He Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Reed and today is another one of these wonderful days I get to sit down with some more of the amazing men of five Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated today I have with me with
Me some gentlemen from Capa Delta Sigma chapter in South Los Angeles I have with me brother woodro Bailey and brother toven Lewis and shortly we will hear more about the amazing work that they’ve got going on in their area but first and foremost as I always do gentlemen I take
A quick moment to pause and say thank you to you both for making time for me today time is a gift once we give it we can’t get it back so I truly appreciate you making time to sit down and chat with L me and welcome welcome to the
Show thank you for having us thank well as I open up always I like to go around and ask how long have you been Sigma men and where did you pledge okay we go by age so I’m gonna let brother Lewis go first okay I’m toin Lewis I was
Initiated through San Diego State University back in the year of 1982 okay all right so you’re just a baby if you want to say baby 40 years of service and I and I believe you me it was all worth it for the things I had
Done and the people I served so I’m what I’ve done great Brotherhood great Brotherhood and and woodro Bailey uh woodro Bailey I was initiated in the spring of 1984 at the University of Southern California so my 40th is coming up in a few weeks so I am the Western Regional
Director of social action we have seven regions so I’m one of the seven regional directors I’m also a shter member of Sigma pack 1914 our political pack so we have a political pack in DC so I one of the charter members of that entity as well awesome awesome well we’re gonna
Play nice uh Mr Bailey because I am a UCLA alumni so I’ll be nice uh for this interview but when we get off we might go back to to our our friendly rivalry um and with that being said you know I want to have a transparent moment
Because I was um you know I know a lot of people in Los Angeles but I’m I’m humble enough to know that I don’t know everybody so when I was roaming around looking for sigas for this show I stumbled across your chapter kind of took a quick glance at the uh homepage
Of the website and said oh you know I don’t know any of these faces you know but it wasn’t until I Was preparing for it to show that I took a deeper dive and read some of the history of your chapter and I had a very uh emotional moment
Because some of the names in your history I would say are um the foundation for what I do here at the male perspective and black men matter because when I stepped onto the campus of UCLA um these gentlemen were very solid Brothers you know they showed me
What it looks like for a black men to look out for the black women in their proximity I’m talking about names like K Williams Ron Thorton Vincent Boyce so as we get started I was wondering if I could trouble you to share the history of your chapter and I’m going to try to
Um keep my composure if I could absolutely would you share the history of your chapter okay I can do that uh the capital Delta Sigma chapter was founded in 1988 in West Los Angeles at uh five charter members uh Kelvin toin Anthony George one of the men you just mentioned Vincent Boyce
Uh Carri Williams and uh Anthony hail those five men broke away from the five Beta Sigma chapter to form this chapter of moving forward so we’ve been around since 1988 and you know have chapters have ups and downs moving forward and when we you know got
To about two the 2000s we had a Renaissance and some of the other men you just mentioned especially these two men uh kry Williams and Ron Thorton came back around the same time I did in 2008 we start building we start you know doing the community thing these brothers
Were instrumental in doing what they’re doing it’s you know sadly they’re in our Omega chapter those two gentlemen so we revered in our chapter moving forward our chapter of course is based in South Los Angeles and we pretty much have been in South Los Angeles for most of those
Years because a majority of the brothers live in South Los Angeles or a lot of our community projects are anchored in South Los Angeles so you know the Capa Delta Sigma chapter we work with the other chapters that are in the area by being the sigma chapter the Theta Alpha
Sigma chapter in Long Beach Delta side Sigma chapter in in San Fernando Valley we have a cohesive unit of brothers and Mo and most of those chapters brothers are from my era brother Lewis’s era the 1980s so it was a different time we were taught by the other Giants before us on
How to be sick with it and of course you know our model is culture for service and service for Humanity so we are we’re servicemen I always tell brother sigas are service men so we’re going to serve those communities where there be rain heat civil unrest sigas will be there
When we’ve experienced all that in the last 20 years with the events that happened in Los Angeles we’ve experienced all that and we’re going to be there to serve the community regardless and our chapter is you know like I said there a bedrock in South Los Angeles now there’s so many people
Depending on what we do and you don’t think about it in linear terms but these people with the programs we doing they’re depending on that they know that will help them do something else and I’m sure we’ll get in the conversation later about about healing and hope and what
That is they’re depending on that stuff so it’s up to us as Sigma men African-American men to be a positive impact in those communities because sadly there’s so many negative trolls in the communities and we try to erase a lot of that just by our actions what we
Doing we don’t have to promote and get out on a soapbox we do the work and that’s what Sigma is about doing the work changing the stereotypes challenging The Narrative that’s right now since you mentioned it let’s go ahead and get into um healing and hope could you explain uh because I think
That was one of the things that you brought to Capa Delta Sigma right right absolutely I brought it back uh I had started the or well the the the actual organization started with myself and two other men Mr Vincent low and Mr octav Ramsey we all grew up together at the
Normandy Church of Christ and just by half sance one day this gentleman walked up to the three of us and asked us could he could he give us a dollar give him a dollar what’s the first thing you gonna think about when somebody ask you for a
Dollar they’re G to do something else with it he said I need to get me something to eat so we thought about that and said well man there’s nothing around here that are helping individuals like this eat so we went in our own Pockets initially and started making
Sack lunches sandwiches we were going into the food foress in South Los Angeles buying all this stuff the M would see us in there every two weeks why are you guys buying all this stuff we told him we were going downtown Los Angeles with Fred Jordan Mich we feeding people they started donating
We still that’s where we started downtown we started in two different entities then another individual that we knew that was bringing an 18-wheel truck into South Los Angeles my all three of us start working on that truck for a year so we can learn how to feed others
Okay and after two when 2005 came we applied for the USDA Grant working with the United States Department of Agriculture so our base is in LA Beach we pick the food up every two weeks we’re picking up about five tons of food every two weeks and we pick up from
Another entity called harder compassion another ton from there so we’re bringing that in to the community and it was rough when we got started because we just had a group of volunteers and an idea and we’re gonna just do it we were handpicking up everything we had no
