Okay good evening my name is monica elliott i’m the president of the league of women voters of broward county and i’m really honored tonight that mr nate green is going to be speaking with us mr green obtained his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the university of florida
Go gators as an undergraduate at uf he became a member of zeta alpha lambda chapter of alpha phi alpha fraternity he obtained his juris doctorate degree at north carolina’s central university school of law and he’s been practicing law i assume here in broward county since 1993 87 87. okay locally he
Is a member and pres past president of the broward county justice association he’s also a member of the broward county bar association and the tj reddick bar association in his spare time he’s director of the florida voter mobilization project which is the group that the broward league partnered with this past
Election season season on the get out the vote and with that project he was awarded the eagle award at their celebratory event on january 29th nate served two let’s see i’ve got people coming in there we go uh nate served two full terms as president of the broward county council
Of the national uh panhellenic uh council here in the county and he’s very well versed then on our topic tonight which is voting from pre-jim crow to the present a divine nine perspective so it’s all yours nate thank you and thanks for the uh fine introduction your your your pay is in route
So uh voting uh from the jim crow pre jim crow era through to the president uh is a quite uh a deliberate explanation as to where we have come from and where we are now so by way of a quick historical perspective after the civil war and the emancipation
Proclamation was signed in 1865 the civil rights movement actually began and during that time period blacks were essentially on their own to begin to develop opportunities in education political empowerment and and employment the pace was pretty fast because the federal government instituted reconstruction measures but these reconstruction measures were faced with
Quite a bit of backlash and even though we had the 13th amendment abolishment of slavery the 14th amendment for equal rights the 15th amendment to prevent the franchisement of anyone particularly males actually males from voting on account of race so notwithstanding that in the pre-gem crow area that’s the reconstruction area
There still was a lot of folks in the southern states who were resistance to blacks voting particularly black men because during that era it was only white men allowed to vote women was not allowed to vote at all so as we come forward to the plessy versus uh ferguson decision in 1896
It was a real big setback for blacks because at that time the supreme court said is equal as separate but equal and basically what that meant was all of these pre jim crow and now jim crow laws which was based on segregation was found to be constitutionally allowed so the southern states really
Wrapped up so when you want to talk about disenfranchisement you can go from violence to to to uh literally literal tests uh property tests grandfather causes all white primaries it was all sorts of mechanisms in place to stop the black male from voting so as you get into the beginning of the
20th and 19th century so at the turn of the century in the early 1900s this is when uh blacks really were beginning to feel the impact on the ability to vote and at the same time is when the fraternal organizations begin to form at the same time the naacp began to form
Dr w.e.b divorce was the leader of the niagara movement and before him there was uh booker t washington frederick douglass who all were champions of the efforts to try to uplift like people and to get them to improve their station in life particularly including the ability to vote dr dubose
Uh did not have much patience so he formed a niagara movement which was sort of precursor to the formation of the naacp while he was the only black on the naacp board in his initial formation in 1909 and that was ushered in because of riots in illinois in 1908 so here is when
Blacks really began to exert their power regarding their efforts to get to vote and at the same time white women began to exert their power to want to vote and hence we came into the 19th amendment because the women suffrage movement now was into full gear
And this is when the divine nine also known as the national panhellenic council of fraternities and sororities began to form so differently than many of the secret societies and many of the predominantly white campuses where you have mostly male organizations which were leadership camps that allowed these men to move into
Society and to secure their places in power blacks began to see a similar need so in 1906 alpha phi alpha among a group of seven students form a social club they call themselves the jewels and at that time they found the need to designate a color a color scheme
The alphas chose black and old gold and at cornell university they found the need to form this social club because of isolation on the campus being so few blacks on the campus and that the jim crow laws were fully engaged there were places they couldn’t go there were things they couldn’t do
And therefore they found a need to come together also differently than some of the other fraternities and sororities blacks who pledge at the undergraduate level pledge a lifetime commitment this is one of the most significant distinguishing characteristics between black fraternities and sororities and other fraternities and sororities it
Is a lifetime commitment of service so some of the notable members of alpha phi alpha was senator edward brooks from massachusetts uh reverend dr martin luther king jr nobel peace prize winner justice thurgood marshall dr w e b divorce naacp who also was an earned phd at harvard
