Mar 26, 2015 10:51 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Levi Pettit spoke publicly for the first time since the video of him and other University of Oklahoma (OU) fraternity members shouting a racist chant on a bus went viral.

Pettit and another former OU Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) were expelled for leading a chant referencing lynching and suggesting an African-American will never join the fraternity. Pettit's family issued an apology on Levi's behalf earlier this month, but this time he got up in front of local and national news outlets for a press conference.

"Some have wondered why I hadn't spoken out publicly. The truth is I have had a mix of pain, shame, sorrow and fear over the consequences of my actions," he said in his address. "I did not want to apologize to the press or to the whole country until I first came to apologize to those most directly impacted."

Standing at the podium with Pettit was State Sen. Anastasia Pittman (D-Okla. City) and several black leaders from the community, the Associated Press noted. Pettit also gave his presser at a local Baptist Church in a mostly African-American part of the city.

Since it seemed a good deal of SAE members were participating in the chant, OU President David Boren decided to shut down the school's chapter indefinitely. His swift, decisive response garnered widespread praise from all over, including the White House.

"What was heartening was the quick response from President Boren, somebody who I know well and I know who has great integrity," President Barack Obama told the Huffington Post in an exclusive interview.

The other student expelled, Parker Rice, released an apology earlier this month through the Dallas Morning News. Rice said the chant was "taught to us," though Pettit would not answer a question begging the same answer at his presser.

"All the apologies in the world won't change what I have done," Pettit said. "So I will spend the rest of my life trying to be a person who heals and brings people of all races together. That is what I hope and pray will come out of this."

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