The Machine
Encyclopedia
The Machine, the former Alpha Rho chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon
at the University of Alabama
, is a coalition of traditionally white fraternities and sororities
which formed a secret society with some degree of influence over campus and Alabama state politics. The group, which has operated in varying degrees of secrecy since 1914, is credited with selecting and ensuring the election of candidates for Student Government Association, Homecoming Queen, and other influential on-campus and off-campus offices. It was evidently first publicly noted as "a political machine" in 1928 by Alabama's campus newspaper, The Crimson White
. Then in a 1945 article in the newspaper, it was referred to as "The (M)achine", and the name has stuck ever since. It plays a role in the politics of the student community, and it is argued by others that it plays a real role in the political careers of numerous politicians in the state.
The Alpha Rho Chapter was illegitimately founded; it was a chapter formed without formal permission of the society. In 1902, it contacted governing authority of the society, the Alpha Chapter at Wesleyan University, and was accepted as a legitimate chapter. As a legitimate chapter, it was accepted by the administration and university community, and in 1905, the chapter hosted its first annual promenade, which was a successful public event. In 1909, on February 14, The Alpha Rho Chapter created a new society, this one for members of the senior class, called The Skulls. The Skulls replaced the Theta Nu Epsilon chapter. Both the earlier and later organizations were publicly recognized by the university, and appeared each year in the university yearbook.
The Skulls was considered a legitimate student group until 1922. The organization officially ceased to exist at that time.
Esquire
magazine devoted its April 1992 cover story to an exposé of the Machine.
The University Party was formed by Ed Still and Jack Drake in 1967. Drake lost the SGA Presidency to Ralph Knowles and Still lost to Joe Espy. Independent Jim LaMoreaux defeated Eddie Friend for vice-president.
An anti-machine group called "The Coalition" formed in 1968 and operated through 1972. This was a joint effort by the men's dormitories, small non-machine fraternities, International Students Association, women students, and the Afro-American Association. It was formed by Steve Windom
(later Lt. Governor), Tommy Chapman (later District Attorney), Steve "Red" Wadlington (later political campaign operative), Don Gilbert (later head of Alabama Trial Lawyers Association) and Jim Zeigler
(later Public Service Commissioner). The Coalition succeeded in 1969 in electing Joe Estep as vice-president over the Machine's George Culver. It elected Henry Agee as secretary-treasurer over the Machine's Phil Reich. In 1970 it elected Zeigler as president of SGA as an independent. It also elected Windom to the Student Senate and almost 40% of the Student Senate in 1970-71.
Another anti-Machine group was the Alabama Student Party (ASP), which was founded by SGA Senators Fred L. Gibson, Jr. and O. Kevin Vincent in 1985. ASP intended to run a full slate of independent candidates, but its efforts were temporarily thwarted when the Machine orchestrated a takeover of ASP by flooding its first general campus meeting at Ferguson Center with fraternity pledges and members and electing Neal Orr, a freshman member of a fraternity (Delta Tau Delta
) that belonged to the Machine, as its president. Orr's fraternity was also the fraternity of the then SGA President, George Harris. Control of ASP was then subsequently retaken by independents later in the year, and it then played a pivotal role as a force for independents in upcoming elections. ASP successfully challenged the Machine with the election of John Merrill, an independent, as President in 1986, as well as a number of SGA Senators. Interestingly, Merrill was opposed by the Machine when he ran for SGA Senator, had been backed by the Machine for Vice President in 1985, and was then opposed by the Machine for President in 1986.
The Alabama Student Party subsequently was involved in the federal court case of Alabama Student Party v. Student Government Association of the University of Alabama, 867 F.2d 1344 (11th Cir. 1989).
Another group actively countering the Machine's domination of campus politics was the Independent Voter Association.
