After three years at this university, I’ve come to love and enjoy what most people notice in minutes: its beauty. There are plenty of cozy corners, from the courtyards in the chemistry building to Van Munching. But one of the most aesthetically pleasing sites on this campus isn’t on the more popular side of Route 1. Fraternity Row has 14 houses and is located right across from the heart of the campus, down the street from the heart of students’ social life. Growing up not too far from College Park, Fraternity Row caught my eye as a child. As a student, it caught my attention again, when I realized not a single one of the 14 houses was occupied by a black fraternity.
Rationally, I stepped back and took a look at the history of our school. The university is more than 150 years old and clearly faced all the same integration challenges every other academic institution did. That would be a rational excuse or explanation (depending on your perspective) as to why none of the black fraternities and sororities has a house on Fraternity Row, if the following were not true. Ten of the 14 fraternity/sorority houses were built in 1954, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional in Brown vs. Board of Education. Ironically enough, the suit was led by Thurgood Marshall, an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity member. Marshall had also applied to the university’s law school, but he was rejected due to a segregation policy.
Even with those dates, I understand that change does not happen overnight. You can’t expect integrated fraternity housing at a public institution in any state below the Mason-Dixon Line so soon after the decision. But four years passed, and another two houses were built. Then another two houses went up in 1962 and 1963, nearly 10 years after the decision to integrate public schools. Keep in mind that some of the fraternities with a house on Fraternity Row were established years after ones that do not, such as Lambda Chi Alpha (1909) as opposed to Alpha Phi Alpha (1906). It’s difficult not to conclude that this university has a history of blatant racism.
But a history of racism does not necessarily explain the current absence of black fraternities from Fraternity Row. Jayson Stone, president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Iota Zeta Chapter, said, “We could see change in the future, but there are definitely been things in the past that have affected getting a house – like strength in numbers.”
Matt Supple, assistant director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, confirmed that the university does own all 14 houses on Fraternity Row and seven in the Graham Cracker. “Those houses aren’t always stable. When one opens up, we send out an application to every single frat and sorority,” he said, “and when the new one moves in, we get up there and change those letters.”
With every house on Fraternity Row accommodating people, Supple singled out population as the biggest issue facing most fraternities and sororities in the Pan-Hellenic Council, the name used to refer to the nine black fraternities and sororities also known as the “Divine 9.” It’s simply difficult for smaller fraternities and sororities to come up with the 32 people needed to fill a house.
So, in the end it seems the real reason why there is no official housing for any of the Divine 9 is not a result of the toxic residue of racism. Rather, it stems from being a minority – in the most literal sense of the word.
Fenan Solomon is a junior journalism and pre-pharmacy major. She can be reached at solomondbk@gmail.com.