And then as you move into 1908 at this time the uh women’s suffrage really began to gear up the naacp was on the precipice of being formed when the alpha kappa alpha sorority was formed at howard university nine women came together with their salmon pink and their aqua green
As the first intercollegiate greek letter sorority for black college women they have the motto by culture and by merit and their notable sarahs would be vice president pamela harris coretta scott king florida supreme court justice peggy quinn and u.s congresswoman frederica wilson we have rosa parks and also enolia macmillan the first
Female naacp female president then when we roll into 1911 by this time the women’s suffrage movement had really began to take steam the n doubles of naacp had had their brick and mortar headquarters for about a year so alpha of kappa alpha 5 fraternity at indian indiana university was formed among 10 men
Who used the chrism prism and cream as their color scheme their motto was achievement in every field of human endeavor now with the kappas you have nfl quarterback colin kaepernick you have notables of tennis champ mr arthur ashe you have congressman john conyers who recently passed and you have our own congressman
Elsie hastings who is local you have the reverend ralph avenatti who was a a compatriot of brother dr martin luther king who was then in africa both who were champions in the civil rights early movement then as we rolled in the later part of 1911 you have the omega-5 fraternity which
Was formed at howard as well 13’s juniors finally need to drape themselves in old gold and royal purple this is the first fraternal organization at the hbcu friendship is essential to the soul was their motto notable members of that organization is dr benjamin mays more house president for many years
Dr charles drew the blood transfusion inventor langston hughes notable poet and columnist and who who wrote the uh black national anthem lyft favorite voice and then we have roy wilkins nwc naacp president for many years we have benjamin hooks and attorney of reverend and ex uh executive director of the naacp
You have steve harvey a noted television presenter then by 1913 you have delta sigma theta delta sigma theta sorority was found at harvard those saurons felt the need to drape themselves in christmas and cream that’s red and a mellow white they believed in social action which started on the eve of the
Women’s suffrage movement and in fact their first social action project was this women suffrage march in washington dc in march of 1913. they join with their caucasian sisters in order to give presents to all women during that march they are the largest of the four saurons and their motto is intelligence is the
Top torch of wisdom their notable members are mary mcleod bethune who formed the throne cookman college now university she also was the founder of the national council of negro women which was taken over by her sorority sister dorothy height who continued for over 50 years in the chair then you have congresswoman shirley
Chisholm who was also a candidate for president and then you have ambassador and cabinet member patricia robert harris who during the lbj john uh lincoln i mean lyndon bain johnson uh secretary of hood and human uh uh services attorney general loretta lynch betty shabazz the wife of malcolm x
Now we’re going to 1914. here we have phi beta sigma fraternity where three students and nine charter members at howard drake themselves in the royal balloon and pure white they are the first to establish an alumni chapter in the mentoring clubs their motto was culture for service and service for humanity
Their brothers represent past presidents of nigeria ghana and liberia the other notable members are dr george washington carver reverend al shampton u.s representative john lewis elijah cummings james weldon johnson and al walker in 1920 zeta phi beta came on to the scene at howard university where five women in
The royal blue and white wanted to address social needs a community conscious action-oriented organization was their motto they were the first to chart a chapter in africa and the only one that has a constitutionally bound fraternity brothers which was phi beta sigma you have zorah neal hurston folklorist
You have esther rowe dion warwick u.s representative julia carlson and annie malone first black woman millionaire that brings us to our second to the last but our last sorority to be found in 1922 which is sigma gamma rho at butler university seven young educators draped themselves in royal blue and gold
They wanted to enhance the quality of life within the community they were the only ones to be formed on a predominantly white campus their motto was greater service greater purpose they know that members are seeing singer marilyn magu us representative marie corrine boggs prime minister of dominica eugenia charles florida state representative
The late gwendolyn sawyer cherry pass women national about hush national basketball association president donna orender and u.s representative robin keller and then finally but not least we have in 1963 the final of the nine divine nine iota phi beta fraternity was founded at morgan state university now
And they have 12 men who drape themselves in charcoal brown and guilt gold they wish to encourage diversification and individualism with their motto building a tradition and not resting upon one they are the fastest growing of the divine nine then noted members are abc broadcaster spencer christian music producer kendrick javon dean
Actor torrence carlson actor denzel hines and uh illinois congress bobby rush so those are the divine nine and in 1930 the national panhellenic council was formed in order to bring about uh a collaborative effort on those interests that were common to all of the divine nine one of which was political empowerment so
