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Some tactics of pledging were also taken from a more recent era during the founding of BGLOs: civil rights.
Some tactics of pledging were also taken from a more recent era during the founding of BGLOs: civil rights.
Sit-Ins
Sit-Ins
Segregation in America was prominent around the same time BGLOs were forming. In fact, as we noted, it was one of the core reasons BGLOs formed. Check out a quick video on what was happening in the world around when BGLOs were at it's peak.
Segregation in America was prominent around the same time BGLOs were forming. In fact, as we noted, it was one of the core reasons BGLOs formed. Check out a quick video on what was happening in the world around when BGLOs were at it's peak.
Although the wave of sit-Ins did not begin until the 1960s, it did not take long for leaders of the BGLOs and chapters to begin "utilizing the tactics learned from civil rights sit-in trainings to prepare pledges for the next phase of the movement" (Danielle, 2017). TIME Magazine published an article about these practice sit-ins and trainings that would occur at various colleges and black support groups.
Do some of these images look familar?
Do some of these images look familar?
Images of students during the civil rights era lined-up being yelled at, hit, pushed, and more look similar to lines of pledges going through the exact same experience. Activities such as being yelled, cursed, or sworn at certainly happened in the pledge process then (Foster, 2008, 9) and now, and without a doubt could have been taken from tactics used in practice sit-ins and trainings.
Marching & Chanting
Marching & Chanting
Even some of the more positive rituals in pledging were said to be taken from the civil rights era. Many movements that progressed the end to segregation often involved marching and chanting. Many of these chants sparked during slavery, such as "Wade in the Water," which my line sisters and I song at our New Member Presentation. These songs were then carried down and paired with marching during the civil rights era. When pledging was legal, you often saw pledges, like pictured in the Watch the Yard article, marching and chanting across the campus in the same way civil rights leaders and their followers would march and chant down the streets of Selma and other historical places. A respondent in Parks' study stated, "These were Songs we did as we were marching across campus or jogging from one place to another. To me as long as we were singing Chants we did not concentrate on any pain our bodies may have felt at that time. It truly helped me. When I am jogging on my treadmill I often sing the Chants I did when I was on line" (2004, 961). Like stated before, the founders of these organizations and even more so, black ancestors, went through some of the most crucial times in history, where the color of their skin could equal their death. They were beat, whipped, yelled at, dehumanized, and more. Pledging embodies some of those same acts of which not everyone can handle. Those who cannot, are deemed not fit enough, strong enough, or determined enough, for the organization, and bigger than that, the black fight for freedom. To wear such letters of power and change meant, and still means today, you have to go through what they went through, hence why pledging mimics the very essence of the black struggle. Similar to the connections between slavery, these connections to civil rights were encompassed in the pledge process in order for pledges to feel the weight of leaders who paved the way, but also to re-create the pain, struggle, and resilience of those before us, in case such a time of fighting ever presented itself again.
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