality presents with hass yeah and again what's happening inside the stadium on september seventeenth is this interesting what interest to two thousand and most fans were oblivious let's listen cause the list of student government candidates over the years reads like a who's who of alabama politics the most contemporary names lieutenant governor don siegelman a senator richard shelby in the recent past senator howell heflin in the nineteen eighty six gubernatorial levels bill baxley and trolley and earlier

senators was driven ellen jones congressman paul williams supreme court justice hugo black and the consummate alabama politicians we see wallace and viciously politically active and jessica matures has headed the recent student constitutional convention and has interned with the state attorney general's office parents and russell from homs has been active in organizations concerned with women african american and international students but it's the first time in history that both major candidates have been women and it's the first election since among president's suspension of sgi a climax growing tensions that remains at the heart of this campaign tim johnson was supported primarily by independents but bureau says the backing of most fraternities and sororities although the greek system accounts for only about twenty percent of the

student population it has from its start dominating campus politics having lost only seven elections in eighty years the source of their power in part as a political coalition of two dozen or so prominent all white fraternities and sororities usually referred to sin as the machine but with links to one of the twenty five year old secret society whose greek letters that in us alone spell won the machine and its purported abuses long a topic of campus interest and lately caught the attention of national magazines and tabloid television it is a comedy of particular interest to the alleged nineteen eighty three assault of an anti machine candidate which prompted the disbanding of the divisions of the day or older even than student government as old in fact as the university itself and at the start of the college once for practical purposes a finishing school for the sons of

placards or home nearly all were wealthy summer not far removed from the frontier and eighteen thirty four thousand about the woods was chased across campus by a band of students throwing protection foreign post office fortunately is provided more constructive really from what was in fairness and austere environments student societies began in the schools first marked the first national social fraternity delta kappa epsilon appeared in nineteen forty seven and by the start of the civil war there were five always viewed by some as early seventies he survived a foreign power for the kind of the center and hauling the admission of women that were joined by sorties they're the new epsilon maybe leaders of virtue of skull and bones a system which means helping them are making eighty eight and never left not a social fraternity of a secret society at a mean hand fix the most well heeled among greeks are more narrow and reveals to them carefully guarded secrets which are said to prepare

him for a middle way of life and a lifetime membership in the leadership class any idealism projects were high minded but the group was also interested in unifying greeks and they played a strong role in the national movement for students of sweeping campuses just before world war war that combination would be a proven recipe for political power one of the first to call it was a young deep for montgomery he had pedigree that would've made him a plan for that in that solo and the nineteen fourteen when the usda constitution and replaced the civil war vintage military system mr hill became its first president hola support of the involvement of women who shared a long career as one of the state's most distinguished progressives is also assumed by many to be the father of the mission in the early days to new numbers what most of these wealthy white protestant male

population today is more diverse and especially in light of the university's history the issue of inclusiveness is of primary and sensitive lot but it's also still a conservative campus where history to build mansions and also heritage associated with the greek system another boarding symbols for many of the plantation and that they remain segregated seen as a confirmation that such symbols are hard to resist in the race for executive vice president south carolina's senior at elliot has been an employee and friend of the man who's credited with shutting down as she and vice president hearing up he has also been the focus of resentment and portions of the greek community for his efforts to regulate it and frisk like opposition to segregation ms

silsby says it supports both but elliott is also president of kappa alpha one of the oldest and most prestigious fraternities on campus known for its deep bowl sell fruits and perennial membership his opponent is out on the tuscaloosa member of the second generation african american campus leader there inclusion is the key issue in this campaign it is now anew and the history of the ncaa here is to extend a story about it and the machine have responded to increasing diversity government response has been predictable sometimes it does not in nineteen thirty five the university was in the midst of the depression and george clooney trying to keep it afloat was pitching the school as a bargain for out of staters the result was an

influx of northerners with a variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds the first to seize this as a political opportunity was a gangly north alabama farm boy down for a career in congress call elliott gambled by targeting independent orders and women who like himself uses for social outcasts one word one at that time and that will flow through this by most accounts it was the first athlete ever for the mission from the last forty years two years later another student of humble origins of clinton's campaigning and have the freshman class presidency so nothing for the machine you he was here but george wallace had gotten attention is to success of campaigns to have the prestigious program for teen club vail of only three election losses was a master politician would suffer in his entire career two with