Equipment no tools barely a scan amount of volunteers and what I always tell people you have to put the work in to build so when I came back in 08 to the cap Delta sigment chapter I brought it with me because the brothers before me
Were Su they found out I was doing it in the community and one of a friend of ours went to USC would have say you know that guys over there feeding people every two weeks and they were they had no clue I started getting phone calls
From these brothers that made me so to speak said well wait a minute why are you doing all that you’re not doing it for s you were Sigma and that’s what got me back and I brought it with me and the chapter has been instrumental uh in building we were able
To build our volunteer base get our equipment all these things start happening but these brothers have been steadfast in their involvement like uh you know brother Lewis that’s on the call is my right-hand man basically now in the or in in the organization healing
And hope he he does uh I mean I can’t even describe what he’s done since he’s come back and some of the other brothers in our chapter come back because of this they say oh man I can come out and help and then they come back into the chapter
Because they see we’re we’re about do a something service community service service yeah it’s easy for people to do the lip service thing but we actually do the work that’s right that’s and like I said we’re out there pouring rain like it’s been you know it’s rainy out here
In Los Angeles and we’ve been out there because one of the things I always tell Brothers is just because the weather is bad people are still hungry just because it’s a 100 degrees outside people are hungry so we’re going to be out there something happens like covid-19 knocked us out
For about six months and nine months there’s nothing we can do US Department of Agriculture shut down and so we were trying to figure out how we gonna feed these people because they’re really in a bad spot yeah it’s the pandemic plus they were counting on the food so I know
Uh Mr La myself and the brothers we start figuring out creative ways to feed these people with whatever we had that little bit of stuff we were giving them then it wasn’t accustom to what we were giving them it’s still helping until we can get the USA back on
Track they open nine months later and we went from there but like I said in South Los Angeles it’s void of resources yes so we we figured this is a consistent resource for them because you have a lot of oneoff giveaways sometimes that especially doing the Thanksgiving uh
Time period a lot of celebrities and them but we consisted throughout the year we’re going to be out there twice a month all year that’s 24 times we’re going to be out there every two weeks and some people we’ve had since we’ve opened since 06 some of these families
Have been around us that long and they know they’re going to get it they can take that money they were they needed to do something else and pay a bill take care of their children because they’re getting enough food to last them in some instances for those two weeks we don’t
Do shiny stuff we we give them everything vegetables fruit meat any type of clean supplies all these different type of things we’re giving them milk eggs cheese Staples that they’re going to pay you know a can be $100 when you have a half a basket of
Stuff so what we’re doing for you know doing for these people and some of the shelters that we’re servicing now in some surrounding communities as well through our sorority sisters we are servicing these people at their need level which is the level that a lot of citizens don’t think about because you
Know The Human Experience is well I’m good so I’m not thinking about anybody else we think about everybody else that people don’t want to think about yeah you know you you got you got to consider the tribe you got to consider the village now listening to you talk I
Want to ask Mr Lewis just a quick question then I’m g go back um man with the vision your your president here is is he difficult to work with because it seems like you know he can pile on more work and pile on more work is just me
And you he’s not here is he is he is he difficult to work with no and the thing is first of all it has to be in your heart to serve yes if you don’t have in your heart that it makes no sense out there when you out there you’re looking
For what’s my what’s my bottom line when when am I going to get paid your payment is to see that smile on that person’s face that is your payment because you’re in a position to do better than they are yes and what happens is that’s got to be
Your driving force to help the community because we all come from the community basically we just having to have great parents some good mentors somebody who led us out of the community but then you don’t you can’t turn your back on the community because I grew up in Compton
First I came from New York to Compton so I come to Compton when Compton was gang banging when Compton was comp when Compton was Compton it was like it was no safe place to go and from my experience I grew up in a blood neighborhood and went to a school
So you had to get I had to maneuver my way in and out of places okay and so while I was doing that I saw how my community was suffering because my my father and my mother kept us in the Boy Scouts and things like that to keep us
Out of trouble yeah and and and my friends would say your parents are strict and this and that Reon today I look back on my life and say they saved me because they get me to a better place that’s right and and when I say that I
Say what can I do to give back because everybody’s not as fortunate so what he does drive us he give us he give us the vision to pursue the goal but it’s up to us to do it because a lot of times we say Woody would tell us hey he’ll
Whisper to me I got to go somewhere and I won’t be back for the rest of the day so you have the the healing and Hope program and since I’ve been back with the program I’ve been I’ve been basically over the big families so we
Had two sets groups of people we had the individual family and then we had the big family the individual family comes between eight and 10 and the and the large family start from 10 to whenever they finish and what I say finished that means we have to load their trucks CU we
Have food sitting down out there on pallets that we had to load and divide up between the number of families that we have the big families it could be five it could be six wow some days it could be three okay but you can guarantee there will be five families
Coming out to to get some food we load those trucks up make sure we get all the things that we can get into them and they go on they Mar little way and so that that is a this is this is uh for no pay don’t don’t don’t look out there for
Pay got there for somebody say thank you or something like that you get that from the family that’s right the people who get the food and said oh they they’ll ask we have meat any today we don’t have any meat today oh but bless you anyway
That’s right and that is the reward to keep you going especially when it’s raining it get lonely out there in the rain because you standing up there and you got to realize that this rain is pouring down on your head and and here’s his family come up to you that they
Either living on the street or wherever and you going man I just got to get them some food and we help them put the bags in their cars or sometimes we have to help some of them that live right down the street or push your cart down the street because they
Come up there and they don’t have a cart or they’re they’re sickly we do have a man that comes out there every week now who is blind who’s living on the street get out and and there’s no in in LA county no social services that he could
We we don’t know what his circumstances are he always and say maybe I’m walking and we give him food we give him the cans of food we give him what he asked for and we send him on his wife wow and each week he comes back
