Grand Rising Grand Rising Grand Rising family welcome back to another episode of my Unapologetic perspective this is the podcast that we give our point of view of controversial topics from my experience black history and non-knowledges African Americans black history presently lives in us so we can continue to excel into the future it’s
One thing to know black history it’s another thing to take advantage of what the people in black history did for you I am your host martray Baker Stevens until the right of me it’s Shaquan battle year and to the right of him is Jerome battle sup uh how are y’all good I’m good
Um we appreciate all the love the support the concerns on why we haven’t recorded I promise you we tried to record last week um it just didn’t go the way we thought it was going to go technical technical difficulties um but we back uh better than ever and we want to try
To give you the best um the best of us so sometimes we do have to take a break because sometimes we do got to refresh we do got to go back to the drawing board um we do got to go do our own research and we don’t want to rush to research
Sometimes seven days ain’t enough for research sometimes we got to go a little bit further and um do more reading to be able to give you the best information as possible because that’s what we want to that’s what we want to give our our best
To is you so we appreciate all the love and support that’s right um quick sec huh on quick sec let me get a impromptu go go ahead so um we don’t I guess it’s gonna air tomorrow probably uh Memorial Day you know as individuals as family members of this podcast
Um members of the black community we may be a lot of things and you may hear us say a lot of things on this podcast but what we are not a disrespectful insensitive ungrateful and fruits of denial and we recognize those that serve the cause and the effort for freedom and we we
Thank them for their service whether that cause was in the form of armed services or not we certainly understand their sacrifice the sacrifices of their families and we commend them for their contributions so I just want to say that being that tomorrow is Memorial Day
Having a um a father who served in the military um my oldest brother served in the military my nephew served in the military and I have a few uncles who served as well so I wanted to say thank you for their their efforts for the cause of Freedom that’s right much
Appreciated salute John we’re both fans you got anything for the cause uh Julian Poindexter who just uh congratulated just made Captain um will be moving soon to Orlando Florida so salute to him thank you for your service and good luck in Florida for sure for sure for sure
Um I got a couple of movie reviews before we get to our topic let’s get it um first when I watched uh Sweetwater um Nat Sweetwater Clifton you know played for the New York Knickerbockers was considered one of the first African Americans to play in the NBA now for the movie review
Great intentions poorly executed if you didn’t know anything about Sweetwater before this movie you don’t even know what you think about some water after this movie the movie is called Sweetwater so we thought we were going to get a movie about Sweet Water um it was mostly about the NBA uh owners
Trying to either push forward or push back against in uh black NBA players um mostly for monetization even with Sweet Water the New York Knickerbockers owners was looking at him as entertainment that’s right that could fill the seats for to monopolize because so one the couple things you do learn he
Does play for the Harlem Globetrotters um he was one of the first he was supposed to be the first but um they ended up uh Earl Lloyd ended up playing first in his game which the New York Knickerbockers was scheduled to play first but they moved or Earl
Lloyd’s game up so he can be uh so he was actual the first buzzing that you really don’t get anything from it I mean good intentions you find out he’s a cab driver later on in life right I mean that’s about all you get so poorly developed
Um the movie seemed like it was shot in a few days in the same different locations you know it just really didn’t have anything to it um Good Intentions you would love to see a really good movie you would love even if you got to combine the three Earl
Lloyd uh Chuck Cooper and neck Sweetwater Clifton combined all three stories and make one good two and a half hour movie did it surprise you did that’s a project because I saw one of the first things I saw is that the NBA approved the movie uh it surprised me
Because I saw the um I saw the trailer in theaters I thought they were putting a lot of money behind it and I’m like okay boy we about to get one of the the Jackie Robinson types no it wasn’t that this could have went straight to Hulu
That’s right the NBA approved it which means it had to be about the league yeah you know you’ll start hearing that term the league a lot more because that’s that’s the sentiment about all professional sports it’s always about the league yeah and I watched uh big George Foreman good about George Foreman
Um I like the movie um I thought it was a I thought it showed his character because there was a little bit of funny parts into it so you that’s kind of George Foreman’s character a little bit later on in life um I believe the the development the
Boxing wasn’t the greatest but sometimes you can’t expect to have a great story and good box and I mean we I guess we were just spoiled with Ali so you kind of wanted that but George Foreman’s story was a good story no it’s not our League’s story no it’s not a Sonny
Liston story um or some of these made up stories that you watch in boxing like Creed and Rocky but I know it’s not that it’s it’s his story and I believe they did a great job with it um is this story in deaf enough to where you just like you’re just overwhelmingly
Uh entertained by the storyline not really but there is there’s parts of the movie you like okay this way I would have liked them to go more in depth after the Ali fight his mental state they touched on a little bit but not enough for me um