the machine or to record a temporary the dramatic change in the student population shifting it from sixty three percent male to seventy percent female but as ge remain a men's club in nineteen forty four for the first time to sorting challenge to the vice president capital to secure the mission endorsement from political science student who would one day joined the white house staff and when the us to present later resigned that the anderson became the first woman to preside over the student body despite officially backing anderson initiated a series of reforms aimed at broadening participation the most lasting legacy is the creation of the student senate i felt badly that they started the tide is saying to control the whole scene and he wanted to bring the independence and to their political grow and spread enthusiasm for self

work significant political gains for women were short lived anderson's fate would not be matched for three generations nineteen fifty six and the first aborted attempt at racial desegregation set the tone on campus for an air of turbulence and change and its impact last week and dependent and machine lines we got ourselves the group not the machine we never use that term which he drew in butler came to the university in nineteen fifty seven pledged k eight and was soon approach to join the group i don't remember really more than he usually two meetings a year there are usually a late night and they were held in a variety of places from fraternity house basement above a hardware store drought now of steel beside a highway two years later when bubba ran unopposed for sta president the group was at its peak like that a new apps along with which it was now somewhat vaguely connected the machine

was overwhelmingly greek all mail and what the school all white but the year was nineteen sixty eight the most politically active students were often mission greeks most were also democrats wouldn't deal moves some campaign for kennedy and were forced to confront the issue of race for the first time later worked for hill elliott and other progressives that stimulated it was a very eye opening experience for me in borden certainly for my views and made me think about issues that i probably never thought about before i want to do something about trauma tell them i'm a better story for all militia which can show why tj the head of the machine fraternity butler's friend bill baxley denies group membership but he does remember sharing about ways attitudes as president of the continuing club in nineteen sixty two baxley made a point of booking the first black entertainers since the start of the

civil rights era that was so kind of exciting when that direction poland feel like a new a pioneer as state attorney general bill baxley was consistent aggressively prosecuting civil rights crimes including the bombing of the sixteenth street baptist church in nineteen eighty six he and campaign manager gillian butler were also at the center of a gubernatorial campaign brought down by the issue of backroom politics as the decade intensified national issues overshadowed the more typical monday and concerns of college life even for the most apathetic students don't think there's any question that during the entire decade of the nineteen sixties that the college students values at your show alabama underwent a dramatic change i think we were both been viewed as fairly radical politics the election of nineteen sixty

six pitted against one another to friends who would later become law partner specializing in civil rights and civil liberties in a campaign that split the machine independent jack drake also had the support of the greek splinter group wealth and also a former sigma chi was backed by mainline machine houses and my independence as well but i think the overriding sort of untapped so the intensity of football was gone all politically and ideologically and still you can you can avoid it knowles didn't try when elected he plunged the sta fully into the political fray particularly on the issue of race a founder of the emphasis speaker program he brought the campus controversial figures and spirited debate he appointed the first black student legislator and he was the only leader of a white organization in alabama to openly denounced governor wallace's resistance to k through twelve public school desegregation we really are dealt with issues in and tried to do it straight up

outside looking back on that is something that would serve them on me that oh also the pro at our caf by the nineteen seventies political institutions were under fire from all directions and this year was no longer intern with the politics of the street its officers and representatives were still nearly all white and male meanwhile blacks were becoming increasingly numerous and politically active so were women including those and sororities who are still expected to support machine candidates while not running for office themselves in nineteen seventy six those two groups formed a seemingly unlikely alliance with dramatic results i went to the university of alabama ordered the fda president it was so i went to the university of alabama cleo thomas had personal charm political experience and a wide range of contexts including many in the greek system we saw it as a chance to like

a very good qualified candidate but also to perhaps overcome some of alabama's racial past kappa kappa gamma became something of a stronghold for a number of women there including friend and campaign manager jeanette coleman support for thomas was in part a declaration of independence i think we'll begin to say they're on their voice could be heard and it would be heard in politics also well the thomas campaign brought together a remarkably diverse group of supporters it was not without its awkward moments so as i get ready to go to that or i want to take a sort of house i was told that they had to call their national headquarters to see if i could come together the alliance no matter how unlikely it was effective thomas won twenty years later he would sit on the university's board of trustees although no other african americans would succeed him as s d a and a door had been opened and women would never again be taken for granted what they do have salon would remain all male the

machine would not but the change did not come without resentment on the night of thomas' election fifteen men in white sheets from the kappa sigma house burned an eight foot cross on the kappa kappa gamma lawn unfortunately it marked the beginning of an era of particularly mean spirited campaigns which seemed to mark a shift in the nature and tactics of them ashamed if you have a secret organization the trauma a small non inclusive group that i think you can take on different personalities and in giving the people and all the time and given the circumstances a series of campaign related incidents began in nineteen eighty three when independent john boehner was became the next to successfully challenge the machine by making its existence an issue but shortly after his roommate discovered that the phone had been tapped to be interested in the wine ran along the fence about a hundred your engine no not