So he’s surviving but I don’t know how and I we don’t know where just take care of him commendable you know because you some it’s just commendable what you gentlemen are doing because sometimes with some of us black folks we go off we get our education we leave our
Communities and we don’t even look back so for you you know for you guys to to just say no we are planted here this is our community and we’re going to take care of our community I mean I just so how often you said twice a month we do
It every first and third Saturday of every month okay uh rain or shine we’re going to be out there every uh first and third uh Saturday you know it’s something uh brother Lewis mentioned as well uh with his upbringing you know a lot of us that are in these organizations have
Those similar stories you grew up in South Los Angeles when it was called South Central Los Angeles you know you know gentrification and a more political view turned into South Los Angeles so now we’re accustomed to saying that but but I tell people I grew up in South
Central Los anges and you know you just have you’re blessed to have those mentors those teachers those Church parents those men those women all of them giving you that Village like you mentioned that’s your village when you’re small and you didn’t think about it then but you look at some other
People they don’t get that a lot of people that we de deal with and come out you know we know they didn’t get those type of opportunities and that’s the unfortunate part but they see this uh mve me forward which reminds me of what we’re getting ready to do like I
Mentioned to you at our viter program which is the IRS voluntary income tax assistance it’s really for the low income and the elderly because we we counsel the elderly uh that’s a national program with I with IRS and we’re gonna open you know the first week of March it
Will be open to June uh I not June April 15 where where do people have to go to well they’ll call a number there’s a number that we have on flyer and you know most of these people we’ve been dealing with we’ve been dealing with
Them for years okay so I mean we’ve had some people we’ve been dealing with for 10 11 years and they don’t know they’re just gonna go with us which reminds me of a a quick story that we when we were in our third Year in 2012 a young African-American woman
Showed up she was real patient she sat there and when one of the brothers brother Lea Gill been with me from day one looked at her address she was from Lancaster California that’s 0 miles away from us and we well we were mystified we said but why did you come here when you
Could have went to several others in Lancaster what end up happening is we had just did her sister’s taxes a week before the sister told her that her my taxes was done by some black men in the community with blue shirts on and then charging nothing for so she didn’t
Believe it so she drove from Lancaster to South La where we were to get her taxes done and we said well why would you do that she said I just wanted to have my taxes done by black men that are positive in this community she had grew
Up in that Community she said I I didn’t believe it she said I I I told I called my sister a liar she called her sister to apologize over her cell phone she could not believe there were africanamerican men doing ta for the community for free got to be a scam got
To be some scam yeah she just couldn’t believe it and this is the impact that these programs have in these communities a lot of people don’t think about programs and impact in the community sadly the politicians don’t think that way either so we’re going to continue to
Do what we need to be doing in South Los Angeles to be anchored in that Community you know we’re going to continue to feed it we’re going to continue to serve it service it we’ve done other projects in the community we’ve had health fares in the community we’ve had policing events
In the community a couple years ago when they had the the midterm elections we did at you know because there’s a lot of propositions in California we brought a political strategies out young African American woman and she went over the propositions because people get bamboozled with those tv ads about those
Propositions and they don’t read the voter panel so we had her come out and explain all of them okay this is the type of things that our chapter does in this community and what luded also what brother Le said we’re we’re as you can see we’re not in it for the
Publicity and those type of things you know we virtually go notice but people in that Community know us because we’re going to be there every two weeks yeah there’s people that get to our deul and hope for the homeless at five o’clock in the morning and we don’t open this we we
Just start opening at seven they’re there two hours waiting we call them siros and brother Lewis hamers then he’s pretty much had they’re gonna wait the two hours they’re older africanamerican grandmother types and they’re taking that food they feeding their grandchildren they’re feeding their they’re feeding other people with it
They told us that’s what they’re doing they’re they’re going to be there rain or shine we take care of them we’re also working with a uh shelter in the city of Englewood called Starlight and they help families that have been struggling on the street get back on their feet they
Usually have 12 to 16 families we’ve been working with them the last 16 months they get a box every two weeks so they’re being taught to take their fun their funding to get back on their feet because they eventually going to graduate out the program so we’ve been
Giving them them boxes so they can have saved more of their money you know moving forward on what they’re gonna do these are young African-American women mostly with small children trying to get the education trying to get employment trying to get back on their feet so we’ve been working
With them and also as brother Lewis alluded to when we do the larger families we call them those are other organizations coming in those are other churches those are other organizations and they’re going out and taking what we give them and they set up their you know their Community grocery
Thing in their communities okay we like I said we got people coming from all parts of the Los Angeles County and and and Riverside is San Bernardino County San Diego County so this is the impact that we’re having in Southern California right now awesome awesome so about how
Many volunteers on Deck right now we built our volunteer Pace I think we’re just about closing in on about maybe a hundred uh there the you know we have the brothers out we have the sorority sisters out we’ve had college students out we have uh elderly grandmother types
We built into a unit because they set the they do the boxes on Fridays for us and brother Lewis is part of that as well they do the Box is on Friday so we can set them up um on Saturdays we used to do a farmers market type thing where
They would come in and go through the stations but Co changed that landscape and we started doing the boxes when Co started so we stuck with it the boxes a little bit more economical to get them and go we’re able to you know expedite serving uh the community community that
Way so we have different tiers of volunteers we have we have setup crew of older gentlemen coming in at 5 o’ in the morning to start setting that stuff up we have those like we have all kind of entities now and one of the things I always tell people you’re thinking about
Doing there two things you’re going to have to do you’re gon to have your infrastructure set up properly and you gonna have a volunteer base otherwise there’s been a lot of agencies to try to do this they come out and watch this they fail at it because they’re not
Seeing the man hours The Sweat Equity doing to build this on the surface it look like you just oh we just get the food pass it out there’s a lot more to it than that moving forward and we we get monitored by the United States Department of Agriculture too they