The Mallet Assembly
, a men's honors program founded by Dean of Men John Blackburn
in the early 1960s, is traditionally opposed to Machine influence, and has campaigned for several candidates under the banner of the "Blue Door Party". Jim Zeigler
, who defeated The Machine in 1970 for SGA President, was a member of the Mallet Assembly and actually lived in old Mallet Hall, where his room was burned in 1971. Cleo Thomas, the only black SGA President in the University's history, was a member of the Mallet Assembly.
More recently, a student group called CapstonePAC has formed with the intention of running issue-based campaigns on the model of Political Action Committee
s.
Allegations of intimidation by the Machine include the 1971 arson of the dormitory room of Jim Zeigler, a successful non-Machine candidate for SGA President, and alleged wire-taps on the telephone of victorious opposition candidate John Bolus in 1983. Another winning opposition candidate, John Merrill, reported harassing phone calls and alleged that his car tires emptied. He claims to have caught a group of students attempting to enter his SGA office (Merrill was at the time the Machine-backed Vice President). The suspects were photographed during the incident by the Crimson White and Merrill narrowly won a run-off.
One of the most controversial elections took place in 1976, when Cleo Thomas
, an African-American student and member of the historically black Fraternity, was elected to the SGA Presidency with the support of the Mallet Assembly and a coalition of several sororities. During the campaign, multiple sorority members alleged harassment, and a cross was burned on the lawn of the Kappa Kappa Gamma
sorority.. Several years later (in 1980), sororities were admitted to the Machine for the first time. In 1979 (and in several other years), the Machine weathered internal disagreements about who should be the Machine-endorsed candidate for a particular office, which resulted in the expulsion of the three fraternities whose members ran against the Machine-endorsed candidates. These fraternities were banned from Machine membership for several years thereafter.
In 1989, independent Joey Viselli lost a very close election for president to a candidate who was reportedly the first ever Machine-backed female candidate for the office. Many people, including Tuscaloosa County election workers assisting with the election, believed there were definite irregularities. Viselli took a challenge of the results to the administration, which ruled against a new election, but did remove future student elections from student control. Later that Spring, Viselli was elected President of the Residents Hall Council after a challenge by James Adams, a freshman member of a fraternity (Delta Tau Delta) that belonged to the Machine. Viselli's father Fran was a popular community figure who was the founder and owner of Bama-Bino's Pizza in the Tuscaloosa area. It has been widely believed that the Machine initiated a retaliatory boycott against Bama-Bino's following the election which, when combined with new competition, soon led to the closure of all Bama-Bino's.
In November 2011, the Crimson White ran an exclusive article detailing the connection between the Greek societies' fund-raising efforts and the Machine. When chair of the SGA block seating committee and alleged treasurer of the Machine Mckenzie Jones was questioned about these allegations, he made a statement about the University's copy machines and claimed to be unaware that such machines required a treasurer.
sorority member Minda Riley (daughter of former Alabama Governor Bob Riley) ran against Machine-backed candidate and Beta Theta Pi
fraternity member Neil Duthie. In that election, Minda Riley made claims of harassment and physical assault, even though she belonged to a Machine-aligned sorority. Although her claims of alleged harassment and physical assault were never verified and remain unproven, the University nevertheless suspended the Student Government Association altogether, and did not reinstitute it until 1996. Minda Riley's brother Rob Riley was elected president of the SGA as a Machine candidate.
In 1999 African American Fabien Zinga-Kanza, a candidate for the SGA presidency, claimed that he was personally threatened and that his campaign signs were defaced. CNN covered the story, with references to the alleged history of intimidation attributed to the Machine.
Prior to the 2002 SGA election, the phrase "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine" from Henry David Thoreau
's essay "Civil Disobedience
" was chalked on the outer wall of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library. This caused a group of students, calling themselves "The Counter-friction", to interrupt then university president Andrew Sorenson's epidemiology
class while chanting words of protest against The Machine. Dr. Sorenson resigned his post soon after.