As the formation of the nhpc kicked off all of the groups began to fall in of course at the early stage ioda foundation was not part of the group because they came much later in 1963. so the broward county council was formed in 1997. it is a local council and we call them
Councils which are spread throughout the nation and the purposes of which is to form a cohesiveness among the member chapters in broward county we have about 16 to 17 active chapters at the alumni level this is not the undergraduate chapters this is just the alumni level because if you remember it’s a lifetime
Commitment and most of the hard work involving black greek letter organization began after graduation so some few years after the panhellenic started up dr c miller the past grand bosses of the omega psi 5 fraternity internationally had come back home to start up project big vote and project big wrote was very
Instrumental in electing some black congressmen here in the south florida area dr miller’s envisioned having the panalynic council and other collaborative organizations to come in to help those pockets of the community which tends not to show up in that in large numbers so as time went on
He asked the panhellenic council and the divine warriors and fraternities to help pitch in and that is what caused these groups to begin to fund to begin to bring talent to begin to bring the time necessary to reach all the different areas of their service their targeted service areas
So over time the commitment level increased because the need increased because there was a apathy deep seated in broward county dr miller envisioned this and therefore it morphed from project big vote to the florida voters mobilization project dr miller over time felt the need to bring in younger people
And people who were more steeped in the fraternities and sororities in order to expand uh to areas where we were not reaching in the early election cycles this year was particularly challenging because of the corvette 19. and because of the corporate 19 we had to retool uh certain sectors of our reach
Outreach particularly the phone banking the phone banking had to be almost shut down so as we begin to launch our phone banking that’s when the moratoriums were kicked in so we had to pivot to other areas and here in lies where we had to collaborate with some uh others so before um we
Uh began to shudder we reached out to organizations such as the legal women voters we already had established relationships with the lynx the charnettes the naacp the urban league and so new to the fray not the fray but new to uh the count was the league of women votes
And so before i should take any questions i would like to uh uh uh challenge you on guessing and you can put your answers into the chat on some notable fraternities and sorority members and i’ll just put out the names anita hill they to phi beta singer martha reeves
Sigma gavin rose president bill clinton five data signal sicilia tyson delta sigma theta count basie omega psi phi martin luther king senior not martin luther king jr omega sci-fi attorney johnny cochran kappa alpha psi professor donald byrd jazz musician kappa alpha professor cornel west alpha phi alpha one the sights
Alpha kappa axel gladys knight alpha kappa alpha professor john hope franklin historian uh emeritus professor at duke university alpha fire senator reverend raphael warnock alpha alpha and with that i’ll take questions okay so we’ll open it up the questions um i think we’re a small enough group we’ll try doing it
Um verbally but if you want to put it in the chat that’s fine so my first question is you indicated that dr miller started big vote which is morphed into florida voter mobilization project so between those two groups it’s very notable you know how broward county has a numeral a number of black
Um county-wide elected officials now especially in this cycle so do you feel that that is due to your voter mobilization project uh yes ma’am so with the florida voters mobilization project which is strictly a non-partisan organization we have independents we have republicans we have democrats we have non-party
Affiliates so the whole idea here was to reach into those precincts where folks were just simply underperforming there was a specific target towards the uh non-performing or underperforming black precincts and therefore we went from the hillsborough canal to the miami canal reaching into those precincts and we think that having done that
It made a significant uh impact on the outcome of the election and that’s also where you’ve been able to recruit because i know i think joe scott isn’t he yeah uh alpha phi alpha yes ma’am yes he uh he he’s an alpha and judge george odemus announcer um uh yes so
They were just incidental beneficiaries of the efforts okay um other people with questions katie did you have a question okay i have a question for the group uh which fraternity is coach mike tumbling of the pittsburgh steelers no idea he’s the kaplan count the alpha psi okay so susan has a question
In terms of membership how many would you say are active in broward uh you mean in the fraternities and sororities yes okay so um uh i haven’t been in the chair in a number of years um it would i don’t really want to guess but of the 16 to 17 haptic
Uh chapters i would say that the average sized chapter is somewhere around 40 members okay and so it’s been through big vote and then the florida voter mobilization project that you’ve been able to organize these alumni um chapters yes so uh what happened is uh of the alpha phi alpha fraternity um
Way back in 1906 era when it first formed had one of its projects a voteless people is a hopeless people and when uh yours truly served in the chair with the broward county council of the panic clinic council uh the council also adopted that as as one of its brandings a vote this