Monitors come out to make sure you’re not selling the food you’re not doing something crazy then other organizations do that stuff we’re consistent in what we do we’ve been dealing with them since 2006 so they pretty much know we’re going to be consistent in what we’re
Doing we’re not going to deviate from it the brothers are not gonna deviate from it the volunteers are not gonna deviate from it uh myself as Vice chairman we’re not going to Dev for what we’re going to do uh moving forward because you know our mission and our mission statement is
To feed the disenfranchise in South Los Angeles that’s that’s a simple mission statement for healing and home for homeless that’s what we do so you’ve been at this doing a whole big r Spiel out of this yeah so you’ve been this for I think 10 years now have you uh because
The the unhoused population in Los Angeles well actually we the nonprofit is 2006 so looking at about almost oh yeah that’s you’re coming up 20 yeah 20 yeah we we’ve been at this this grind for you know while so my question is uh I don’t mean to cut you up my question
Is um you know the unhoused population in Los Angeles is is getting a lot of attention and you’ve been in the trenches for some some time now um it is has it grown in volumes over the years or actually it has you know when we got
Started at 06 I think we were doing maybe 50 people consistant and it wasn’t you know it wasn’t really a lot of homeless people on the street but since if you drive forward there’s there’s home there’s no Community is really not touched by this including some of the affluent ones they
Show up there they probably run them out but they do show up when you look at all the campers motor homes tents tarps whatever they can put together and when you think about it how are these people surviving in this type of weather in Los Angeles right now how’s that tarp
Holding all that water out these type of things uh moving forward how are they surviving with their with with food and those type of things as Le said we’ll get individuals that’ll pop up yeah you know they got some issues there and they’re struggling and they they’re they’re not looking to take a
Box and what we do is pack them up or whatever we think they can uh carry one of the things I do and brother LS will tested this as well I make these little kits with cereal bars spruit snacks we have chili that we get from the USA you don’t have to
Refrigerate they come in and then packs and I soon as I see somebody or somebody ask me you always get asked this you know can you get me some to eat I go in my to my car and give them a pack that’s more what they’re gonna probably get out
The grocery store somebody’s gonna do for them and it’s got some things in there where they can survive a couple of days why these people are army you know military veterans and stuff shocking that these people don’t get any Services because they’ll tell you they’ll have a
Sign saying I’m a v and you’re like man I start talking to him and tell them you know you can go to the VA either in West LA or Long Beach but these these individuals don’t want to deal with the bureaucracy of life that’s not where they are that’s
Why they’re on the streets a lot of them in the first place they don’t want to deal with Services social workers individuals and one of the problems the politicians have is you just can’t take an individual off the street and put him in a room there’s some there some things like mental
Health counseling a medical services they need and they need some life skills to be able to survive in that room and they always do that and then the person go right back out on the street in a few and usually in days in some cases they’ll come and tell us that they
Were getting the room and the next two weeks we see them back at the grocery get minut I thought you was in a room I couldn’t handle it yeah and that’s sad right there but this is where we are bureaucracy wise and you know these things need to be addressed at that you
Know local state and National level uh unfortunately and that’s what social action is for us as sigas to address these type of things this is what our fraternity Brothers The Honorable John Lewis uh o Philip rant off UE new these men addressed those issues they didn’t Harry filif they didn’t run from these
Issues and this is what we are as Sig we’re not going to run from these issues it’ll be easy for us to just do little simple stuff in the community like some other agencies do but we don’t do that we’re going to meet you at your needs
And what you are like I said though like brother Le said those families are super appreciative that box they again it’s loaded with things they they’re going to get and they know they can take that money take care of a bill some type of situation remember a lot of these people
That paycheck to paycheck if that if that if if that or they’re on government services so that’s limited what they’re gonna get so that’s stretching their dollar and that’s like I said our chapter this is what we’re we’re baked into this was the whole premise of the
Chapter being founded in 1980 to do these type of things in the community doing the work doing the work you know and I think it’s vital that we get this out because I think a lot of times people have a myth about um black Greek organizations that it’s just a lot of
Part but they don’t know that it’s it’s roll your sleeves up and go to work and and do the work um and I I want to kind of talk about some of the other stuff that you have going on because you guys are very impactful about raising the
Next generation of sigmas and one of the initiatives that uh five Beta Sigma has Nationwide is the sigma Beta Club which I see your chapter is heavily invested in and I saw the pictures of the gentlemen um you know the the universities and colleges that the the
Young men were going to but there’s a process that happens before they go so could you yeah could you explain what goes on in the sigmaa club there’s a process involved and uh brother Lewis is one of our Sigma beta advisors as well as I am he got the little smir what the
Boys give you trouble there no no no no you got to remember a lot of these young men we get they’re mother are coming to us and finding us through others their young men are dealing with some things that you know when we were 10 11 years
Old that Star Wars since we never that was a galaxy far away from us so we have to uh break some of these men young these young men down and to build them and start teaching them things like editing yeah we we teach them these things we go over how to conduct
Yourself at a table you don’t talk with food in your mouth there’s some topics you don’t talk about at the table we’ve had class we we’ve had trainings with these young men about this you don’t just grab food you know you use your knife and fork we’ve had to do that and
I was out of an an assess of the need because we did something one day had some some food for them and one of the kids just gra came up with his hand and grabbed him said oh whoa whoa you you don’t you’re not at home you don’t do
That public so we went and started doing Ed edate classes with them how to speak in public when you’re at an event you’ll be surprised how many people get lost in translation with that if they do go to an event at all there they’re struggling
On what to talk about how to uh how to introduce yourself we go over that with the young man how to introduce yourself and public another thing we do with them we work on their public speaking so there not mumbling through with you we ask them tell us about
Yourself no no start off with your name and where you’re going to school what are you what are you doing what do you plan to do these are some of the things that the sigma Beta Club works with at a national level at a regional level at a
