On Friday the 20th, six minority students accepted offers of admission to historically all-white sororities at the University of Alabama. After protests broke out on Wednesday the 18th all over campus in response to an article in the schools newspaper, University President, announced that sororities had extended bids of membership to 72 students, including 11 black women. A black woman has not been accepted to a sorority at the University of Alabama since 2003.

Melanie Gotz, a member of Alpha Gamma Delta at the University, along with some anonymous sorority members, reported to the school’s newspaper that a seemingly exemplary candidate was denied entry into all 16 sororities at the school solely because she was black. Their report accused sorority members, under pressure from alumnae, of barring women of color from entry solely because of their race. This discrimination is in direct violation of the school’s policy in selecting sorority members.

According to an article in the New York Times, many students say that this comes as no surprise to them, and that racial discrimination in the University of Alabama’s Greek life is not a secret around campus. The difference between previous years and this year comes thanks to sorority members like Gotz that were willing to reveal this information and file a report to the school’s administration.

Many students are in support of removing racial bias completely from the Greek system at Alabama and are willing to make their voices heard. A demonstration on campus on Wednesday the 18th included several hundred students and faculty at The University of Alabama, according to the New York Times. This demonstration, along with national outrage at the discrimination, pressured the University’s administration to do something about the prejudice that was being allowed to occur in organizations that house around a quarter of the students at Alabama.

The overall hope is that the six new minority members will break the unfair tradition of all-white sororities at Alabama. The previously all-white University has taken leaps toward integration before, when the first black student was admitted in 1963. The University clearly still has a ways to go before complete integration, but many hope this will be a lasting start to accepting all races in every aspect of campus life.