Alpha phi alpha made history in 1906 when it became the first intercollegiate greek-letter fraternity for african-americans since then the fraternities membership has grown to 200,000 with seven hundred and six chapters around the world here in Detroit the gam de gamma lambda chapter was honored as the Alpha Phi Alpha
National chapter of the year joining me now is chapter president come out marable welcome to American black Journal thank you for having me congratulations honey I’m not very welcome yeah so what was it what is a chapter have to do to receive this honor well it’s all about the service for us
And we’ve always stated that the most important thing is to provide the service for the community our mission statement of the fraternity states that alpha phi alpha develops leaders while promoting advocacy and service for community so to actually get to winning the award there’s a whole lot of
Technical things that go in there but first and foremost we put servicing the community first yeah yeah I think when people think of fraternities that’s not necessarily what they think absolutely so that’s a difference and I would say all black Greek organizations so 441 we carry on beyond our college right under
Service the component community we actually have alumni chapters whose focus is is not the frat house things you see on TV stepping is a big part of what we do but a small part servicing the community is worried about yeah so talk about some of the service efforts
That have mattered here in the city of Detroit that obviously helped you get this honor yeah so one of the biggest projects that we do every year is that we raise funds for march of dimes and matter of fact we are the number one fundraiser for March of Dimes across the
State we actually raised twelve thousand dollars last year for March of Dimes so it’s one of the most important things that we do is near and dear to our hearts taking care of those babies and supporting the work of the March of Dimes another project that we do that is
Very very impactful and one of the points of pride that we have is that we take care of our young men we have an alpha s quiet program that has a 98.7 percent success rate of those young men who enter our program actually going to college
Right we have 64 young me an alumni in college right now who old part of them being in college to our program yeah some of the some of the things that I think people don’t quite get about attorneys and black fraternities and in particular is the sort of sense of home
And belonging that comes out of that especially if you’re on a majority white campus talk about how that may look a little different today than it even did when you and I might have been in college well I’ll be kind of want to take it back to the founding in the
Beginning here who we call our Jews came together on for mutual benefit and brotherhood on a and I know a lot of the black Greek organizations were founded at HBCUs on the majority of them but we were found at cornell university ithaca new york in a time in 1906 where black
People word and getting together and doing those type of things so they came together and put Brotherhood first and that’s the we tell folks who are interested in a fraternity that you can do service anywhere yeah you want to be a part of a brotherhood you come to the
Fraternity yeah and that Brotherhood laughs I know this because I know a number of people who are often including my uncle William Beckham jr. that last a lifetime I mean the people who were his fraternity brothers he had not only a close relationship but a really different relationship than he had with
Other people absolutely i mean when we say brothers we mean brothers and i like to say that alpha is formed to be to surround you from the beginning of your walk with alpha and then even your uncle probably had what we call it Omega or really there we’re brothers pretty much
Gather to honor you it’s your last moment that is the casket closes so it is a a lifetime brothers or a lifetime commitment that we had fun yeah what are some of the challenges that black fraternities face today but they maybe didn’t the face before I think a couple
Of things you know one is that when the fraternities and sororities started there weren’t the options that exist now I mean you know the civil rights and coming of age you know everything is open down so there are options whereas before in other words african-american kids can join any P
Exactly any fraternity any type of organization and so that that’s kind of a challenge around the numbers and I would say to you that I think that which you get from our organizations is unique and beneficial moreover than anything but that’s one of the biggest issues and
I would say the other one which you know all of our organizations are tackling is is just killing this this plague of hazing yeah that has impacted our organization as well as others oh yeah talk a little more about about that every once in a while we see that crop
Up in the news and it’s usually a an extraordinary incident that gets it to that level but there’s this discussion ongoing discussion about the role that hazing should play and maybe the role of this shouldn’t play right we are zero tolerance hazing organization we don’t believe that it should play a role at
All and just getting that throughout all of our membership is a challenge but everyone that we are consistently dealing with by putting together the kind of membership programs that we have that stakes that state strictly on that we are a no hazing organization and moreover that if you participate in that
You will get kicked out of your out forever yeah I mean at the same time it’s going to be kind of difficult given the tradition of you know the line and and and things like that and the sort of trial of trying to get into the fraternity there’s sort of a fine line
There between that and and hazing right yeah but I but I would submit once again we have a process that we call I mdp initial membership development process where we believe that we have favored the best of the process of coming into fraternity while eliminating the hazing
So you know there is a fine line and some of these things came into being with good reason and I think they just got bastardize over the years into something into the brutality which we will not tolerate yeah what about challenges on college campuses I mean we
See a lot in the news right now about the renewed attention to racial climate on majority-white campuses the struggles that we see at HBCUs just keeping the institution’s afloat I would imagine that all those things affect a Greek life as well yeah absolutely and you know we’re proud of our our young men
And I are young women for standing up to challenge you will see I know for our fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha is always at the vanguard in dealing with these issues impacting on their individual campuses and even wider did not their communities you know it is you know the
Struggle around HBCUs is one that’s ongoing but it is one that we also support you know locally through our chapter with with you and CS and what they do so I think you know for us I know our fraternity is taking a hell yeah I mean there are these also the
Kinds of challenges that that threaten the future of black Greek life these things we see on white campuses these diminishment of black campuses things that you worry about you know we we’ve been around for a hundred and eleven years I got anything right and I think
They were going to be around for for at least a hundred more you know so I think we will be there we’ve been able to face the challenges since our founding and I think we’ll continue to face will show ya what about the we are seeing with
With college kids these days who want to be in alpha phi alpha they are different and i can say that it was involved in some organizations that still are on campuses there’s a different kind of there’s a different level of interest and there’s a different purpose in their
Minds to the college experience that i would imagine also changes Greek life yeah absolutely and that they want two things how we deal with that is is that we don’t move the target you know academic excellence is at the core of what we demand in alpha so if you want
To be a part of us this is what you have to do you have to maintain a certain epa to to become a member and to maintain activity with the organization so i think that’s one of the ways that we combat that and also as alumni members getting engaged with our college
Shoppers and helping and guiding them long yeah what about in terms of the kids on campus now the service aspect of it how open are they to the idea that they have to they have to be that very much so I know that our local chapter of
Interest is wayne state alpha epsilon so shout out to those young brothers they engage with several community service organizations and partner and come along with us so they they definitely have a a standard and you know in order to be an active chapter you have to do service
Event you can’t be an active chapter if you don’t do service so they engage in programming on the chapter and they also come and engage with service programming with us yeah and that’s the important thing I would imagine is you get them while they’re in school while they’re
Part of a chapter to start thinking about well how do you give back and then it’s going to last into the adult it’s a lifelong commitment and we’re a vehicle for that so they don’t have to ask they don’t have to question you come on to your alumni chapter after graduating and
You continue the service you continue the Brotherhood that you began at your college yeah well again congratulations on the honor I know that a lot of hard work must have gone into that absolutely we’re blessed as a chapter me not only did are we the rainy I guess until later
This summer when a new chapter year will be chosen we also have the honor of hosting our immediate past general president Marquez Tillman a huge deal our international president is a member of our chapter so to hold both of those honors at once it’s been a great time to
Be an alpha in Detroit all right I congratulate some you Dennis thanks for being here thank you for happy
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