Local level one of our dear brothers Brother Ali Tod is the western region director of Sigma Beta Club so we have him and he has open chapters in the Inland Empire chapter the two Los Angeles chapters here he’s working on the Valley Chapter he has been tireless
Just as myself and B Lewis in trying to build Los Angeles into something with these Sigma beta clubs unfortunately there’s so many young men that are struggling because if it’s just single parent they’re trying to just keep food on the table keep keep them sheltered then they’re getting caught up in the
Vad bises in life the streets you know my uncle used to tell me when my old man used to tell me the streets are undefeated many have tried all have failed all they started telling me that at 10 years old and that’s the truth these guys think they can defeat the
Streets and we talked to our young men about this there’s only two BS you can take you can get on Broadway and that’s going to be a rough road you going to blow tires out on your car your life car we call it or you can get on straight
Narrow ping is nice you might hit a bump but you’re going to be able to get your car fixed and keep moving this is the conversation we have with our young men and we’ve had at least a dozen in the last few years graduate go on to the
Navy go on to college that’s where they are right now we have a young man that’s has been in our program the 10 years we’ve had the program he was on our Charter class of three young men he is headed to Tain University next fall with a with a full
Scholarship yeah he’s headed to Tain so these are the type of young men were were putting out the other chapters are putting out I’ve had co-workers at my job because they do others they’ve heard about it find out that I’m a s you know my grandson my son is struggling we put
Them in the program a lot of our sisters sons are in our program okay lot of the neighborhood kids that we see you know having issues running around we go talk to them we’ll go down and talk to the parent you know we have a program here
If you want to put him in there on Saturdays and try to keep him off the streets a little while if he’s around other positive other positive African-American men because they see negative influence sadly of Rel male reles and stuff and that’s what they’re influenced by if they start seeing positive African-American men
Professionals college educated professionals working in the community we’ve had our signators come out and work at healing hom we can teach them what social action is if you’re the Next Generation you should be standing here in 20 years instead of us we’re going to be old and Dusty you should be standing
Here and doing this it’s your time then so this is what we teach our young men moving forward we and you know in our chapter we have several brothers that are dedicated to it and we’ve been dedicated to it we don’t let you know let these young men down we don’t let
Their mothers down moving forward uh we’ve had some of the fathers come out we’ve even branched off and done a few of these hybd type clubs um the one that I used to work with at the all boy Academy that’s at George Washington preparator High School South Los Angeles
When they first opened that academy uh our brother Shawn mois one of the brothers in our chapter was the prin first principal there asked me to start coming out and so what I was doing is bringing comic books we you know these kids love wakanda and I said well what
Do you think wakanda is that was the first class I did with them teaching them that you know that you know just child is a king what does a king do King’s like a president he’s responsible for a whole country of people they didn’t think that way they’re just for
The entertainment value no get deeper into what wakanda is and what he’s trying to do so we had some interesting conversations with those young men those were middle school kids you know in you know sixth to eth grade and they couldn’t wait for me to come on Monday
They bug brother Mo to death is he coming today is he coming to today and this is the type of things that we do which is kind of a hybrid of our adopter classroom model that we do we kind of Incorporated Sigma Beta Club in adop classroom with that one uh moving
Forward so you know all our programs kind of flesh out into other programs I gotta you guys are doing a lot how many brothers are in cap uh we have at least about 28 our Core group is our cor grou how does this all work I mean does he let you sleep brother
Lis hey but you know with with my my talent let’s say this I thrive on being busy but at the same time it’s something that you know I used to coach basketball okay and a ball and I was around when when James Harden was the little dude
That played with my son and against my son now he’s in the NBA and you know of course my son no he didn’t go to the NBA but I had to let him know it’s something more for you it’s education more for you
My son now is a uh he has his uh PhD and he’s at uh Morgan State awesome mental health uh great teacher now he’s teaching over there so I’m happy for him and I I knew he wasn’t coming back here but while he was here he got a taste of
Healing and hope like hey he he’s a sigma hey you do your work do your service I say you may not be in a position to give money at all the time but you have education you have something to give back give back to your community and you will be better off
Just just continue to give and and that’s what we instill we start off like you say Sigma beta is is our foundation we can build little kids little kids are questionable the first thing they see they grab on to they gravitate to if they see education is the thing they GNA
Gravitate to education because that’s the way of being presented you have to teach them self-esteem you have to teach them how to dress because half of these kids and I was surprised kid was in college and he didn’t know how to tie a tie things are so different now and I’m
Saying you don’t know how to tie a tie uh no you you have to learn how to tie this tie I’m GNA teach you how to tie tie can you cook oh I can’t cook go get you some hamburger me it’s cheap it’s it’s not as cheap as it was when I was
Coming up but it’s cheap burn it and learn see you have to Teese these kids because they don’t they they really don’t know they didn’t have those M say that meat better take that meat out before I get home from work they didn’t have them kind of M no they no it wasn’t
The type of M like I had the house be clean nobody better not be over yes better be out and those dises better be washed see I grew up with that cuz I had no sisters yeah so I know men way I you know I’m hungry yeah go there and
Cooking you hungry cuse my mother was not the cooking type she had a microwave and when my son was coming up she took my son and said this is this is what you have to do I’m G take you to Costco you gonna get you some food and you gonna cook it the
Microwave was right there you put it on two minutes boom boom you eat that’s the way she was so I I look at the kids that’s coming up and I see the things that they have to deal with and it’s more than what we had to deal with
Because girls was ookie to us girls are on the on the plateau right now forste early agees you have to deal with it and then they have other issues you have the the sexuality identities now yeah him me her them yeah uh I didn’t had that so it’s a little different for
Me so when we talking to these kids we have to also Baden our Horizon to say then they have the social media presence all all of the other stuff you know all the other things that you have to deal with first to win them over and then now
You got to rebuild them and and and teach them don’t be ashamed that’s that’s who you identify with I have no problem with it just let me know so I can identify it to you we just want you to be the best you you can be that’s it
I can’t expect you to be the the president when you don’t know what the president is I just want you to be the best you look all you got do is if you don’t want to learn I tell my kids this early you don’t want to learn I just