People is a hopeless people that along with project bitco morphed into what is now the florida voters mobilization project so the florida voters mobilization project was just simply merging its efforts with the chapters because each of the chapters had their own social action uh committees they have their own get out the vote
Initiatives from registering new voters to actually uh uh monitoring polls and getting folks to the polls so the florida voters mobilization project actually was a catalyst a conduit to marshal those efforts into one uniform direction okay um denise has a question how do you think the jim crow laws
Influenced the formation of the fraternities and sororities were they the question very good question yeah so uh as mentioned uh w e d uh eb divorce he uh thought a little bit different than than than booker t washington booker t washington was more interested in and and blacks for folks using their
Hand to climb themselves into full citizenship uh dr dubois thought that we should use our minds and so he was very interested through the niagara movement to try to get around the gym crow laws so that the focus was to harness the benefit of the 13th to 14th and the 15th amendment so
As a result of the jim crow laws it made the churches come together the first turnitins and the sororities come together to try to navigate around those laws which is very difficult because as i mentioned earlier you know violence was just not simply against one individual
It was the individual’s family it was a threat of the loser the loss of their job uh so you had all these roadblocks and then when the supreme court came down with pluck with the with the ferguson decision then it made it easier for many of the southern states
Uh uh to erect more laws many of which we see today sort of re occurring because the voting rights act of 1965 was decimated literally gutted when many of these southern states was now unleashed to now put back in place many of their restrictive uh uh measures
And so what has happened is it made the church work harder the churches rather it made the fraternities and sororities work harder and so unfortunately uh uh the the presidential primary is usually the year the general elections is usually the year when we have the greatest turnout so the challenge has been to
Make sure the folks turn out during the off-season the off year elections and so the jim crow laws has had a significant impact and it still is today okay so going forward with the florida voter mobilization project what do you think has worked well and what has been difficult and what
Might you be doing different in 2020 this is coming from katie syed yes so um our early start our early educational campaign early inciting new voters to register early start in all dimensions you have to give folks the opportunity to appreciate that divorce is actually their vote
And by voting they can cause change change which can can trickle into their lives in short order we think that this election cycle is going to be uh very instrumental in making our job easier to give folks to the polls in 2022. so do you think it’s best to do the phone banking
To do the door hangers in terms are there specific techniques that you think have worked better than others well uh notwithstanding the corvette 19 we did find um the direct contact with folks yield the greater results the phone banking uh was helpful but our church is really chimed in
The churches shined in in a very mighty way they engaged their members their members engaged their families and between that and the and the actual foot soldiers because i can tell you that the sororities and the fraternities covered massive land areas in broward county and that yield positive results because the feedback
From the field was such that we knew that this was going to be different okay um denise has a question are there specific laws in florida that are still suppressing black votes well we can uh we can begin with judge hinckle’s attempt to brand the uh recent florida legislative attempt to
Make a sentence money as a bar to voting so judge hinkle said look it looks like it tells like it walks like a poll tax to me but the 11th circuit said no and the supreme court said no but it has dis enfranchised a large number of ex-cons that the citizens said
Should be restored their right to vote and therefore that is one example of id id restraints some folks may have difficulty getting ib and if they lose their housing to secure sufficient id and sufficient time to be able to vote or to register or to participate in the voting
Process as i look back through my notes there were eight areas which essentially caused a disenfranchisement and the two last one was former prisoners and poll tax and those are still alive and well today okay katie has a question do the divine nine issue position statements like the league of women
Voters does at the national level so i guess at the national level does the panhellenic council do they have takes specific positions on things occurring in the country they do and so what happened is uh so you’ll understand the national atlantic council has had some restructuring
In recent years so now it is run by a council of president so each of the nine uh rotate to serve in the chair as president of the council the purpose of which is to give each of the nine an opportunity to have their leader to sit in the chair so
When issues come up that touching concern their targeted service areas they issue position statements whether it is um qualified immunity from a disproportionate number of blacks being killed at the hands of law enforcement whether it is a overly restricted voting law they do issue position statements and they forward those out to their
Individual chapters uh so that everyone will have it so one question i would have is since you’re talking about the fraternities and sororities you’re dealing with college educated people do you think that you are resented by those people who have not gone to college yes so uh what happened is um