Internet voting debuted in 2003, but the results were ruled invalid after allegations of fraud and the election was repeated with paper ballots the following week. During the next election in 2004 SGA senate candidate Emeline Aviki, a member of Chi Omega who openly refused to be affiliated with the Machine, detailed the alleged harassment she received for the Crimson White, which used it for an exposé entitled "You don't want to mess with us." Though Aviki's campaign was successful, "the emotional and psychological toll the event caused" led her to transfer to Duke University
where she went on to serve as Class President.
The Machine suffered its first major loss in two decades when Ryan Flamerich, an independent, was elected Speaker of the Senate over the Machine-backed candidate in 2011.
became U.S. Senators.
Don Siegelman
became Secretary of State, Attorney General, Lt. Governor and Governor. Siegelman had been elected SGA President unopposed in 1968 as the nominee of The Machine. He is often confused with Don Siegal, who was elected SGA President running against The Machine in 1964.
Carl Elliot, Jack Edwards, and Walter Flowers
became Congressmen.
George Lewis Bailes became a State Senator.
Robert Smith Vance
served as Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party
, then became a federal judge who served on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Bill Blount
became Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.
Tommy Wells
became President of the American Bar Association
.
Rob Riley is the son of Alabama Governor Bob Riley
. While Rob Riley won as a Machine nominee, his sister Minda Riley-Campbell lost running for SGA President after being assaulted in her own home, allegedly by members of the Machine.
Theta Nu Epsilon
Founded at Wesleyan University in 1870 as a chapter of Skull and Bones, Theta Nu Epsilon is a sophomore class society that accepts members regardless of their fraternity status.-Early history:...
at the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
, is a coalition of traditionally white fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
which formed a secret society with some degree of influence over campus and Alabama state politics. The group, which has operated in varying degrees of secrecy since 1914, is credited with selecting and ensuring the election of candidates for Student Government Association, Homecoming Queen, and other influential on-campus and off-campus offices. It was evidently first publicly noted as "a political machine" in 1928 by Alabama's campus newspaper, The Crimson White
The Crimson White
The Crimson White, known colloquially as "The CW," is the student-run newspaper of the University of Alabama. It is published four times a week -- every weekday except Friday -- throughout the fall and spring semesters and weekly during the summer semester...
. Then in a 1945 article in the newspaper, it was referred to as "The (M)achine", and the name has stuck ever since. It plays a role in the politics of the student community, and it is argued by others that it plays a real role in the political careers of numerous politicians in the state.
History
The Alpha Rho Chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon was founded at the University of Alabama in 1888. For 21 years the chapter operated and its biggest function on campus was an annual promenade.The Alpha Rho Chapter was illegitimately founded; it was a chapter formed without formal permission of the society. In 1902, it contacted governing authority of the society, the Alpha Chapter at Wesleyan University, and was accepted as a legitimate chapter. As a legitimate chapter, it was accepted by the administration and university community, and in 1905, the chapter hosted its first annual promenade, which was a successful public event. In 1909, on February 14, The Alpha Rho Chapter created a new society, this one for members of the senior class, called The Skulls. The Skulls replaced the Theta Nu Epsilon chapter. Both the earlier and later organizations were publicly recognized by the university, and appeared each year in the university yearbook.
The Skulls was considered a legitimate student group until 1922. The organization officially ceased to exist at that time.
Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine devoted its April 1992 cover story to an exposé of the Machine.
Machine opposition
Over the years, numerous campus political groups have been formed in an attempt to motivate independent (i.e. non-Greek) students to vote for non-Machine candidates.The University Party was formed by Ed Still and Jack Drake in 1967. Drake lost the SGA Presidency to Ralph Knowles and Still lost to Joe Espy. Independent Jim LaMoreaux defeated Eddie Friend for vice-president.
An anti-machine group called "The Coalition" formed in 1968 and operated through 1972. This was a joint effort by the men's dormitories, small non-machine fraternities, International Students Association, women students, and the Afro-American Association. It was formed by Steve Windom
Steve Windom
Stephen Ralph Windom is an American politician who served as a Senator in the Alabama State Senate from 1989 to 1998 and as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003....
