© THOMAS GRANING/AP
Sigma Phi Epsilon said it indefinitely suspended the Alpha Chapter, which voted to expel all three men and give their names to investigators.
Cops on Sunday found a noose tied around the Meredith statue's neck, along with an old Georgia flag bearing a since-eliminated Confederate battle emblem.
When Meredith tried to enter Ole Miss in fall 1962, Mississippi's governor tried to stop him. That led to violence on the Oxford campus.
U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 500 U.S. marshals to take control and days later, Meredith was allowed in the school. Though he faced harassment, he graduated with a degree in political science.
"It is embarrassing that these men had previously identified with our fraternity," said Brian C. Warren Jr., CEO of Sigma Phi Epsilon. "SigEp as a national fraternity has championed racial equality and issues on diversity since 1959 when it became the first national fraternity to invite members of all races, creeds and religions to join its membership."
Warren said the fraternity will conduct a review to ensure that members' values align with those espoused by the organization. "We won't allow the actions of a few men to undermine the more than five decades of leadership this fraternity has demonstrated in the fight for racial equality and diversity on our college campuses," he said.
© THOMAS GRANING/AP
Three white students were wanted for questioning by the University of Mississippi police Friday in connection with the desecration of the statue, but their attorneys would not allow it without arrest warrants. The three have not been identified.
The university said their police department has enough evidence to bring charges against two of the three teens through a student-faculty judicial panel, which could choose sanctions including dismissal and barring the students from campus.
University spokesman Danny Blanton said Friday the school's findings have been turned over to the district attorney's office.
The university is satisfied that the three students under investigation are responsible for the statue's desecration, Blanton said.
The Ole Miss Alumni Association is offering at $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. University Chief of Police Calvin Sellers said the money had been "instrumental in bringing quick results in the investigation, generating numerous leads."
District Attorney Ben Creekmore told WMC-TV in Memphis that criminal charges would be difficult.
Creekmore said investigators and prosecutors have looked into several misdemeanors, but he said criminal charges were unlikely by his office because the statue was not physically damaged, and the suspects did not appear to be trespassing.
He said federal investigators could opt to bring charges if they saw fit. Creekmore said if new information comes to light, his office could revisit the issue.
Blanton said that while it's up to state and federal authorities to press criminal charges, "obviously, since we've seen who is responsible, we want to take swift and decisive action.
"What we want to do is to show this type action can't take place on this campus. We want to demonstrate that we will not tolerate this type behavior," he said.
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