UPDATED: April 9, 2019 at 12:07 a.m.

Editor’s note: The following article contains disturbing images and descriptions of racist content. Examples of the photos of blackface and other material are in-text below the scroll. Discretion is advised.

Over the course of more than 100 years of publication, Syracuse University’s yearbook contained racist photos and illustrations — including blackface, a recent review by The Daily Orange has found.

During the course of its review, The D.O. found the following:

• Ten photos of blackface in SU yearbooks from 1915 to 1968. Most depictions of blackface were in yearbooks from the 1950s.

• A majority of blackface cases in the yearbooks were included on pages dedicated to SU chapters of Greek organizations.

• Four cases of racist caricatures, one instance of brownface and at least five photos of people in costumes stereotyping Asian cultures.

The D.O.’s review took roughly a month and started in early March after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D)’s medical school yearbook was published by dozens of media outlets across the United States.

Northam’s yearbook page had a photo of a person in blackface and another person dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The governor initially said on Feb. 1 that he was one of the people pictured on the page, but has since denied being in the photo. Northam has also resisted calls to resign.

Following the Northam reports, USA TODAY analyzed 900 college yearbooks identifying racist content, including blackface and mock lynchings. SU was not noted in USA TODAY’s report.

The D.O.’s review, though, found several cases of blackface, racist caricatures of black people and white students dressing as people of other races in SU’s yearbooks. The D.O. could not identify or locate people depicted in the photos of racist behavior.

SU is a predominately white institution, with about 53% of students at the university identifying as white, according to a fall 2018 census.

The Onondagan, SU’s yearbook, has operated since 1885. It’s published by students each year and has a faculty adviser, according to the university. SU Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center has yearbooks dating back to 1885.

1. Students from Syracuse and Colgate Universities dressed as caricatures of indigenous peoples in the late 1950s.
2. Description of SU’s “Southern Club” in a 1911 yearbook.
3. Women in blackface on a 1952 yearbook page dedicated to Chi Omega.
4. Men in blackface on a page dedicated to the Inter-Fraternity Council in a 1968 yearbook.
5. Women on a page dedicated to Alpha Epsilon Phi at an “A E Foo Chinese costume party” in 1955. Courtesy of SU Archives

“Since our founding, Syracuse University has worked to create and foster a diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible campus environment that welcomes and respects all individuals,” Dara Royer, SU’s senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer, said in an emailed statement Sunday night.

“These photos, which capture examples of past actions, are offensive and contrary to our standards and values,” Royer said.

The D.O. found 10 photos of people in blackface, dated on pages from 1915 to 1968. Most people in the photos were in yearbook sections or on pages dedicated to SU fraternity or sorority chapters.

National organizations representing those Greek chapters did not respond to requests for comment before publication Sunday.

People in a 1951 yearbook section dedicated to Alpha Epsilon Pi’s Spring Weekend float were photographed in blackface during a parade. A yearbook section for Chi Omega included people in blackface in 1952. That same year, another section of the yearbook showed people at a separate, unnamed sorority rushing event in blackface.

People in Phi Sigma Sigma’s section in 1955’s yearbook were in blackface. In a 1966 yearbook section for Phi Gamma Delta, also known as “Fiji,” people were shown in blackface. A picture of a man holding a sign with “Fiji” written on it was shown in blackface in a 1967 yearbook section. A yearbook section for SU’s Interfraternity Council, the governing body for most of the university’s fraternities, included a photo of blackface in 1968.

Most of the images of blackface included people on pages dedicated to SU Greek organizations between 1951 and 1968.
1. Members of an unknown sorority wore blackface at a rushing party in a 1952 yearbook.
2. A section dedicated to fraternity Phi Gamma Delta showed multiple men in blackface in a 1966 yearbook.
3. A yearbook section dedicated to an Alpha Epsilon Pi parade float shows men in blackface performing on the float in 1951.
4. A man holding a sign reading “Fiji” wore blackface in a 1967 yearbook. Courtesy of SU Archives

Blackface was also displayed in SU’s 1915 yearbook, with at least two people pictured in blackface and surrounded by others in a variety of costumes. A person wore dark makeup on his face as part of an “Ice Pageant” in 1955, a yearbook showed. Another person in a group of women wore blackface in 1957.

Instances of blackface at SU were not isolated to 20th century yearbooks, The D.O. found through a review of its own archives.

In 2002, a student in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity wore blackface as part of a golf-themed bar outing, dressed as Tiger Woods. About 100 campus community members held a protest calling for the expulsion of that student — Aaron Levine — in response, according D.O. archives.

“There wasn’t a consistent knowledge of what blackface was when I started here,” said Marlene Hall, a former director of the Department of Public Safety, in 2003. Hall was just starting at SU the year Levine wore blackface. “I’d say that there was a 50-50 split between people who were aware of it and people who weren’t.”