(later Lt. Governor), Tommy Chapman (later District Attorney), Steve "Red" Wadlington (later political campaign operative), Don Gilbert (later head of Alabama Trial Lawyers Association) and Jim Zeigler
Jim Zeigler
Jim Zeigler is an elder care attorney, author, and seminar leader in Alabama. He wrote the 2007 book, "Don't Let the Government take Grandma's Home and Life Savings."...
(later Public Service Commissioner). The Coalition succeeded in 1969 in electing Joe Estep as vice-president over the Machine's George Culver. It elected Henry Agee as secretary-treasurer over the Machine's Phil Reich. In 1970 it elected Zeigler as president of SGA as an independent. It also elected Windom to the Student Senate and almost 40% of the Student Senate in 1970-71.
Another anti-Machine group was the Alabama Student Party (ASP), which was founded by SGA Senators Fred L. Gibson, Jr. and O. Kevin Vincent in 1985. ASP intended to run a full slate of independent candidates, but its efforts were temporarily thwarted when the Machine orchestrated a takeover of ASP by flooding its first general campus meeting at Ferguson Center with fraternity pledges and members and electing Neal Orr, a freshman member of a fraternity (Delta Tau Delta
Delta Tau Delta
Delta Tau Delta is a U.S.-based international secret letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded in 1858 at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, . It currently has around 125 student chapters nationwide, as well as more than 25 regional alumni groups. Its national community service...
) that belonged to the Machine, as its president. Orr's fraternity was also the fraternity of the then SGA President, George Harris. Control of ASP was then subsequently retaken by independents later in the year, and it then played a pivotal role as a force for independents in upcoming elections. ASP successfully challenged the Machine with the election of John Merrill, an independent, as President in 1986, as well as a number of SGA Senators. Interestingly, Merrill was opposed by the Machine when he ran for SGA Senator, had been backed by the Machine for Vice President in 1985, and was then opposed by the Machine for President in 1986.
The Alabama Student Party subsequently was involved in the federal court case of Alabama Student Party v. Student Government Association of the University of Alabama, 867 F.2d 1344 (11th Cir. 1989).
Another group actively countering the Machine's domination of campus politics was the Independent Voter Association.
The Mallet Assembly
Mallet Assembly
The Mallet Assembly is an intellectual living program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Mallet was established in 1961 by John Blackburn and is the oldest honors program still in existence at the University of Alabama....
, a men's honors program founded by Dean of Men John Blackburn
John Blackburn
John Blackburn may refer to:*John Blackburn , Chaplain-General to the British Armed Forces 2000 to 2004*John Blackburn , British novelist*John Blackburn , British politician, MP for Newport 1806–1807...
in the early 1960s, is traditionally opposed to Machine influence, and has campaigned for several candidates under the banner of the "Blue Door Party". Jim Zeigler
Jim Zeigler
Jim Zeigler is an elder care attorney, author, and seminar leader in Alabama. He wrote the 2007 book, "Don't Let the Government take Grandma's Home and Life Savings."...
, who defeated The Machine in 1970 for SGA President, was a member of the Mallet Assembly and actually lived in old Mallet Hall, where his room was burned in 1971. Cleo Thomas, the only black SGA President in the University's history, was a member of the Mallet Assembly.
More recently, a student group called CapstonePAC has formed with the intention of running issue-based campaigns on the model of Political Action Committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
s.
Allegations of intimidation by the Machine include the 1971 arson of the dormitory room of Jim Zeigler, a successful non-Machine candidate for SGA President, and alleged wire-taps on the telephone of victorious opposition candidate John Bolus in 1983. Another winning opposition candidate, John Merrill, reported harassing phone calls and alleged that his car tires emptied. He claims to have caught a group of students attempting to enter his SGA office (Merrill was at the time the Machine-backed Vice President). The suspects were photographed during the incident by the Crimson White and Merrill narrowly won a run-off.