Later on in this life in his career um I enjoyed um shout out to the actor that played him uh Chris Davis because for the people who don’t know if you watch George Foreman against Ali then watch George Foreman when he uh regained the heavyweight uh title like it was a
Bigger dude and this dude had to gain like 80 or 90 pounds to be able to play George Foreman from the beginning to the end uh so shout out to him that was dope how truthful was the guidelines there’s I haven’t seen that one yet but the um
You know I’m I’m a Muhammad Ali fan they got to play Muhammad Ali did a great job because there’s a the the impact that George Foreman made in boxing to the point where Muhammad Ali talks about this and his autobiography is that the impact was so huge that people in his
Corner was afraid when Muhammad Ali went to fight him that when he was coming out of the tunnel he turned to his his people was like why the y’all so quiet what are y’all scared for you know yeah scared of this dude I’m the one
That’s got to go in there and box him but the impact the of that George Foreman made in professional boxing was huge to the point where everybody was fearful a big joke um the it didn’t touch on a much of Ali but the perception around everybody else was
That George Foreman was going to kill this guy that’s right you know so the the commentators and all of that it did touch on that just a little bit it showed ali um before the fight after the fight what you know a little bit with George Foreman went after the fight
Um it was something else that that was serious I wanted to touch on from the George Foreman oh so like you just mentioned it right so when you look at a lot of these movies a lot of people like okay the movie fell short it just wasn’t in depth
Enough okay but a lot of these movies are based off of their autobiographies that’s right Ali’s autobiography is very in-depth so that’s like even the Malcolm X movie like Spike Lee had a lot to work with some of the stuff he had to take out because it’s like okay this is right
But George Foreman has an autobiography and they’re going off of this autobiography so if you’re mad at the fact that they didn’t go much in depth about certain things then that ghost comes from the person who wrote The Narrative of their own life that’s right which is George Foreman so what they
Gave us and what he gave us from the book is what we got in the movie and I’m happy about that and he’s a humble guy yeah so so it’s going to be somewhat of a humble Story versus Muhammad Ali who wasn’t very humble yeah yeah but um just
Two movies that I watched quick reviews good um so we got an important topic that we want to get to and then from here later on we’re going to get a lot into um current events but we do want to touch on some more black history before
We get in because I’ve been waiting to do this topic for a while because I believe it is necessary um and that’s just the um talking about the divine nine the black sororities and fraternities the um the black secret societies I believe it’s important not just from an organizational standpoint
But from a principal standpoint and the way that they were developed and why they were developed and continue those traditions and that um information passed forward down from generation to generation is important um because when you look back at uh African-American history you see like black secret meetings that happen on
Plantations right you see even before the Underground Railroad you just see secret meetings of reading secret meetings of this is what we need to do to slow the work the work uh load down so all of us can be able to to um not be punished right you know I mean
These type of meters what do we have to do what’s best for our family it’s black my black people doing what’s best for black people and sometimes the information has to stay away from certain black people because they are sabotaging right that’s right go back to the plantations of the sambos uh or
Uncle Tom’s or whatever you want to call them and they’re just important to uh what we do as a as a community and as a people so just going through the research what y’all uh opinion or perspective on just the overall research that you did uh it’s nearly impossible to examine the
Advancement of black people without discussing black Greek letter organizations um you know much like what we just talked about earlier the military and all of those things you hear about the bad things never the good things um Greek life is more than just letters colors parties uh drinking
Um the media tends to paint negative pictures of the Greeks uh about the haze and and all of those things um from my research what I gather was service um the definition of services the action of helping or doing work for someone else um how may I help you is is really big
For the Greek life um it requires a a lifetime commitment to the community and it’s it’s when you graduate I know for I know for sure it’s a lot of Greek guys that start businesses together um they start barber shops together or they might have a fund where they use
This money and 10 people Branch off and start their own businesses just from being connected uh in Greek life so from a secret society standpoint it surprises me that a lot of this is not taught in American history right the the origin of secret societies can go all
The way back that predates the Revolutionary War um a lot of a lot of things that happen during those times is what created some of the things we have now like Espionage and spies um through secret societies or fraternal orders for sure um having secret meetings and with like-minded people
Um you know when you think about Fraternal Order social uh uh social secret societies not necessarily fraternities or sororities when it comes to education but just the the organization from from a fraternal standpoint a Fraternal Order standpoint meaning you have like-minded people who gather and they discuss things um for instance Freemasons
