University of Oklahoma Students Protest Fraternity Following Racist Video

Members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) sang "there will never be a n****r in the SAE" in a short clip uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, causing outrage among students, the fraternity's national leadership and the university.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — University of Oklahoma students took to the streets early Monday in a display of anger toward a video surfacing online where members of one of the largest college fraternities chanted racist slogans, Oklahoma City's KOCO-TV reported.

According to KOCO, University of Oklahoma president David Baron gave SAE members until midnight to leave the campus premises. The chapter's building was vandalized late Sunday.

SAE's national office shut down its University of Oklahoma branch following the offensive video's circulation.

"We determined with no mental reservation whatsoever that this chapter needed to be closed immediately," SAE national president Bradley Cohen said in a statement.

According to its website, the fraternity boasts some 15,000 undergraduate members nationwide, with total membership exceeding 325,000 men since its establishment in 1856.

SAE's mission purports to uphold the ideals of a "True Gentleman… whose conduct proceeds from good will" and "who thinks of the rights and feelings of others."

Sigma Alpha Epsilon celebrates its 159-year anniversary Monday.

The incident came on the heels of Sunday's commemoration of the March 8, 1965 civil rights demonstration in Selma, Alabama. US President Barack Obama, visiting the event, admitted race relations in the country remained fragile.

Late last year, protests erupted across the nation following the non-indictments of two white police officers in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City that murdered unarmed African-Americans.