quite that much into an alley and at the end was was a jacket one would put into a tape recorder an fbi investigation resulted in two arrests in nineteen eighty five and other independent john merrill had been backed by the machine and elected as she a vice president the next year he ran against the group for president and also won but in the course of the campaign he interrupted an estuary senator stage in the watergate style breakin of disaster aid office i called the campus newspaper and they came down to the office and they brought a camera and they started asking questions and they took his picture and he glances detail in all what they were trying to do why they were trying to do it it was unbelievable that happened to wade idiot by nineteen eighty nine with losses to independence becoming more frequent and the greek population and decline the mission was forced to flee the increasingly assertive sorties it endorsed lynn the old dull against popular independent join the silly

yodel became as she is first elected woman president but in a close campaign in which more than a dozen election observers filed reports concerning alleged voting fraud the results were upheld but students were never again allowed to manage the election process because of the sell a spirited protest his parents were reportedly subjected to threats and a greek system boycott was partly responsible for the bankruptcy of the family pizza business and the ill fated election of nineteen ninety three i was a citizen of sorority row who defected linda riley was a member of a machine house but when she was denied its endorsement and ran anyway riley violated the groups cardinal rule after thanksgiving break she found remains of a burned cross on her lawn and written warnings on behalf of the machine the following january thirty first she reported being beaten by masked intruder who told her and profane terms that she had crossed the wrong people

right now yeah two days later the university announced the suspension of the election and the sta know suspect was ever prosecuted and some massey officials present and past fought the administration action was partisan and authoritarian dr nott he insisted that the history of intimidation and the growing doubts about the integrity of the process require that an assault in her house i was the last straw once that happened it became clear that we had to do something and we just couldn't go along with election let that kind of behavior pass two years later after a series of reforms in the student constitution and election process as da blasted off carrying eighty years of old baggage the magic words were inclusiveness

and diversity in everyone knew their lines i'm learning makes doing government work with many different kinds of people with all different opinions and ideas usda is about places gathered outside about that a lot of that is all about the between the lines with the sole more suspensions over membership close races and they played that way as poland began a practical political question likely be whether an independent coalition would turn out enough votes to overcome the

machines resumes twenty percent guarantee up for the disappointment that i experienced that evening when we were looking at the results of the number of non response to turn out the vote number was that significant chris is greeks took the top two offices and all of the races in which they ran by a three to two margin a quarter of all students voted the great turnout was at one percent among independents fifteen in latin america the new administration opened on a promising note that played to mixed reviews

on its efforts to broaden its own base is their own personal story so it's not like you can deny me because i was as a man i'm a man that as is the sight and eight many agree that greeks have dominated because they're often the ones who are more active ambitious and politically astute washing social huge holy book of one jar to the people that vote vote for its canned she had bike you are you live in the army others counter that no other organization can match the ability of the mainstream greek system to develop were like candidates and that outsiders see this year as a private club we agreed to what than the general rules of the game are i think the question is if there are insurmountable institutional barriers to anybody ever entering the mix and entering of the game within the shayne and there will make maybe that they are the underlying it overshadowing issue remains that of

segregation there are black fraternities and sororities to but now they have appointed members' the color barrier greeks has never been broken it is true that groups like independents and white alike to assert themselves and there are serious concerns over civil liberties issues in an attempt to force desegregation but there are also deep cultural taboos based on race at the heart of much of the resistance in greek houses they also play a part in marriage patterns that's one of the great barriers about preventing the integration of these organizations is the fact that our interracial marriage interracial dating is still such a highly discouraged activity this is of course a highly volatile issue to which the universities funding sources alumni and legislators alike are

particularly sensitive but there are those including the greeks past and present who think the university has a higher calling i don't know that there will be an easy solution but i think it could strengthen the greek system to be more inclusive of the idea that you have a system that encompasses a significant portion of the university of alabama campus that excludes ed by the basis of race or religion or whatever is repugnant anything that omelet this is appalling while the struggle for change is itself a tradition and culture and politics of the campus of always mirrored its population now as the population becomes more and more diverse it also increasingly immersed the culture politics and conflicts of the society at large changes often been difficult here the tradition continues

they see the law on at our autonomy at sea the deadly you on on at eight am

oh to be he is oh the pope for a videotape of this program to send a check or money order for twenty one dollars to the university of alabama po box eighty seven thousand tuscaloosa alabama three five four eight seven or user fees and discover or mastercard by calling one eight hundred four six three eight eight to five