Um when you think about and and for for me my research regarding this may have started when I was maybe nine or ten years old living in Washington DC Washington DC was a city that was designed by again by a guy named Pierre Lafont and I learned about Pierre Lafont
Because I learned about Benjamin Banneker yes who Benjamin Banneker was a guy who um for the lack of better terms took over for lefant when he and and and a couple of people who had a falling out about building Washington DC and uh Benjamin Banneker stepped in and you
Know with a great memory he was able to reconstruct the architectural the blueprint for Washington DC which was a design based on the ideology of a Freemason which are symbols and things leading up to the capital um that led me to learn about secret societies and fraternal orders so
Um and then of course you go you predate that you go back to the Greeks and Romans where you just talked about Greek letter organizations um one of the first would have been Christianity where you would meet somebody who believe the same as you and you meet him in public and you would
Make a half Arc and then that person would make the other half sibling of fish which was for Christianity um I was another form of the first existence of secret societies um which obviously is where we get a lot of things from the United States leading all the way up to
Sororities and fraternities and universities absolutely success would be the the common theme as well when you talk about not just leaders but success overwhelming success for those who pledge to these these these uh organizations right you know without them we wouldn’t have excelled as much as we have and you know just speaking
From the black perspective for um fraternities and sororities in the beginning um so there were fraternities and sororities that didn’t include blacks in colleges so blacks couldn’t be a member so they created their own yeah and the reason initially to create their own wasn’t to be like the the white
Establishments it was to fight against some of the injustices that were happening on campuses and in the community um against against blacks and minorities so it was once again getting like-minded people but people who were enduring the same issues the same challenges of being able to get access to books and in areas
Of education so that they could of course study and be able to uh get get what they went there to get which was an education the equal education right it was necessary because on the opposing end they were doing the same thing they had secret societies that were meeting
For instance Knights of the Golden Circle in the 1850s were meeting as a as a counter to the the black secret societies um and what they were doing is total opposite they were meeting trying to figure out ways that like-minded people could move slavery not just from the
South but also into the Midwest and to the North Indiana Mississippi Place uh uh Tennessee um Michigan um things like that so at the same time we were countering what was already being taken place also something a lot of people may not know is that they created an anti Masonic party which was
The third uh of of the three parties in the United States back then and the main objective was to get rid of the secret societies even though at the time George Washington Paul Revere Benjamin Franklin Law part of the secret society yeah and we are back um I’m gonna jump right back in
Um a few other secret societies uh the order of society of The Galleon fishermen um 1856 in Baltimore City Maryland was founded by civil by Civic minded black men and women they performed services such as providing for the sick assisting widows and paying for funerals the grand United order of our fellows in
America established in 1843 by disenfranchised African Americans the organization served as both the social club and a charitable institution with the focus on morality and temperance and the independent order of St Luke’s uh very important especially for people living in um Virginia you know it was established in Baltimore 1867 as a women’s
Beneficial Society um founded by former enslaved woman named Mary Pro but under Maggie Walker’s um leadership they expanded uh to over a hundred thousand members into 26 States and they developed to establish the local business tied to the order called the Saint Luke’s Penny Savings Bank in Richmond Virginia um and
When they established that bank there was another organization called uh the United Brothers of friendship and Sisters of the mysterious ten and they also established the the first uh black owned bank in Richmond Virginia the true reformers bank and with these two organizations banks in Richmond Virginia and different businesses that’s why
Richmond was called the little Harlem of the South or also um also um Black Wall Street so you just see different organizations that develop businesses and um provided funds to the people um like one of the things you always see is like for funerals like the funerals
Cost a lot of money paying to bury somebody cost a lot of money and some people just don’t have the money so you see people with GoFundMe now you know to try to pay for funerals from back then you know you talk about late 1800s people were providing money to families
To pay for funerals that unfortunately just like anything else when you have something that has great intent it can be it can create some things that that aren’t very beneficial or that can be harmful um and for black communities this is one is that with fraternities and sororities
The selection of the members the initiation the acceptance of those members can be a device used to divide um especially for us is that you create these levels of of blacks within our own community and because of that you have to have the have-nots and you have the
People who have and the people who want to be where they are yeah and that’s a that’s divisive in our community very divisive um and we we see that we see where people that are part of these these some not all but some that are a part of these secret societies these fraternal
Orders look down on the people who aren’t accepted or the people who want a part of it and in certain times um these can create an Avenue and just just this is my opinion can create an Avenue for Injustice and equality and what I mean by that is