Better not see no twos no fours and fives on your conduct in class that means you keeping somebody else from learning if you don’t want to learn that’s your choice yes that’s a big let everybody El learn so it’s it’s things that you do and like I say like what you
Alluding to our programs go from one to the next to the next and we all build on and yes there are a group of us that that are compassionate about what we doing and we just say this is where I sign the best at this is my program I’m
Gonna run this program I will help out any other programs but this is mine this is my baby yeah and so everybody is not carrying a load by El everybody takes a turn to lead and and you get to Coast a little bit sometimes so Teamwork Makes
The Dream Work Teamwork Makes it does it does Makes the Dream work I mean I mean just with brother Lewis alluded to that’s that’s you know leadership and you I was taught to lead by example yeah that’s what I was taught you know by you know your your parents grandparents all
Like from the deep south and deep rural Louisiana there so it was a different time they survived when you think about my my father’s parents born in 1911 1913 they survived World War One the Great Depression World War II the Jim Crow South the Civil Rights move
They went through all of that stuff just to make sure those Generations behind them can be doing this type of stuff you know that’s important to lead uh to lead by example and you know my brother have I Chapter I’m goingon to be the first
One out there I’m not going to ask you to do something that I’m not going to do first as as the chapter president that’s crazy right there I’m gonna be out there doing it I gonna big time you know Big Time folk that’s not what we’re about
That’s not what I’m about and that’s not what these brothers are about these brothers have committed their time their resources funding we funded different things we funded you know elementary schools we funded things we this is what we do so I can’t speak for anybody else but
This is what this chapter is B South Los Angeles work of Sigma you know um when I stepped on campus 1987 at UCLA sigmas were the first ones I encountered and now fast forward to 2024 I run into people who have who are those guys with
The letters I’m like you don’t know who these I mean they’re in the community they’re entrenched in the community I mean they’re sometimes they’re I mean they’re such the pillars and they’re holding it up and you know I just it always amazes me when people have no
Clue who you gentlemen are in the work that you you guys are doing it just it just amazes me I want to touch on uh one more thing I think uh because I have taken up enough of your time that’s that’s okay um you sir Mr Bailey are
Part of something that I had no clue sigas even had and that’s the sigma pack 1914 um explain break that down for me we formed uh well some brothers decided to form a political pack of about five years ago in 2020 and that was some International officers and a
Few other politically minded Brothers wanted to get a political pack going our first purpose was to help the brothers across the country that were running for offices at the state level the national level Congress and those type of enemies moving forward so the pack was formed then it’s still you know
Valid and vibrant now uh we have a dynamic young chairman now named Frederick D Bell he’s out of Louisiana but he’s working in DC he’s our chairman right now and you know we’ve been influential in what we do if a candidate wants to get an endorsement from the
Pack they come on and be with the board they we asking questions they explain what they’re what they’re going to do when they get the job moving forward a few years ago we had our sorority sister Sydney konger Doug when she was running for congress she came on our SLE pack
Board and presented herself and we gave her an endorsement endorsement is well so we’ve had those type of entities we formed it and we you know we’re we’re going to Branch out we’re not going to just limited to Sigma brothers and Zeta Wars we have other individuals that
Might be D9 or not or looking at them as well they can come on and present uh to the pack so the board right now has about 14 members uh all seven of the regional directors of social action are on the board as whether it’s the international director that was baked
Into it because you’re doing political stuff and pol you know politics in general that’s what social action is primarily this is where you know and matter of fact we have something coming coming up this will be our third one I think we’re doing the John R Lewis boot camp good
Trouble where you know young Sigma brothers or even older Sigma brothers that aspire to run for political office they’re going to get some valuable tools to learn how to run a campaign what they have to do to solicit packs those type of things and it’s a 3day uh boot camp
For them so we named it obviously after our honorable brother John Lewis we also the first weekend in March is the John Lewis good trouble weekend Sigma Brothers across the country need to go should go out in communities cause good trouble necessary trouble be working in the communities we’re locked in because
That’s one of our healing and hope uh weekends so we’re out there but if anything else come up as BR the test one year we went out after we did the Grocery Giveaway we went out in the South Los Angeles with bags we made these travel bags of groceries driving up to different
Communities we drove up on the community in South Los Angeles that’s you know behind an old some old dilapitated buildings where the new Dairy used to be and we discovered a shanty town back there there had to be 20 families of people back there so we just gave them
What we had we had about 24 bags of stuff we had to leave it all there we could not just give one person the one guy saw us and walked up to us and said well you you need a bag of grocery brothers and he just shook his head they
Said you need a bad groceries he walked us around there and showed us what this was you talking about an impact kids back there we’re like man he said this who needs it he he told us and so we left everything there and just and we
Told them if you can get down to where we are we’ll give you some groceries so three or four of them start coming regularly and this is sad when you have this type of environment in a city like Los Angeles here Los Angeles that’s the
Sad part uh one of the supposed to be one of the greatest cities in America right everybody aspires to come here right but has the largest homeless population in the country by a long shot remember in the Eastern Southern areas they can’t do homeless this time of year
They’re freeze to death so they all migrate here you know like the Great Migration and my parents grew out here the early 1960s so that’s kind of what it it is to be the Great Migration to be homeless on the streets of Los Angeles because the weather’s warmer yeah the
Weather’s warmer and unfortunately due to you know generification and those type of things they started to clear those clear out those tent cities and stuff because their eyesores and we don’t know what they’re doing with the people because are they put them in a room what are they gonna do with them
Where they going where they going yeah I remember years yeah I remember years ago when they the decimated downtown Los Angeles I said well where’d you put everybody where where everybody go you know and all of a sudden some nice you know highrises were going up I was like okay
So I see why you did that but anyways that’s another conversation I can talk to you so let me ask you this before I let you gentlemen go um just just before I ask my random question um reflective question because you gentlemen have been uh in the Brotherhood for some decades