The national mandate of these fraternities and sororities are as such that we target those folks who are the less of thee and by that i mean we try to find students who are first generation college uh students we give scholarships to students that are in need we search them out through their guidance
Counselors or brace advisors we go into the community with health fairs we go into the community with mentorship programs for young men and the introduction to society for young women and so we reach out to the community through the churches and other civic organizations to reach those folks who wish to one day
Become college educated and therefore i would say that’s not much of a resentment there’s an admiration okay uh susan has a question are there comparable efforts elsewhere in florida so is the florida voter mobilization project just in broward county or is it statewide and if your if it is outside of broward
County do you all work together or get together on to discuss how to get out the vote well uh brownwood is somewhat unique um dr miller confined it to broward to really set forth a template that could perhaps be reclamated elsewhere so the florida voters mobilization experience
For the present time is just local to broward county we have had other counties to ask about our modeling so that they now can begin to replicate the results and therefore that is something that is ongoing but for now it is essentially a broward county effort it was somewhat unique
But then again we have some players who have been around for a while who have saw the need to nurture this this this mobilization effort over a period of time so it has taken time to get to where we are so who again is dorothy miller uh naughty miller is uh
Um an international grand basilisk former of the omega sci-fi fraternity he uh as a retired administrator with the broward county school system he was the director of the minority uh the minority um vendoring program at broward county schools he’s a parkland resident okay so what is
His first name because i thought it was a she oh oh dorsey d-o-r-s-e-y oh okay because that’s not a name i’m familiar with yes yes interesting yes he uh he’s been in the community for a good number of years um he used to serve on the uh north raleigh hospital district um
And an officer in omega sign fire at all levels okay he was a formerly uh uh uh you know you know a partisan a politician but now he’s more uh non-partisan in his efforts to get folks out to vote and to be aware of those issues which touch and concern their lives
Okay and he um he asked me if i would sit in the chair and uh i was looking for ways to to begin to to cut back on my activities of serving in chairships and such but he uh he asked if i would uh consider
Uh and the body uh uh uh welcomed me and they know that i put many years into this community especially through the panatly council to build it up to where it is today and therefore was a good segue from the panhellenic council to the florida voters mobilization project very interesting
Thank you are there any more questions i’m seeing a lot of um congratulations an interesting program very informative and it is it’s something that we just weren’t even familiar with until this past year and so we’ve been very glad to be able to work with the voter florida voter mobilization project
Thank you thank you thank you very much i just have a few more uh if there’s no questions so um uh lionel richie which fraternity is lionel richie alpha phi alpha harry by bellafonte five meter signal hubert humphrey as in the vice president yes ma’am alpha phi alpha really yes ma’am
It almost sounds like if uh you want to be a famous black person in this country you have to belong to one of the fraternities and sororities well um i got eleanor roosevelt here but i’m i’m not finding her name but she is the sorrow georgia also participated in
I i do believe i’m just reading a new book about eleanor roosevelt and i do remember something about that but i don’t remember which organization yeah she was made an honorary remember and i’m i’m thinking i’m missing my my note on on it some of these individuals are honorary members of uh
Uh check she killed emil yes uh delta sigma theta is um honorable number i mean uh eleanor roosevelt is an honorary number of delta sigma baker ah marge you came up with that yeah okay great uh i got a little a little quick one here about delta sigma theta if you will
So um back during the time that delta was looking to be formed there was a lady carly franklin cook a prominent member of the dc elite of the african community african-american community she founded the colored women’s league of washington dc in 1894 she uh had this speech titled votes
For mothers she did not appreciate that black men would demand the right to vote but oppose suffrage for black women and she wrote this franchisement because of sex is curiously like disenfranchisement because of color it cripples the individual it handicaps progress it sets a limitation upon mental and spiritual development
She was made delta sigma theta in 1914 within a year of his formation and all i can say is the delta sign rise they know where the money is okay are there any more questions okay well i want to thank you um very much we really enjoyed it we’ve learned a lot
We look so forward to the next election 2022 which is really just around the corner hard to believe and we hope to be looking uh to work with you in the future uh we really felt we had a great year in 2012. well and if i will um without the um Legal women voters we would not have uh succeeded as we have and some would say if men will not do it women will darn right women but if women will not do it no one will thank you all thank you
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