Sometimes these folks look out for each other that’s unfortunate because if you have a person that’s in a hiring position that is a member of one of these organizations and there’s an applicant that is also a member and then applicants that are not a lot of times they may look out for
That applicant who is a part of that that organization again like-minded people looking out for like-minded people and they take off to do so this is an oath of Brotherhood so it can be something that creates an Avenue for Injustice and then quality let’s get into the uh divine nine
Um I’ll start with uh Alpha Phi Alpha the oldest African-American college fraternity so back on the college campus of Cornell University uh black students were being segregated and and isolated and um a lot of the faculty let them know that they were unwelcome um and they’re in in one class from the
1904 to 1905 class there were six African-American students in that class and none of those six enrolled so the rest of the classes came together and said you know we need to to combine and hold each other accountable and create a study group so we can band together and
And weather the storm on being on this pwi um and that’s what they did and these um seven Gentlemen Just created these seven jewels of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in 1906. one of their earliest members happened to be W.B Du Bois um they expanded to their second
Location which the rest of the yes well most of the hbcus I mean most of the Devon nine um was developed which is Howard University but um it’s not like it is today where you can just stay in contact with each other through the phone or through social
Media so what they did was they created their the Second National African-American um magazine or journal and it called it the Sphinx and then the Sphinx they they had writers like W.B Du Bois that wrote about social injustice and things going on to the world they also kept track of
Of different events and stuff that was going on um this is how they was able to keep track of of everything and stay on one Accord um but they began to do great Community work by tutoring and uh providing financial help for high school students um
They came up with a uh a plan of voteless people as a hopeless people to help people register to vote here are some of the few prominent members that were Alpha Phi Alpha Jesse Owens Ohio State Olympics Paul Robeson Rutgers civil rights move activists Charles Houston Howard law school that molded Thurgood Marshall
Dr King Frederick Douglass became an honorary member Dick Gregory my favorite fish Pollard first black coach in the NFL Garrett Morgan track traffic signal inventor so you can just see just by a few of these names that their contributions just to the Civil Rights Movement itself um and they were they contributed
Financially a lot to the NAACP um their principles is scholarship Fellowship good character and uplifting of humanity their programs Brothers Keepers go to high school go to college project Alpha which is to help uh young males from 12 to 15 talk about teen pregnancy and um sexually transmitted disease so just
From that information alone you see the contributions that this that the first African-American fraternity had on a community on the college in social justice in leadership and in black history itself I think that was one of the biggest things for me was how to um the divine nine the the founders are
I think at least 50 of them were Educators and that’s one of the one of the big things that we talk about on here outside of owning things in your community is education on um your history absolutely that’s right because with education so when you look at they all talk about
Um their principles being you know scholarship or education and that’s one of the things that we can take from the black fraternity is the education so like I said before when you before you pledge to a fraternity you have to learn that everything it is about that
Fraternity and one of the things for us to learn everything it is about ourselves we must go back and look at black history in African-American history to learn about who we are as a people and that’s one of the things that the fraternities do do that I believe
That us as a black community should take um to take um contributions with absolutely so which one is your favorite if you had to pick a favorite of the the Divine not um I don’t think I have a favorite each of them got different things that I like
You know I I mine would be a mega sci-fi uh a lot of reasons but so these are the ones that are legendarily known as cues Q dogs they they got the least probably they got the least respect of any of the other ones um and and I’m gonna go into all the
Reasons why but I just want to name a couple of the people a few of the people who first first I want to this this is this was something interesting that I found out about them so of course it was founded in 1911 by three students at Howard University
Typically predominantly black that’s no matter what university you go to they’re going to be predominantly black um The Motto its friendship is essential to the soul the colors are royal purple and old gold which is a dark yellow which varies from light olive to Olive Brown to deep or
Strong yellow generally on the darker side of yellow see how everything formulates to be of color right the symbol is a lamp I think it’s interesting a lamp we talk about people being woke people having that light turned on to the truth um the mascots a doll why dog probably
The the only creature that’s been tested through the times of of of of of the earth more than man and has persevered notable members I’m going to just mention a few Samuel nabrit first African-American to be awarded a doctoral degree from Brown University first Mohawk Morehouse
College graduate to earn a PhD and the first African-American appointed to the U.S Atomic Commission how many people even know what the atomic commission is Benjamin Mays again somebody you guys won’t learn about in in history class in in the South civil rights leader who is credited for laying the intellectual
