So let’s get started tell me introduce yourself and tell me the organization you represent my name is brandon jacobs um i’m currently a representative of the gamma mu omega chapter of iota phi theta fraternity incorporated iota phi theta are you guys the babies of the divine nine
I i guess from the uh from the rest of the divine nine standpoint yes we would consider the baby only just because you know it was you know not that long ago that you guys were founded so why don’t we start there give me a little bit of history about your organization
Well um i mean obviously uh 1963 was a very turbulent year um in our country um it was a very transitional point um for uh black and brown people here in the united states of america um you know obviously everything going on with mlk in august of 1963 in september our founders
Uh on the steps of hertz gymnasium on the campus of morgan state college now known as morgan state university in baltimore maryland uh collaborated together to create an organization that they felt like spoke to them one of the unique things about our organization that is slightly different from some of the
Other organizations is our founders are a little bit older um than some of the other founders of the other organizations our founders had already gone to war several of them had been in the military things like that and so uh they were looking for something that spoke to them in a in a
In a unique way but still provided that sort of undergrad collegiate atmosphere for them so that’s that’s the very short version of the founding of iota phi theta yeah so they had some experience under their belt that’s correct that’s correct they had endured and and seen a world i think much different than
A lot of young people at the time they had they had again several of them had gone to war they had seen what it’s like on the other side of the world they had had an opportunity to see um you know how people of color are treated outside of the united states
So those opportunities i think gave them a different perspective on what the world looks like based on the history of this organization how has it changed or made its mark on black history well i i think that as is the case with any organization right we all have uh
Have our notable members we all have things that we have accomplished you know all of that sort of stuff i mean people seem to have this misconception about iota that um we don’t have notable members just like any other organization we have most people remember tc carson from livingsingle
What they also don’t know is over the years he’s done a lot of voice acting and voice work um a lot of young people people around my age late 20s early 30s probably remember him as the voice of cradles from god of war you got bobby rush who’s
A congressman in illinois you’ve got alvin hayes who is a nba hall of famer and i think most recently a lot of people would know devin steele uh his daughter leah had cancer and he was playing in the nfl at the time um they uh they were the recipients of
The jimmy v award for their courage and perseverance of in fighting cancer and raising money to help you know his daughter and a lot of other young people so um i think that there’s this misconception that like we aren’t a part of these same uh initiatives because we
Don’t have martin luther king per se or or jesse jackson and things like that but we have notable members who were fighting the good fight just like everyone else at the time i find it interesting that you bring that up um why why is that what do you think are some
Of the other misconceptions about your organization um well i think the misconceptions are are generally made because when you’re in your own bubble as is the case with with anyone when you’re in your own bubble you tend to know and understand and feel the impact of your organization’s influence on society
Um and again as we mentioned at the beginning of this interview us being uh the youngest of the organizations in the mphc a lot of people haven’t had a time to really study us you’ve got tons of members of organizations that are living breathing walking around that do not know iotapo
Theta as a member of the mphc when they were in undergrad so keeping that in mind our influence to them isn’t quite the same but when you talk to young people who have attended college within the last 20 years or so it’s a little bit different their their perception of us our influence
And our overall impact is is different tell me why did you choose this organization what is it about this organization that made you say i really want to be a member this is something for me um well uh my story is a little bit different um i actually came through a graduate
Chapter the game of the omega graduate chapter here in jacksonville florida i’m actually the first initiate from the first line in uh 2010. and for me it was a little bit different because when i was attending unf there was no iotas on the yard there wasn’t anything like that
I thought i was going to go in a different direction and i decided against that um i ended up graduating um i was a club promoter and a dj at the time and i was djing an event for the african american student union at unf now bsu
And uh and ultimately i ended up stumbling across a a member of iota phi theta by the name of nelson mccoy um he walked up on me and much like other people in other organizations would do he said hey man um you played all the stroll songs for
All of the d9 except for us and i casually looked up and i saw a yellow shirt and i was like nah man i played atomic dog and i just like i just kind of kept it moving you know and uh he was like no i orified theta
Now keep in mind i come from a household of blue and white folks my my cousin chris played sigma at the university of florida my sister uh pledged zeta at florida state and so you know i thought i had you know as as it relates to people who aren’t greek i
Had a grasp on what the the mphc was and so you know he talked to me briefly about the organization and then i played this song rosa parks by outcast and he strolled to the song he was there by himself and really just tore the house down and
I was so impressed i was like man let me know about this organization and he was like no i was like disrespected us wait a minute how this works you know i i show interest and you you give me information and that kind of thing he said no
