Several former student leaders at The University of Alabama have joined together to make a public stand against discrimination at the Capstone by placing an ad in Thursday’s edition of The Crimson White.
Kenneth Mullinax, an alumnus who served as Paul “Bear” Bryant’s student assistant for two years, was a member of a fraternity and an officer in Theta Nu Epsilon, otherwise known as the Machine, said he and Sherrel Wheeler Stewart were responsible for organizing this ad with signatures from greek, independent, black and white alumni at the University.
“We read what was going on in terms of discrimination in the bidding process, and we read The Crimson White story, and we were shocked and dismayed,” Mullinax said. “So we reached out to many people who were former leaders at UA and who are leaders today within their own communities to speak out publicly via an ad in The Crimson White about how we feel.”
Mullinax said while this group of alumni does not attempt to tell greek organizations to whom they should give bids, it does tell them that segregation and discrimination in any form is un-American.
“The purpose of our public statement via the ad in The Crimson White is to tell the University community and the nation that we do not believe that in 2013 that The University of Alabama or any entity should support segregation or discrimination in any manner,” Mullinax said. “The segregation of any UA organization is antiquated, ignorant and abhorrent to the principles of liberty and equality.”
Stewart, an alumnus who served as an officer in the Afro-American Association, an SGA senator and an editor at The Crimson White, said that while she thinks it’s great that students have stood up, it’s also important to show unity amongst such a strong group of alumni.
“We have had so many people, black and white, to come through the doors at Alabama,” Stewart said. “And if people of this caliber can stand and say we support this, then that’s important. We just want to stand together and show them that alumni can do that as well.”
Another alumnus and former CW Editor Rebel Roy Steiner, who now works as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, Calif., with clients such as Steven Spielberg, said he found it important to make a statement by signing this ad.
“I’m a very proud alumnus of the University, and I think I got a great education there,” Steiner said. “And I’m also very proud of the diversity that is represented in the student body, and I think have one of the highest percentages of African-American students in any public university. And so I think that it’s distressing to know that this type of blatant discrimination is being practiced in the greek system, because it’s at odds with all of the progress we’ve made, and so I think it’s time for the greek system to catch up. It’s not time; it’s past time for them to catch up.”