Foundation of the Civil Rights Movement somebody we probably talked about I’m pretty sure we mentioned on this podcast before um bayar Rustin civil rights and gay rights leader for sure 1941 was instrumental in helping in racial discrimination and employment um Langston Hughes one of my favorites sir legendary poet and activist probably
More activist than poet um keep hope alive [Laughter] so I I think is when you think about the impact that these organizations first had on individuals that pledged there was members and then what those individuals were to able to accomplish afterwards I think it’s amazing and I
Think it shows that uh most people want to belong to something and this is where I think we have to touch on and if you’re going to belong to something you want to belong to something that’s going to net you the one big thing which is called success right so you don’t want
To be a part of something that’s not going to net you success we talked about this on the podcast many times before for most black people there are three p’s that we live by and what we do is we profess our love for something or somebody
And then we want to provide for those people that we profess our love for and then we want to protect those folks and in most situations that’s what these fraternities and sororities provided these these black folks doing doing their their Venture at whatever Journey they were going through
Um same thing games do except gang members aren’t going to have the level of success that you’re going to have when you join these societies right so um it’s the same principle though something that you can profess your love for something that you can provide for and something that you can protect and
That’s what these folks did and then they turned that into success stories for themselves and then hopefully mentored other people to become successful as well speaking of Mega sci-fi and and like you said though the woke or the conscious agenda um they were one of the first ones to
Incorporate that they were one of the first uh fraternities to talk about not just the social part but the social economic part which is um anything that they wanted the funnier fraternity if you had to go to different places to get it made um jackets or whatever they if those
Places didn’t hire African Americans they didn’t give them their money and that’s one of the things that they preached if you don’t hire African-Americans we will not give you our money and that’s one of the things that the concepts that they believed in and that that is um it is essential yeah um
I was just thinking when we was in high school and we had Club day the the first club we would run to I don’t even remember if the club was a name but it was everybody was in the gym oh I don’t even know if the club had a name but uh
When I want to say it was my my senior year my wife them and started a a step team for Club day and I remember they performed that one of your uh basketball one of y’all basketball games at halftime and we just didn’t take that serious
No as we should have now granted we don’t we didn’t have the the the knowledge that we have now but you know if you look at what they were trying to start um back then uh and I I think one of the leaders was uh Adrian who is the
Cheerleading coach for Varsity now um but just to see them come out and step in front of white people break probably didn’t even know what that was yeah yeah exactly you know the movie Drumline and step it up and all those Stumpy yards you Stomp the Yard I think all of those
Movies brought about the understanding of stepping yeah so at the time there’s very few people who really understood that in fact they probably looked at it more like dancing than stepping yeah um and probably didn’t understand it and there was no education for it because of course they’re not teaching it in in
School and uh the other major movie was uh break it on Bring it on you know because you know the white cheerleaders they had their little routine and then that’s right you know when Gabrielle Union them came down the Taurus boy it was more than it was more than the
Regular cheers that’s right that’s right and that’s what a lot of cheerleading is today like you even look at the well our daughter share for like a lot of that stuff is really stepping that’s right you know what I’m saying it’s incorporate a little bit of cheer but
It’s it’s mostly steps mostly step that’s right and that and not having the history to understand it it’s almost like anything you know for years I used to tell people I hated hockey you know why I didn’t understand it yeah I couldn’t play it but you know you you
Once you once you start understanding the same with baseball until I start understanding baseball I didn’t like baseball but once you start understanding stepping and for for us understanding the history of those organizations and where those those symbols come from um once you do understand that you
Create one a respect for it but you can begin to understand it and like it and we are back uh the second African-American fraternity is the elder digs and Barbara Keith who came from Howard University and developed the second one Kappa Alpha Psi at Indiana University after they saw the
Difference in the pwi and HBCU um Administration made life life for African-Americans very difficult in the end of University and they decided that uh a black fraternity was needed their annual social events and House Parties attracted African-American students throughout Indiana um the Kappa supported World War one and
Continued their bonds even while in France they created his first national service program called guide right which is to help high schools seniors strive for achievement tutoring and lecturing of young students leadership programs for young students their motto was achievement in every field of human endeavor members Arthur Ashe Will Chamberlain