When someone called DPS to report the blackface in 2002, a DPS dispatcher was confused because they didn’t know what blackface was, Hall said.

“This is another one of those things that I think Syracuse is by no means unique and alone in this, and on the other hand, we have to own it ourselves and work on what it means here,” former Chancellor Nancy Cantor said in 2004, when asked how she felt about racial tension at SU after the 2002 incident.

As part of the review, reporters found that The D.O. as recently as 1999 and 2002 had itself published racist cartoons.

In 1999, students protested The D.O. outside its offices at 744 Ostrom Ave. after the newspaper ran a caricature depicting then-Student Association President Michaeljulius Idani with exaggerated, stereotypical characteristics. In 2002, The D.O. ran a comic that showed a black man breaking into the home of a white man and stealing belongings.

In response to anger and concern over the 2002 illustration, The D.O.’s management team at the time told SA’s Assembly that new D.O. publication policies were implemented requiring all comic artists to sign “a contract agreeing not to draw racist or sexist content,” according to a Feb. 11, 2002 D.O. article. The D.O. no longer runs comics.

Sam Ogozalek, The D.O.’s editor-in-chief for the 2018-19 academic year, said the newspaper now has checks and balances and a vetting process to ensure that content like that published in 1999 and 2002 isn’t printed or distributed online.

The D.O. is also committed to reviewing past editorial content and the full history of the paper, Ogozalek said on Sunday night. That process will take several months and is expected to continue under The D.O.’s 2019-20 management team. It’s necessary to acknowledge mistakes the paper has made in the past, he said.

“It’s a form of reconciliation, I believe, to make sure our staff knows that what this paper once printed could never happen again,” Ogozalek said.

Separately, SU yearbooks also had dozens of photos of students dressed as caricatures of indigenous peoples, as well as illustrated caricatures of indigenous peoples, The D.O. found. One photo from a 1960 yearbook showed white people in fringed clothing and feathers with a caption of “Assorted Indians add to the entertainment.”

Before Otto the Orange, SU’s mascot was the Saltine Warrior — a caricature of a fictional chief of the Onondaga Nation. Members of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity wore a costume depicting the Saltine Warrior to football games, according to SU’s archives.

“There were an awful lot of people who were offended by that,” Stephen Saunders Webb, a professor emeritus of history, told The D.O. in 2018. Saunders Webb worked at the university when the Saltine Warrior was SU’s mascot. “I don’t think anybody felt that this representation did credit to anyone.”

The mascot was retired in 1978, Meg Mason, a university archivist, said.

Yearbooks also featured half a dozen photos of white students stereotyping Asian culture — including during university-sponsored events. A 1959 yearbook page showed that SU freshmen selected an “Oriental” theme for “Frosh Weekend” that year. People in a photo on that page held a sign with a racist drawing of a Chinese stereotype.

Alpha Epsilon Phi, a sorority chapter at SU, hosted several “Oriental”-themed costume parties throughout the 1950s, including one “AEFoo Chinese costume party” in 1955, yearbooks showed. Partygoers wore traditional Chinese attire. There were four of these parties documented in editions of The Onondagan.

On pages dedicated to events hosted by Alpha Epsilon Phi, students were shown in stereotypical Chinese dress and using racist depictions of Chinese people. AEPhi held at least four Chinese- or “Oriental”-themed parties in the 1950s, according to yearbooks. Courtesy of SU Archives

Zeta Tau Alpha’s SU chapter had a “Japanese Butterfly Dance” float for a university parade in 1956.

The Onondagan, in its early years, published three racist illustrations of black people, D.O. reporters found:

• In 1885, an illustration depicted “Editors of The Onondagan” — all white men — being served by black servants.

• In 1888, an illustration portrayed the “Psi Upsilon Orchestra” performing a minstrel show. A minstrel show is a racist performance traditionally presented by white actors wearing dark makeup to appear black.

• In 1911, an illustration included a racist drawing of a black man holding the logo for SU’s “Southern Club” — an organization created “for the purpose of interesting prospective college students of the South in Syracuse University and of creating a closer fellowship among the South students and instructors in attendance at the University,” according to one yearbook.

A photo in a 1980 SU yearbook also depicted white students on Halloween dressed as “oil barons,” wearing headscarves and traditional Arab garments called thawbs.

“While we cannot erase the past, we can and must learn from it. Syracuse University rejects and condemns racism,” Royer said. “We will continue to work to implement meaningful change to ensure all members of our community feel valued, supported and empowered.”

— Research contributed by Casey Darnell, Emma Folts, India Miraglia and Natalie Rubio-Licht.

Published on April 8, 2019 at 2:55 am

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001