Um there’s a couple of books that i want you to read i want you to read uh black greek 101 and the divine nine uh read those books and get back to me and uh a week later i reached out to him and uh he was like did you read the
Books and he asked me a variety of questions and um i said no man uh i hadn’t had a chance to read the books he said read the books and call me back so i actually sat down and i read the books and called them back and then we had a
Conversation and he was just like so why not omega sci-fi and i was like although i respect uh you know the the dogmatic principles of omega scifi and what they did as far as not being let on the yard initially when they uh were founded
Um they did hang uh note cards on trees to kind of build influence for the organization and really just you know were really rambunctious at the time when they were first initially founded and trying to get their feet up under them you know it doesn’t speak to me in the
Same way and what i found myself doing was i was reciting information that i had read from the book so it had absorbed in me um not too long after that we we went through what you would call the process of becoming an iota so and the rest is history
The rest is history how do you feel about your choice because you just in this short interview in this short time that i’ve spoken to you i’ve learned a lot about your organization things i didn’t know i’m not greek myself what about it just really impressed you i think
Um a lot of people make their choices for a variety of different reasons right for for young people who pledge an undergrad i think the choice is made because hey these are the popular people on campus they provide something uh to my life that that could be of impact for me for the
Next four years and that’s what they tend to focus on primarily not saying that you know the lifelong component of it isn’t important to them but but as a young person 18 19 20 years old i think that that’s where your primary focus is i think for me what i realized was that
Um i was going to i don’t have any brothers and i i recognize the fact that i i could i could not just have brothers but men of character that i really respect who are making a true impact in the community and i’ve never been again having been a club promoter you know
I had stood next to young jeezy at concerts you know and all this kind of stuff t-pain the whole nine and so i had seen all of those things so like uh famous men don’t necessarily impress me so i wasn’t i wasn’t so caught up in the
And no disrespect no the jesse jacksons or the mlk being a member of a given organization to influence me to be i wanted to meet men that were like me that were you know building a tradition which is our motto building a tradition not resting upon building a tradition
In their communities and really making a true impact how does your organization continue to shape its members even after college i know you reached out to mark so you you’ve had a chance to peruse our duwal iota’s website um i’m the one who uh designed that um as you can see
Right now we we continue to make an impact through our community service programs and initiatives we just did a clothing drive um we uh fed the homeless during thanksgiving with my catering company snook’s eatery um the brothers did that along with me and um you know we continue to make an
Influence just from all of our businesses that we do that we try to find unique ways to tie into into what the fraternities principles and initiatives are you’ve got uh mark harris who you were communicating with he owned spaz apparel which you know they they provide a lot of up-and-coming
Apparel for for people of color you got the center one foundation um that was founded by nelson mccoy which helps minorities of minority young people find uh funding in order to attend college so if they want to go to the university of north florida but they’re
Unsure how they’re going to be able to find the funding necessary to get there they’re five thousand dollars short he assists through that process um again like i said i own a catering company snook’s eatery feed the homeless my my line brother um in the fraternity jay nightingale owns a
Catering company as well holy grill um and we just try to find unique ways to tie in our business initiatives to to the service of the community at large here in jacksonville is there anything else that you want the jacksonville community to know about your organization and and how you
Continue to serve them um just that we’re here and that we’re present and that um don’t allow uh misconceptions to to get in the way of what is true um that there are iota’s of great influence um doing tremendous work in the community nelson mccoy helped write the uh
Revise the city charter this past year um i am the chairman and one of the four founders of the largest uh the largest uh alumni association for people of color in the city of jacksonville i’m the founder of the black alumni association at the university of north florida
Um so we continue to do great work we’re proud of what we do one last question tonight i feel like you’ve answered this already but i have been asking the other organizations this or the representatives do you feel like your organization chose you or did you choose them i would
Say a little bit of both initially it’s me choosing them um because i have to express that interest and then they choose me from the standpoint of they they assess me and determine what value i bring to the organization because we just have to be honest about it that
You know the organization is in the business of trying to grow the organization and subsequently its influence and so obviously you know you have some really nice people but if they aren’t servicing the community and doing good work or have the motivation to be open to doing good work
Then they may not be a fit for an organization and that’s perfectly okay anything else you want to add no i just encourage people to uh to go to our our website iowa theta.org to check out any national initiatives programming learn more about the organization and if you want to find out
More about the brothers here locally you can go to duvaliotis.com click on the video about uh what it takes to be a duval iota and learn more well thank you so much for talking to me i really appreciate it it was a very eye opening i have to say thank you
source