Coach John Chaney and uh director John Singleton so that just shows you uh they’re they’re like mine especially somebody like um and alter Ash who did so much for the black community um what are y’all y’all go ahead you know I I I’m with you when I think
About the like-mindedness of what some of them had to endure so author ask for those that don’t know um are one of the first black tennis champions um and of course during a time where blacks didn’t play tennis weren’t allowed weren’t accepted and he was able to overcome that the same with Wilt
Chamberlain playing in the NBA and a white only league and then coming in even even going all the way back to um you know college and changing the game the way that the game is played today um during his time uh going through those things you had you had to be
Strong you know we talk about Jackie Robinson all the time um but to to do it in the sense that these guys were doing it they had they had to be strong mentally just like Jackie Robinson the baby didn’t do that that’s a fact Phi Beta Sigma
Um the one the first one created at the one of the first ones created at HBCU at Howard University um Langston Taylor started plotting or creating a new fraternity at Howard before he even got there their motto um then culture for service and service for Humanity one of the first things
That they supported was Angela lynching in 1920s their programs bigger and better business than one of the first organizations to realize that the empowerment of African-American Community to have a component of economic power um they had a five they got a five beta credit union located in DC uh project
S-a-t-a-p Sigma sigmas against teenage pregnancy project vote increased to participation in African-American voters two of their members played a huge role in the Harlem Renaissance uh Alan Locke and James Wilder John James Weldon Johnson the author of left every voice record um Phi Beta members bravely served in World War II
They officially supported and helped organizing the Million Man March a few prominent members Les Brown motivational speaker John Lewis of the Congress Huey Newton Black Panther Party a Phillip Randolph civil rights movement and a honorary George Washington Carver Sciences their principals Brotherhood scholarship service through these founding elements fraternity stress to
Instill each and our members to build a better man for a better world so again um this fraternity began to Branch off a little bit so you get the Civil Rights Movement but these were also some people who were in the Million Man March a part
Of the Black Panther Party yeah so they started a huge movement from from from from this this fraternity this is where they also Incorporated with the Black Panthers they developed the same concepts for the social duties the Civil duties and creating the the a lot of them programs that’s right absolutely
Those programs uh feeding kids and and looking out for kids which they thought was the fabric of the community yeah yeah so like again when you again A lot of times we attribute these things to certain people like Huey Newton and and Fred Hampton yeah those are great
Friends but we got to remember the organizations the organizations they were a part of that built these principles within them that allowed these men to do these things that bank they started is that clothes or store I don’t know I think it might be still old
It’s a credit union in DC see I’m gonna have to look it up or for the audience you look it up and then and then John Lewis came from there which is one of my favorite politicians of all time um actually he was the um he was for Baltimore right Baltimore Maryland is
That the district that he he was the congressman for many many years I think it’s possible and then the last of the fraternities you had Iota Phi Theta Morgan State College 1963 a new fraternity was born the men that were Founders were not wet behind the ears these were fresh
Freshmen or sophomores these were grown men right uh men who had full-time jobs men that had children men who had served in the war so they were very mature so they went away from a lot of that old methods of hazing and all of those things uh their motto was a development
And uh perpetration of scholarship leadership citizenship Fidelity and Brotherhood among men building on tradition not resting on one one of their first acts of defiance came with the boycott of segregated Mall in Maryland they worked with the NAACP big brothers of America United Negro College Fund the SCLC uh and the national Sickle
Cell Foundation their Iota youth Alliance a national umbrella program where the chapters addressed the need of the black youth in their communities they could they can either create new organizations or support existence and one of the prominent members uh Bobby Rush uh Congressman he won he beat
Out Obama I believe in the in the Illinois uh Congress race before Obama ran for president uh let’s get to the ladies this is the sororities Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha um etholar Howard University organized nine young women and created the first African-American sorority in 1908. Lucy Stowe created their constitution and
Selected as a pres as president because she was a senior Lucy slow I’m sorry in 1920 a few of the members wanted to sorority to change his name and his motto and his color and assemble when it didn’t happen they split off and created Delta Sigma Theta which we’ll go into
Him for in a second the founders were leaders in the YWCA and worked with the NAACP on campus during the Great Migration Alpha Kappa Alpha helped Southerners get adjusted in the North the first program was the founders week program designed to take pride in African-American life culture through
Literature art and music it created Sons for sisters in need and those who wanted to study abroad they marched in a suffrage movement they worked with the Mississippi health project that provided School in the library books to the community during World War II they instituted programs to help
Their motto Supreme and service to all mankind by culture and by Merit few members Maya Angelou Angie Brooks first woman president of the U.N Ella Fitzgerald Althea Gibson Dr May Jemison the first black woman astronaut Sharon Kelly the first woman mayor of DC Coretta Scott King Toni Morrison Gladys Knight Rosa Parks
