TWO ALBION ALUMNAE, A MOTHER AND HER DAUGHTER, REVISIT A PAGE FROM THE COLLEGE’S HISTORY—A PAGE ABOUT FRIENDSHIP, PRINCIPLE, AND A SORORITY’S DEPARTURE FROM CAMPUS. The whole thing concluded 50 years ago. Only 50 years ago. On November 20, 1967, the Beta Tau chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha, established at Albion College nearly 40 years prior, ceased operations. According to the College, the sorority’s national office was not in compliance with the College’s anti-discrimination policy. The issue centered around the chapter’s pledging, in fall 1966, of an African American student. The episode played out over more than a year and at its end drew national media attention, in part because presidential daughter Lynda Bird Johnson, a recent college graduate who was to be married in the White House the following month, was a member of ZTA.
Not everyone involved is keen on revisiting the half-century-old story. Indeed, few names are shared here; accounts of the latter-stage events as they unfolded can be found in archive issues of The Pleiad (found at archive. albion.edu, within Digital Collections). One member of the final class of Beta Tau graduates, Cathy Ford Crabb, ’67, believes it is important and vital not only to remember what occurred but to retell it, especially to younger generations of the Albion family in what is another particularly polarized social period of U.S. history. Crabb, who taught in Grand Rapids Public Schools for many years, recently shared her recollections with her daughter, Libby Crabb Wahlstrom, ’04, a member of Kappa Delta sorority. Their conversation, lightly edited, follows.
Libby: Tell me a little bit about your Albion experience. What brought you to the College? Cathy: I came to Albion in the fall of 1963. My parents (Richard and Patricia Ford, ’41 ’43) both went to Albion and I knew how important the school had been to them. Many of my hometown friends were only interested in the bigger universities. My parents suggested that I at least start at Albion and then transfer after a couple of years if I wanted to. Of course, I got to campus and was hooked. Libby: You pledged the Beta Tau chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha. What made you want to pledge that house? What was your experience like with those women? Cathy: My sorority was going to be fun. I knew that. My mother had pledged a
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