One of the most controversial elections took place in 1976, when Cleo Thomas
Cleo Thomas
Cleo Thomas was president of the Student Government Association at the University of Alabama in 1976. Thomas is one of only seven candidates to have ever won the SGA presidency without the support of 'The Machine'. He is the only African American SGA president at the University of Alabama to...
, an African-American student and member of the historically black Fraternity, was elected to the SGA Presidency with the support of the Mallet Assembly and a coalition of several sororities. During the campaign, multiple sorority members alleged harassment, and a cross was burned on the lawn of the Kappa Kappa Gamma
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Kappa Kappa Gamma is a collegiate women's fraternity, founded at Monmouth College, in Monmouth, Illinois, USA. Although the groundwork of the organization was developed as early as 1869, the 1876 Convention voted that October 13, 1870 should be recognized at the official Founders Day, because no...
sorority.. Several years later (in 1980), sororities were admitted to the Machine for the first time. In 1979 (and in several other years), the Machine weathered internal disagreements about who should be the Machine-endorsed candidate for a particular office, which resulted in the expulsion of the three fraternities whose members ran against the Machine-endorsed candidates. These fraternities were banned from Machine membership for several years thereafter.
In 1989, independent Joey Viselli lost a very close election for president to a candidate who was reportedly the first ever Machine-backed female candidate for the office. Many people, including Tuscaloosa County election workers assisting with the election, believed there were definite irregularities. Viselli took a challenge of the results to the administration, which ruled against a new election, but did remove future student elections from student control. Later that Spring, Viselli was elected President of the Residents Hall Council after a challenge by James Adams, a freshman member of a fraternity (Delta Tau Delta) that belonged to the Machine. Viselli's father Fran was a popular community figure who was the founder and owner of Bama-Bino's Pizza in the Tuscaloosa area. It has been widely believed that the Machine initiated a retaliatory boycott against Bama-Bino's following the election which, when combined with new competition, soon led to the closure of all Bama-Bino's.
In November 2011, the Crimson White ran an exclusive article detailing the connection between the Greek societies' fund-raising efforts and the Machine. When chair of the SGA block seating committee and alleged treasurer of the Machine Mckenzie Jones was questioned about these allegations, he made a statement about the University's copy machines and claimed to be unaware that such machines required a treasurer.
1992 and suspension of the SGA
In 1992, Phi MuPhi Mu
Phi Mu is the second oldest female fraternal organization established in the United States. It was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. The organization was founded as the Philomathean Society on January 4, 1852, and was announced publicly on March 4 of the same year...
sorority member Minda Riley (daughter of former Alabama Governor Bob Riley) ran against Machine-backed candidate and Beta Theta Pi
Beta Theta Pi
Beta Theta Pi , often just called Beta, is a social collegiate fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA, where it is part of the Miami Triad which includes Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi. It has over 138 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada...
fraternity member Neil Duthie. In that election, Minda Riley made claims of harassment and physical assault, even though she belonged to a Machine-aligned sorority. Although her claims of alleged harassment and physical assault were never verified and remain unproven, the University nevertheless suspended the Student Government Association altogether, and did not reinstitute it until 1996. Minda Riley's brother Rob Riley was elected president of the SGA as a Machine candidate.
In 1999 African American Fabien Zinga-Kanza, a candidate for the SGA presidency, claimed that he was personally threatened and that his campaign signs were defaced. CNN covered the story, with references to the alleged history of intimidation attributed to the Machine.
Prior to the 2002 SGA election, the phrase "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine" from Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
's essay "Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)
Civil Disobedience is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849...
" was chalked on the outer wall of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library. This caused a group of students, calling themselves "The Counter-friction", to interrupt then university president Andrew Sorenson's epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
class while chanting words of protest against The Machine. Dr. Sorenson resigned his post soon after.