And just before we clear a lot of these women is what they trying to keep out of the school systems some of their writing some of their work and some of the things that they did that just shows you how Monumental these women were strong
Once again a lot of them was the first to be a lot of things yeah so that strength that they had to they had to get they had to have again out there Gibson same as Arthur Ashe you know the first African-American tennis player to win championships
Um going through that whole you know discrimination of um professional athletes black professional athletes for sure um when you just think about those things man the these these sorority this social Society like-minded people that then go out and do great things yeah um things to be the first in in in in
History obviously the like-mindedness and then the structure of those those organizations is what helped fuel them it’s funny the the the names that y’all name the the members from uh from the older ones uh if you look at the two that I’m about to name now you can see
All of them in these two people which are Lisa Leslie and Asia Wilson then you got uh Delta Sigma Theta which I talked about branched off from the akas um they took their academics very seriously and uh and the streets they participated in the women’s suffrage March they funded scholarships during
The Great Depression they openly advocated for the Injustice of the Scottsboro Scottsboro boys the anti-lynchen laws and the U.S involvement in Haiti they created the National Library project which was to bring literacy to populations with limited resources with the Jim Crow black schools were inferior so they wanted to give books to
The uh black schools so they could be again to catch up um things that they’re still we’re still fighting for now that’s right uh they were front line for the Civil Rights Movement they hate they helped pay for people’s tuition to help pay for uh Bales when people got arrested during
The Civil Rights uh movement um they Incorporated a program called black diaspora which connects African-Americans with others with lineage from um back to African roots a few Q members Daisy Bates advisor to the Little Rock Nine um Mary butane Civil Rights Act is first black woman to hit a federal office
Carol Braun first black woman Center of Illinois Aretha Franklin Nikki Jenny Nikki geniovanni author and activist Barbara Jordan first black woman Congress of Texas Dorothy Height civil rights activist Wilma Rudolph and will Mary Church Terrell National Association of color women’s first president again same situation Wilma Rudolph one
Of the people that’s forgotten about when we talk about Jesse Owens yeah um in the Olympics so um you know again going on to be the first and and in those situations you’re you’re representing in a country that doesn’t represent you well yeah um to have the strength the mentality to
Go out and do that and then be successful again we talked about one of the biggest things from these people that come from these organizations is the level of success these folks have uh Zeta five beta um Arizona Cleveland for this created at Howard University in 1920. um
They were the first one to merge with the brother organization in Phi Beta Sigma and so they Incorporated their constitution uh they wanted further education by encouraging the highest standard of scholarship for women uplifting projects on campus and the community and sisterly love their motto scholarship service Sisterhood and finer
Womanhood they worked with the NAACP and the national negro Congress Zeta housing projects conducted surveys which identified housing vacancies and registered those vacancies with the National Housing Association this helped during World War II to identify housing for many War workers in 1940s they also had a prevention and control of juvenile
Delinquency project which created programs to help the youth the first Charter of international chapters to West Africa Germany and the Bahamas involved in the Civil Rights Movement just like everybody else just like the United Negro College Farm they encouraged women to do non-traditional jobs jobs plumbers electricians Contracting
Um the course they have voting programs drug programs tutoring programs first step program for new mothers which is important um this comes from zeta phi beta a few members zoa Hurston one of our favorite yes uh Clara McLaughlin first black woman to own a television station uh matrice Taylor first black
Superintendent for curriculum Atlanta Public Schools and uh Willie Whiting circuit court judge you know what what I found amazing about them is they were really one of the first to focus on housing um not just for members of the sorority but for uh minority students and even
Minorities in the community not even uh College goers um so focusing on housing which was huge because and you know this bait from you know when you were in school one of the problems that you have when you apply to a college is housing yeah where I’m
Gonna live at you know so having housing available and working with students to be able to get affordable housing um was huge and that’s something they focused on absolutely last but not least Sigma gamma rho seven young teachers in Indiana organized Sigma gamma rho at Butler University in 19220 1922 greatest
Service greater progress is their motto the only sorority of the four that was founded at a pwi they participated early in the fight for women’s rights they sponsor literacy contests which provided books for African Americans they created a national vocational guidance program to help young African-American students
Begin their careers during World War II they worked with the Red Cross and other organizations the sigma team Town program created programs for the Youth to stop juvenile delinquency they helped with the NAACP and implemented anti-poverty programs they assisted young mothers with family living making sure they had the resources that they
