Trends on 3: The Divine Nine

Welcome back to trends on three black fraternities and sororities were founded on college campuses starting back in 1906. they shared similar principles of service and the betterment of black men and women they’ve always been an important part of black history and taken part in the fight for change in social justice these nine

Greek letter organizations are known as the divine nine members of the panhellenic council 114 years after the first black fraternity and 112 years after the first black sorority was founded they have once again stepped up to join the fight for social justice joining me now is arthur benton he’s the

Representative of the alumni council of the chattanooga national panhellenic council all right well first of all thank you all so much for joining me today and let’s start arthur benton a member of phi beta stigma and you are right now the representative for the local panhellenic council

So let’s start by talking telling people making this simple who makes up the hellenic council what are we talking about when we say the divine nine so first of all thank you for having us on your show uh this is a great opportunity and a great platform uh the little meeting

About the divine nine known at the national panatlantic council uh it was actually started on may 10th 1930 uh at the campus of howard university the ina uh the pan is made up of nine uh greek letter organizations you have the members the alpha alpha five returns incorporated the ladies uh

Alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated omega sound five fraternity incorporated uh delta sigma theta sorority incorporated phi beta sigma returned incorporated zeta phi beta sorority incorporated sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated and iodified data for attorneys to incorporate it so we make up the dubai

And we want to just be clear that you gave them in that order because though you gave them in the years that they were founded starting with alpha so all the way up to iota all right so let’s talk about this guys we are in a moment in this country unlike

We’ve seen since the civil rights movement and we see people joining forces all over this country whether it’s athletes from different teams um and people coming together and is this one of those moments where the pandolina council says that you know what this is a big moment and we all need to

Come together as sororities and fraternities to make this change and to make this happen latrice we have uh always worked together you know at some point in time but now as you say now you know it’s like it’s out there more you know with the uh racial unrest and just

Everything that’s going on you know we talk about the sensors we talk about voter registration and the importance of it so we’ve already you know always worked at some point together on some projects but now we see you know the need to to really put come together you know get

Engaged and really go out and you know tackle it and you know get it out to the community and you talked about that alexa you mentioned um there were three areas that you all are focusing on and i guess and let me just really quickly

Do this author of course i said was with phi beta sigma alexia is with delta sigma theta and demarcus voice is with kappa half alpha psi so um and those are the representatives we have on today and so i want to talk about these three areas

That one of you all will jump in and tell me about this that you all are focusing on and why they are so important and what you plan to do in these areas how you plan to make a difference before um you know the virus the cover 19

We had started working together you know planning some activities uh we were going you know out into the community so with everything you know coming upon us then so it got put on hold so we’re looking to you know come back together you know reorganize on how to do that as

Far as getting it out because a lot of the places of what we’re going to do you know they’re clothes so um we’re just looking at uh other avenues on how to uh you know get the word out but we actually started on this i think back in january

Um we took some training where we became um ambassadors we had tyler yount from the city of um you know chattanooga to come in and train us and also um miss turner uh with the census you know she’s provided some training with us and a lot of

You know information so we started way before the end but now like you said we had that little pause so now you know we’re getting back together again to look at how we can move forward as far as you know with the census and of course that deadline has been extended to

Uh october the 31st but you know there’s still a lot of work to get done because um you know we still have a lot of people that have not you know submitted uh completed that information and we we want them counted for a number of rules because that’s so important

When it comes to funding when it comes to resources everything and that’s why people have got to realize how important that sense is okay let’s talk about some of those other areas we’re talking about guys anybody want to jump in talking about social justice talk about voter registration and

Uh also education as well so when it comes down to the other areas voter education and social justice um those are areas that are that have always been important um for our member organizations and within our council um but right now with everything that’s going on in society there’s a highlighted

Um sense of awareness about these issues uh it’s a pretty big election year um with uh you know what we see higher higher participation rates um and you have a census going on so it just really seemed like really important that uh given the copied um kind of uh requiring us to

To kind of innovate a little bit uh that we really step up and try to make some type of concerning collective effort um to make sure that this information is still getting out to people because these are opportunities that that um that coalesce like this very rarely

And uh it’s a really good opportunity for us to you know um get this information out to the community and really educate them on such such important issues um going on right now and it really is and just kind of piggybacking on this and talking about the election it’s it’s

A huge election this year we’re talking about we’re already seeing uh and primaries and uh different things around the country elections around the country there’s been record voter turnout so far and people are talking about it could be voting levels uh of the levels of 2008 so we’re talking about again but getting

People of color out to make sure they’re properly registered to make sure they’re educated about the process and they understand how that works so that’s so important and author you want to wrap up on anything else about that so also uh we’re doing police and social justice

We have a lot of greeks and other people that are on the front lines daily uh that can see the ants out of how protesting work but sometimes we fail to give the voice of the people that are vote uh protesting so the pain is trying to get the opportunity for those

To let the world know and like to see the child you know their voices on both sides of the field it’s kind of hard that we only hear one part of the movement but we want to give a platform for both organizations the ones that are protesting and the ones that are not

Protesting to give their vote to uh to give a divorce and let the world that knows what goes on how to protect this a reason why they’re protesting or some certain things that they want to make known here and make difference here in chattanooga tennessee all right and that’s so important

Because like you said they are crying out they are not going to be silenced right now and like you said it’s either this is a time to step up and to get involved as you all say address the issues that are facing our communities of color and a lot of

Times i’ll wrap up by saying this and i’ll let anyone wrap up in a way people say a lot of times the only thing they know about sororities and fraternities they see us wearing our colors they’re seeing us throwing up our signs and social events but this is what at

This point when we get out of college what it’s all about the work anybody want to wrap up on that yeah absolutely um you spend less time as an undergraduate than you do as a graduate member within our council and with that there there is a lot of

Work that goes on behind the things that typically the the public uh isn’t aware of um because you know when you get off the campus we have our jobs we have our careers we have our families um that we’re using our that we’re using our organizations um to to create a better

A better world for for those uh for those entities and for those people who are important to us and here in the city of chattanooga um you know we all love our city uh we all love um the 4-2-3 uh but it’s really really important that we just continue that fight we continue

That effort here on the local level and give and give people some sense of empowerment um through our organizations well i will tell you as i was telling arthur before um we’ll continue to follow this as you all set up these events and continue to do this and we’ll get together again

And talk about what’s being done how you’re getting out there in the community and how you’re helping to make a difference in the community because there’s a lot going to be happening leading up of course to election and of course following the death of mr floyd and

And others as well so i just want to say thank you to each of you for coming on today and spending some time with us important work to be done and it’s just wonderful i think a lot of people to see and as you said alexia you all been working together

Uh before a lot but again it’s really important right now uh with what’s going on so we’ll continue to follow what the pan is doing and making a difference in this community to continue getting the word out thank you so much for your time today i do appreciate it

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