Now and you pledged undergrad and you’re now in the alumni chapter and we all evolve in grow so how has the Brotherhood the meaning the value of f Beta Sigma changed for you um undergrad versus now alumni how how has it grown for you how is the meaning of
Brotherhood grown for you over the years I go first on that one go ahead for for me the difference is because you gotta realize I came from South go I’m talk talking about San Diego by the border the party College the party College that’s what I knew you
Guys are say that’s what everybody say then we move from down I left there and came here and the difference in Brotherhood has always been for me the love I’ve always received here being in San Diego we was we was a distant star compared to LA but because the way I was
Initiated I was in cuz I liveed here okay you going to come to LA and you going to make friends of Brothers in La so was always United and it’s always been that way for me United I don’t look at a brother from sacramental to S and
Different we we still brothers that’s my brother the goal is what are we doing we got to have a common goal that common goal is I’m telling people I like service if if if you not serving what are you doing I mean I can go party with
You all day long but those days are done for me like when you get older I can’t sit at a club two or three hours doing nothing spending my wheels I’m not accomplishing anything I’m not serving anybody’s purpose especially not my own I’m getting a little bit broker
Because those drinks are very high but so what I what I look at is now as the maturity level I become a life member in five Beta Sigma uh my focus is totally different it it’s more on a bigger path and and I’m looking at what can I what more can I do
At my level to impact the bigger level because as a as a as a as a teen I wasn’t thinking that big I look I’m trying to get my own I’m off of self and and self-preservation I’m that’s that’s how I was thinking but as I got older I
Thought man you just didn’t go to college just to get yours you got to remember you got to reach back and get somebody else that’s right whether it be a child whether it be an adult and for me I’m I’m rewarded because I’ve been involved with our membership intake program from the onset
I’ve been here in the chapter so I had I have touched some lives I have touched some kids lives some uh alumni Lives who want to be in the fraternity and there there that thing is brother Le you you do a lot for
Us you you I said what I do for you I do I do for you the same thing I do at work when I go to work I’m not out there for myself I’m out there for how can my team be better awesome how can we our goal is
If you make a dollar I’m going to make 50 Cent of that dollar but if you make no money it cost me money so I can’t be out for self so I’m putting you in position to grow so that we all can grow we all moving and that’s the way I look
At it as the perspective of my life is just not my life my life is how do I impact I want to leave my footprint When I’m Gone the footprint is still there for you to find and and that’s what you do when you have kids you you hope that your kid follow
Your footsteps sometimes you don’t want to follow your footsteps but not them College days footsteps yeah yeah but you know you want that and and and so my my my legacy is not just for me my legacy is for those I’m going to leave behind me true and make sure they impact the
World you leave the world change from what when you came in into it and that’s that’s what I look at beautiful I love it I love it Mr Bailey how how’s it changed for you over the years well some of the brother stuff that brother Lewis
To alluded to it was maturity for me you know I came in as a Collegiate and I would came in with some Giants some Giants in our fraternity that are you know have reached the highest honor that a couple of these brothers were founders of the chapter at USC so I had a
Innate knowledge of what to do and one of those things those brothers did when you came with an idea we do this in cap Delta Sigma a lot of the stuff that we’re doing now were just ideas at first a lot of the projects that we do a
Brother came in with an idea now you can squelch that idea for protocol purposes no what’s the idea brother they mention it well how many brothers you think it’s going to take to put that together and this is what we start doing we uh we start putting these Pro projects
Together and the one thing with me with maturity because I was gone for a while from the organization and once I got back and start doing healing and hope and do these type of things those Brothers came calling because what I always tell Brothers you ow the brothers that
Thought you were worthy to come into this organization you owe those Brothers for what you’re doing and some of those brothers are in this chapter so they came a calling you owee us so that’s a marker I had to put on the table and slide and slide across and so and I was
A local brother you know I was local Los Angeles Social AC was content with it you know this is what I wanted to do start you know going up the ranks and I had no aspirations to do be chapter pres or none of this stuff that wasn’t by
Focus but then other power Brokers start seeing you and this it it’s your time right there you’re not going to tell the brother that you not g a lot of brothers do do it but I didn’t I said oh I’m not going to tell this brother I’m not going
To do it you know that’s how I got to the regional level to the National stuff the national level moving forward hey brother it’s your time we see you as leader and uh one of the brothers that we mentioned earlier that’s no longer with us brother Carrie
Williams one of the UC new Delta UCLA guys told me told me that he said you are going to be that guy sooner or later you just don’t know it I said ah kbone this is what we used to call him n that’s not my watch you see he said you
Gonna be that guy with those guys those power Brokers you’re going to be a power broker heed to always tell me that didn’t catch it till I do stuff for him Ron Thor is another brother from UCL I do stuff for him he went to high school with my brother and
Sister he so these type of Brothers we do it for we honor these type of Brothers in our chapter because it was a devastating blow to lose those Brothers in our chapter so we we have to keep doing it for them because they were coming out and doing it they were always
Doing things for the community uh brother wood would cook for the community make this is what he was anything that I had that I can help him with I would give it to him he would call me and tell me hey uh Woody there’s a sister over in South Los Angeles he’s
All messed up hurting lost her job all this stuff where where do you need you need a Bo where you want me to bring this box with Williams I take it over there they’re stun to see the level of stuff that’s coming towards them and said well why would you do this one
Sister answer because brother Williams asked me to do this is what we do as signs that’s the brother you need it every two weeks I’m gonna bring it over here every two weeks what do you do I asked her you know jobwise we start checking our network of Brothers
Networks of sorority sisters who works in this field we got people in all walks of life and eventually uh Sor sister found her a job she was so thankful you know she just broke down emotionally because it was a lot of way on her she had a small
Kid and this is the type of stuff that we do so you get to the maturity level uh get to a maturity level and you’re comfortable who you are now you know that people depend on people are dependent on you brothers are depending on you the community is depending on you
These type of things along with family they depend on you that’s why I said the Le by example stuff is is deep with me because you can talk it we hear we Brother Louis tell we heard a bunch of them talking but they don’t walk it and