Needed they had leadership programs um a few prominent members Ruth Whaley first African-American woman to practice law and Joyce Williams first African-American judge in Arkansas uh Georgia Davis Powers first uh woman and first African-American to be elected to the Kentucky State Senate so you said for the members you said
Three names and were first and their model is greater service greater progress for sure I also find it amazing a lot of these people that went on to do great things most of them predominantly in the South yeah so they’re doing it in areas that are very high in terms of
Discrimination first in the Senate con you talk about Kentucky yeah Texas that’s right about yeah it’s it’s amazing that um the people had these folks had the strength the fortitude the face these injustices and inequality and then go out and perform and be the first to do it yeah
Um awesome man the great thing about this you said at the start of this is this is Black History it is you know and and you’re not gonna you’re not gonna read about this in in school you’re not it’s not gonna happen some of the things
That you did read about are probably not going to be there in the next five years you know we we talked about this um and you and you said it that when we were in school that you know we weren’t thinking about it and most of the time we weren’t
Thinking about it is because when I look back there weren’t any teachers who probably could have gave us the information to be able to do so right so when I go to Salem and speak and at the African-American history Culture Club they have teachers there that promote
This they have they have uh leaders in place to promote this so until you get people at Liberty High School or Jefferson for a stand River who come from this and want to implement this I’m not saying to create a fraternity at the school I’m saying create something where
You can give these principles so when they go to a school they already know what they’re getting into they know what they want right so a lot of times like we we call this Traditional Values right if if my father was a Capper when I go
To college I expect to be a capital why because I understand the principles that come along with it because I’ve been taught them all my life that’s right right and when you give them those principles early a lot of times you can go into that school and you can already
Have an expectation of what you want you talked about the movie um uh Stomp the Yard Neo that I’m already heading in their mind what they wanted to pledge when they got there why because we we that that a chance we want to step with them a lot of it’s a more
In-depth than that right you you understand that Dr King was a was an alpha that’s right that’s what I want to be you understand what Zora was that’s what I want to be because of the principles that’s set in place and I believe we have to have that in our
Schools and our families and our communities to give them that before they even get there right so you could already have an understanding of these things when we talk about Brotherhood and Sisterhood that we’re linked together by a common uh interest of one better for ourselves our community our
Children so as leadership first as fathers and as mothers we want to be great leaders and set a great example for our children to follow this is something that they teach in the fraternities we want great leadership right that’s right we want black teachers and coaches and mentors to give
Them these principles for them to sale so number one we want to um we want to hold them accountable and after we hold them accountable we want to teach them and after we teach them we want to congratulate them that’s right that’s the support we need from our community
Um we want to have that service most people think service is just giving money no that’s not that’s not just that’s not every service no you can volunteer to help feed south of Miss Lew wig she’s still trying to register voters young 18 year old she’s probably not
Taught hey when you turn 18 you’re able to vote now and you can go register that’s right like these are things that we need in our community we need that service so um even if that’s coaching a lot of people think coaching is about the sport no coaches is community service right
You’re providing something to the kids not just how to teach the game but how to teach how to be a man or a woman how to teach how to conduct yourself these principles and values can be incorporated in different organizations and where we don’t have to be against
Each other we’re trying to better our community but like-minded people as I said this is a Black History Podcast black my black people trying to do something for black people and being that example you know we talked about podcast one talk about the images that you see your first day of school there’s
No black people on the wall right so those images those examples and as you said even even coaches can be examples to those people in the community that say I want to do something like that you know rather than I want to be a drug
Dealer or I want to be a gang banger I want to be whatever I want to be a coach I want to be a teacher I want to be a business owner and the more that you see people that look like you being that gives you a better idea of or and hope
That I can also achieve it too yeah because you look at those people you you see those fraternities people and they got their jackets on you looking at them like and then you see them together you see them all got suits on you looking at them like dang that’s something I want
To be a part of that’s right right so it’s the amount of pride that comes with it that’s right right these people are prideful about who they are and what they represent that’s right and that’s what we want to be as black people want to be prideful about who we are and what
We represent that’s right absolutely closing statements I’ll let you close no clothes no you can’t try to give me the clothes after you do that all right we appreciate it we love you all peace
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