AUSTIN — For University of Texas students, singing "The Eyes of Texas" at sporting events, commencement and other campus events is a rite of passage.
But a glance around the stadium might reveal that some of those students aren't singing along — a nod to the song's shameful origins. In 1903, it was first performed at a minstrel show, where white actors wore blackface to mock African-Americans.
“When some students pick up on that, they stop singing the song,” said Edmund Gordon, UT’s vice provost for diversity and founder of the African and African diaspora studies department.
Texas colleges, including UT, Texas A&M, Rice and Southern Methodist University, have had their share of blackface incidents, and its legacy persists nationally today.
Blackface on college campuses became an issue after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Attorney General Mark Herring and state Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment came under fire for their connections to blackface or racial slurs while in college.
Last month, two students withdrew from the University of Oklahoma after a video of one of them in blackface emerged. Other schools, including California Polytechnic State University, Albright College in Pennsylvania and Tufts University in Massachusetts have had recent incidents.
Texas historian and UT history professor Walter Buenger said it’s hard for people today to understand the weight blackface carries.
“Blackface was happening at a time when we still had segregated military units and schools,” he said. “It’s surprising that it has lasted so long. As we’ve learned in the last couple of years, racism is not dead.”
Blackface at Texas colleges
Blackface emerged in the early 1800s. From the 1830s to the 1870s, it was the most popular form of variety entertainment in the country, according to UT's Harry Ransom Center.
“Blackface is a way of mocking African-Americans,” Buenger said. “It was meant to be funny or entertaining, but it certainly wasn’t funny to African-Americans.”
Gordon, who’s also an associate professor, said students in his introduction to black studies course are often surprised when he teaches about the history of blackface at UT.
“After I took Dr. Gordon’s class during my freshman year, I immediately stopped singing the song,” said Joshua Ellis, an African-American UT senior. “At football games, I sit down during the song and don’t even acknowledge it.”
Ellis said his close friends also refuse to sing the song in any context.
“Blackface used to be an official aspect of recreational activities of students on campus,” Gordon said.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was known for hosting "jungle parties," where they dressed as "Africans," and Phi Gamma Delta, known as Texas Fiji, dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes and ignited a cross in 1940. Editors included blackface cartoons in The Cactus yearbook.
The Texas Cowboys, a service organization, hosted minstrel shows, and the Longhorn Band provided the music. Notable Cowboys alumni include UT football stars Earl Campbell and Tom Landry, the legendary Dallas Cowboys coach, as well as former Texas governors Allan Shivers and Dolph Briscoe.
The minstrel shows were a regular occurrence on campus until 1965, when the group banned them, Cowboys board president Edward Lopez said. The school had allowed black undergraduate students for nine years, and some had begun protesting the minstrels.
“Blackface is a disgusting display of racism that has no place in our society and especially on our college campuses where young people are being shaped into tomorrow’s leaders,” Lopez said in an email. “Like many organizations, our past includes unacceptable conduct from a different era.
“While we cannot erase our past, we can be proud that we have grown into an organization that promotes and encourages diversity, and continues to learn from our mistakes in the effort to build up the next generation of leaders,” Lopez added.
Latrell Gaither, a African-American UT senior, said he wasn’t aware of the university’s blackface history when he first attended the university.
“Being at a predominantly white university, I knew there was a chance that a lot of dark things happened at UT regarding race,” Gaither said. “But we still have themed parties that are damaging to people of color by continuing to strengthen negative stereotypes.”
Similar photos and cartoons were found in yearbooks from other Texas universities, including Rice and SMU. In 1924, the SMU University Boys' Glee Club performed in blackface on campus and in 1933, sorority members performed in a "Deep n' Dark" minstrel show. In 1957, SMU students threw "Chinese parties," wearing traditional Chinese clothes and posing with chopsticks in yearbook photos.
At Texas A&M, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity hosted a "Jungle Fever" party in 1992 featuring attendees in blackface and "slave hunts."
“Over the last week, racially charged photos have become a topic of national discussion,” A&M President Michael Young wrote Thursday in a statement to the university community. “We know that, regardless of the time period, such images are markers of bigotry and prejudice. There is no excuse for it and similar images are part of our university’s history as well.”
Young acknowledged that racism still exists and said it should be called out.
Learning from the past
UT’s vice president for diversity and community engagement, Leonard Moore, said administrators have acknowledged the school’s racist history and don’t want to ignore it, no matter how painful or ugly it may be.
“Blackface is never appropriate, but unfortunately it was part of mainstream white culture, so I’m not surprised it was a legacy at UT,” he said. “I think we have come a long way. You will find African-American students have a great support structure and some of the most dynamic programs for African-American students are found at UT.”
Last year, the Ransom Center displayed a vaudeville exhibit at UT that included blackface materials.
Eric Colleary, the Cline Curator of Theatre and Performing Arts at the Center, said museums and libraries play an important role in ensuring that histories are remembered and shared to help society better understand the present.
“In the context of [Virginia], it becomes clear the ways the history of blackface and racial stereotypes have been forgotten or ignored,” Colleary said, “even when their legacies have lasting impacts on today’s society.”
Recent racist incidents at UT
Gordon said racism has manifested itself on the UT campus in other ways:
2012: Alpha Tau Omega planned "a border to cross" party but canceled it after receiving backlash.
2013: UT's chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas planned a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" event that was called off.
2013 and 2016: The Young Conservatives held an "affirmative action bake sale" on campus, with prices based on race and gender.
2015: Texas Fiji hosted a "border patrol" themed party, with many students wearing construction gear or traditional Mexican clothes.
2017: A group of white males with American flag masks and Tiki torches gathered on campus in the middle of the night, which the university denounced as a hate group of white supremacists.
Researcher Jen Graffunder contributed to this report.
CORRECTION, 5:45 p.m., Feb. 16, 2019: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that the Texas Cowboys take care of Bevo. The Texas Cowboys are not responsible for the mascot.