Live it no dud they talk all day to you to you to they they run out of breath but they’re not living it him and I are living it this is what we’re GNA do we get calls I can call this man I’ve had situations where I had to do things man
Call this man up no questions asked he shows up it might two or three of us putting together 200 bags for something and we’ll get it done hey what that that leavs back to to that time we we uh we decided we was gonna do uh some bags in San
Diego and and we took on a challenge we said yeah we’ll do it so we brother lewi came through for me because he found the site because see since I’m the uh region director of social as we don’t do the project region you know they going to
Come after who’s the so you know I would have took that L he didn’t want me to take the L no him and I we were able to put this project together and get emergency kits down so we can hand it out to the community in San Diego but
You you know our people are basically three of us that did the project National president got out there were 30 Brothers out they like who they dudes start no drama we ain’t gonna start had all the gear on right all the blue so him and I just the basic to make
That point we live this stuff we live social action we’re social action it’s the like I said it’s the Bedrock of our chapter uh moving forward this is what we’re known and we’re and you know we’re known across the country now our International president The Honorable
Chris vray he could call us if there’s something going out here he figure need to be done he’s calling us he’s going to make our International director of social action another brother named Maran Johnson he’s goingon to call me well I know these brothers can get this
Done out here we we know that so that’s a great feeling for our chapter and the brothers in it that they can call us and know we’re going to get this done putting in the work putting in the work true servants true servants well gentlemen you know it was you like I
Said I I at first glance you know I just ran past the website I said okay well let me ask but when I I I did a glad you saw it yeah I was I was just so touched I said wow this is like Life coming full circle for me because my first
Introduction on campus was sigmas um and it was such a a a beautiful experience and then to come back and circle back and see Brothers now we’ve all got great and we still putting in the work we still you know in the community um because that that’s all that was
Embedded in my head even you know freshman year at UCLA I was like that’s what sigmas do they you know they work you know it’s it’s not about yeah we have a step show or something but these brothers work so you know I it’s just it’s just a nice comeback full circle
For me and then to actually see uh you know those names on your history I I just said well this is just hey you know they were talking to me so they was touch sitting on my shoulders cuz you know it was many days that they were
Looking out for the for us uh Young Folks clueless and green on campus so you know that’s what they did yes they did so I want I want I want to thank you gentlemen for the work that you were doing just I mean I’m gon have to come
Out and and see if I can roll up my sleeves now that I know you’re out there absolutely we help you out show what’s going on yes you know um my I I live by my grandmother uh we’re from the south uh my grandmother told me
When you Clos your eyes for the final time this world should be a better place because you were here so um true you know I I truly believe that and so you gentlemen are just exude that in every aspect so you know I know you hear it
Often but on behalf you know from Little me just thank you gentlemen so much for the work that you are doing I did not know it was just such a small amount of hands but hey the hands are getting the work done the hands are getting the work done
So and the these Sigma betas is that club that you’re raising they’re gonna come back and be in capid Delta and continue to work we’re building the next generation of capid Delta absolutely awesome awesome well oh let me ask you my random question before I
Let you go okay let’s see what we got I try not to take up too much of your time but y’all were special to me because y’all are close to home for me so you know I I took up your night and I ain’t gonna apologize for it um if you could
Have an all expenses paid trip where would you go great question right there me person me personally I would want to go to Africa there you go there you go to see to see my root there you go you know no wakanda though wakanda’s not there but we go to Africa all right
Let’s see if Mr biley can get away from the uh that’s a great one right there because that’s mother I almost yeah I almost want to say that as well you know kind of you know see Egypt and Spence looking at those footsteps of some of those other Pioneers that walk
Through there uh you know Nigeria you know I had a couple of uh co-workers that are from Nigeria I’ve been at the you know County of Los Angeles since 1991 they came in the same time I did did and they were misunderstood because they were brothers but they wasn’t
American brother so I used to always talk to him and stuff and some of the stuff they had to do to get here and you talk about some effort so I would love to see you know where they came from Nigeria they always talked about it how
You know was trying to you know come up I said you know I would love to see your you see the country those guys used to go home for a month because it takes so long to travel there they just can’t go two or three days and come back and one
Of the coworkers used to pack his an old suitcase with all kind of things to take to his family yeah so I started helping him you know I would give him a ton of stuff just to pack into the suitcase so he could take it to his family so I
Think I’m some type of honorary ner around here somewhere all right well well gentlemen uh what’s the website give me the website real quick so we can connect with you or the audience can connect with you do you have it on hand let’s see our we if not I’ll go ahead
And put it in the link later on yeah you can put it in the link uh for some reason escapes my memory which no worries no worries that’s all right a lot of stuff going on up there but yeah they could go to our website look at
What we’re doing you know we gotta update we’re gonna put some more some updates on there and look what we’re doing there’s also uh donation links right yeah there’s a the healing and old has one it’s healing for hope uh oh shoot healing for a whole if you it’s first it’s the first
One a couple of great hach yeah the gr hair and I always and brother Le who attested this I said I’m might have to start taking some privileg in because ask I forgot about that that’s the first thing I said I gotta start taking that stuff man my some
Stuff are flying out of there there’s so much stuff going on he’ll call me and said wait a minute what’s that to happen and he told me about it earlier and I forgot it okay bro I got it got you I got you all righty well gentlemen gentle it has truly truly been
A pleasure I have enjoyed my time with you and especially just I am just so impressed with the little old crew just doing so I can’t get over that but just let you know just reaffirms you don’t need much just you just need a heart to
Serve we uh we appreciate you doing this you know to interview you know African-Americans in the community working so we appreciate you doing that uh moving forward so you know you need anything from us it’s just email doing what you’re doing just keep on breaking the stereos stereotypes proving Society
Wrong that my brothers ain’t and you know just oh we GNA do that just challenging the there just keep on doing you that’s all I ask just keep on absolutely that’s all right well that is all for this week’s episode of mail perspective I’m your host Lana Reed and
I will see everybody next time
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