Internet voting debuted in 2003, but the results were ruled invalid after allegations of fraud and the election was repeated with paper ballots the following week. During the next election in 2004 SGA senate candidate Emeline Aviki, a member of Chi Omega who openly refused to be affiliated with the Machine, detailed the alleged harassment she received for the Crimson White, which used it for an exposé entitled "You don't want to mess with us." Though Aviki's campaign was successful, "the emotional and psychological toll the event caused" led her to transfer to Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
where she went on to serve as Class President.
The Machine suffered its first major loss in two decades when Ryan Flamerich, an independent, was elected Speaker of the Senate over the Machine-backed candidate in 2011.
Welcometothemachine.info
For the past five years, there has been a professedly neutral website which posts archival articles and clippings online. The site does not editorialize. The existence of the site itself attests to the interest the existence of this organization has generated. The Machine club in Boston, MA has been rumored to be an alleged meeting place for Machine members in the New England region, although the allegations have neither been denied nor confirmed by members.Prominent Machine members who later became politicians
Lister Hill, John Sparkman and Donald StewartDonald Stewart
Donald James Stewart was Scottish National Party Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1987 for the Western Isles...
became U.S. Senators.
Don Siegelman
Don Siegelman
Don Eugene Siegelman is an American Democratic Party politician who held numerous offices in Alabama. He was the 51st Governor of Alabama for one term from 1999 to 2003...
became Secretary of State, Attorney General, Lt. Governor and Governor. Siegelman had been elected SGA President unopposed in 1968 as the nominee of The Machine. He is often confused with Don Siegal, who was elected SGA President running against The Machine in 1964.
Carl Elliot, Jack Edwards, and Walter Flowers
Walter Flowers
Walter Flowers was an American Democratic politician who represented Alabama's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from January 1969 to January 1979.-Private life:...
became Congressmen.
George Lewis Bailes became a State Senator.
Robert Smith Vance
Robert Smith Vance
Robert Smith Vance was a United States federal judge. He is one of the few judges in American history to have been assassinated as the result of his judicial service.-Early life and career:...
served as Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party
Alabama Democratic Party
The Alabama Democratic Party is the local branch of the Democratic Party in the state of Alabama. It is chaired by Judge Mark Kennedy. The Executive Director is Bradley Davidson....
, then became a federal judge who served on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Bill Blount
William B. Blount
William B. "Bill" Blount is an investment banker, bond underwriter, and former Alabama Democratic Party chairman. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges in exchange for testimony against former Birmingham, Alabama, mayor Larry Langford.- Education :Bill Blount is a...
became Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.
Tommy Wells
Tommy Wells
Tommy Wells is a politician from Washington, D.C. He is currently a member of the Council of the District of Columbia where he serves as a Democrat representing Ward 6.-Biography:...
became President of the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
.
Rob Riley is the son of Alabama Governor Bob Riley
Bob Riley
Bob Riley may refer to:* Bob Riley, 52nd Governor of Alabama* Bob C. Riley, acting Governor of Arkansas for 11 days in 1975* Bob Riley , sports car designer and founder of Riley Technologies...
. While Rob Riley won as a Machine nominee, his sister Minda Riley-Campbell lost running for SGA President after being assaulted in her own home, allegedly by members of the Machine.
External links
- University of Alabama SGA Senate
- The Crimson White
- Capstone Political Action Committee
- WelcomeToTheMachine, a database on the machine, published anonymously
- 'Bama Girl, Documentary film about a black woman running for Homecoming Queen at the University of Alabama against The Machine
- 1999: CNN on Fabien Zinga death threat allegations
- 2009/AP: Top SGA offices at Alabama eluding minorities
- 2001: Secret network keeps sororities white (The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
) - 2010: Sorority directed support for certain candidates (The Crimson WhiteThe Crimson WhiteThe Crimson White, known colloquially as "The CW," is the student-run newspaper of the University of Alabama. It is published four times a week -- every weekday except Friday -- throughout the fall and spring semesters and weekly during the summer semester...
)