AKAlades!!!
 

The other day, I was sitting in the student union building reading a letter that I had just received. It was from a friend giving me the details of her fiance proposing to her, and she included pictures. Being the sentimental sap that I am, I was tearing up and had shed a couple of tears. An AKA (she was wearing letters) I had never met, and still don't know the name of, came over to me and asked me if I was ok and if there was anything she could pray for. I assured her I was fine, and told her the good news, and after giving me a little hug, she was on her way. The chapter here has a reputation for being very classy, and after my encounter with this woman, I see why. Just wanted to give ya'll a heads up on a very sweet girl!

Have a great day!

Thanks, Crystal! :)

I love hearing stories about this (although nothing tops the Greek Love story posted in the DST forum a while ago).

I just had an idea that won't be implemented for a few weeks;), but I'll share it nevertheless. I think that we (Mods) should 'stick' a thread to the top for Kudos to the organization. We get a lot of posts (starting new threads) about this (meeting members, they were nice, went above and beyond, etc.). When I get back (God willing I don't forget) I will merge all said threads together and stick it to the top. That way, we'll always have a way to pat each other on the back for a job well done! :)

Again, Crystal, thank you! :)

New AKA Dean
 

Hi! I just wanted to let you all know that the new dean of upperclass housing and minority affairs at my college (Washington and Lee University) is an Alpha Kappa Alpha. She is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University (not sure where she got her master's). She is an awesome lady--I have been working with her during residence life training she is really impressive! :) We are lucky to have her.

I posted this in the Greek life forum but I don't think many AKAs saw at it, so (sorry for the forum crash), but I thought you'd want to know about your sister's accomplishment. :D

Finally...
 

A thread just for AKAmplishments!! :D Please post all of your AKA warm-fuzzies here!

I haven't posted this, but our chapter submitted a video to vie for a grant that The View is awarding via the Northern company. The 15 finalists will be announced today (I think). Please pray that we will become a finalist and a step closer to receiving the $25,000 grant which will fund our chapter's programs. (btw I am included in this 3 minute video :o )

:D

Soror Star Jones' home
 

Good luck, Soror AKA2D'91 and your chapter. :)

And in other View-related news, Soror Star Jones' apartment is featured in the October edition of Architectural Digest. Beautiful place. It's the one with Dennis Quaid on the cover.

From The View's site:

Will The View broadcast LIVE from your hometown?

The View will show video excerpts from the 15 semi-finalists of "The View From Your Hometown" during the week of September 22nd thru the week of October 13th.

Between October 28th and October 30th, we'll feature the three hometowns chosen as finalists.

Tune in to The View on November 10th at 11am ET to see where the ladies end up.

This tops it here...............
 

My girlfriend from back home is an AKA. We both ended up moving to a bigger city but at separate times.....like maybe 3 months apart. At that time I was about 24 and she was 33 or 34. I once ran into a real financial hard ship. I was single and living alone and barely making ends meet to pay my car note, my apartment, and my credit cards. My phone eventually got cut off do you know that she didn't have the money to help me but through her job she was able to give me the money to get it back on. How she did it but it was a true blessing and I know the Lord was truly satisfied with her helping me. With that I was able to get my phone turned on. She later gave me some clothes; now I wasn't just poor poor but she at that time she was gaining some weigh and I was still skinny. She gave me some beautiful dresses that she had bought maybe 3 or 4 years back but they were so pretty that they were still in style. She even helped me with my wedding and I helped her with putting on makeup because she never really wore it and I'm a makeup freak. She never passed judgement on me or anything we talked all the time. She even spoke to me about joining the organization, but she got married and moved away. I've lost contact with her but she was real true.

Originally posted in Greek Life
 

The Sisterhood, Taking On the Old Boy Network
For Black Women, Sororities Are More About Politics Than Parties

By Roxanne Roberts
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page C01


Do not be distracted by the pink-and-green sneakers. Oh, they're cute all right, especially on Diane Johnson, who also is sporting a lime green pantsuit. She is surrounded by about 100 women wearing variations of the color theme: hot pink, pale pink, bubble gum, sea green, olive, emerald.

But the living bouquet posing on the steps of Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon is here for business. They're all members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest black sorority in the country. Once the group picture is taken, they spread into the offices of their senators and representatives, gently but firmly reminding them who they are (college-educated professionals), what they do (organize, network and raise lots of money) and what they care about (education, health, equal and civil rights).

"As women of Alpha Kappa Alpha, it's our responsibility to say, 'You can't fool us with this smoke-and-mirrors game,' " says Phyllis Young, president of the local Xi Omega chapter. "You can't play us."

The AKAs are in Washington for their Public Policy Conference, which coincides with this weekend's Congressional Black Caucus conference. Thursday was "pink and green" (the AKA colors) day on the Hill. Friday they were invited for a briefing at the White House.

And they aren't the only sisters in town. The ladies in red are Delta Sigma Thetas. Those in royal blue and white are from Zeta Phi Beta, and the ones in blue and gold -- they're from Sigma Gamma Rho. These historic black sororities -- three founded at Howard University -- boast an impressive network of professional women who run companies, campaigns, families and much more. They represent about 500,000 women known and trusted on the grass-roots level who stay active and involved for a lifetime. If you've never heard of them . . . well, you haven't been paying attention.

"People at work kid me because I wear a lot of pink and green," says Doxie McCoy, communications director for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). Then there's her gold-and-diamond AKA bracelet. "I wear it all the time."

She's not alone. Texas Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Eddie Bernice Johnson are AKAs. Civil rights leader Dorothy Height, former labor secretary Alexis Herman and presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun are Deltas. And that's just the start.

"I'm with Senator Clinton's office -- but I'm a soror, too!" Leecia Roberta Eve tells the ladies assembled on the Capitol steps. A collective cheer goes up, and Eve, counsel to Hillary Rodham Clinton, jumps into the picture with her AKA sorors.

Then the AKAs who aren't twisting the arms of lawmakers troop over to the Russell Office Building, where the junior senator from New York takes time from a packed day to meet and greet and pose with the AKAs because. . . . well, because there are a lot of votes and green in all that pink and green.

Tapping Into the Network


Growing up in Alabama, Herman never thought of herself as sorority material. That was for the "other Mobile," she says; for the middle-class, educated black women. Not for a girl from a poor family.

But in 1977, just after she moved to Washington to work for President Jimmy Carter's administration, Herman got some advice from her friend and mentor, Dorothy Height: Join a graduate chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. "She really talked to me about this notion of network, of needing the support -- particularly when you are in public office," Herman says. "She said, 'Everyone will claim you. The Delta sisterhood will be with you for a lifetime.' "

The Deltas were smart, educated women who would quietly advise and help her, Height says. They were largely professional and upper class, and saw themselves as agents of change on a variety of social and political issues. They were connected to the local power structure all around the country; they tracked legislation, and they knew who was taking what position. "It was a trust network, and an informed network," Herman says. "These were women I could talk to about public policy issues."

Herman was inducted at the Delta national convention in 1978, and she happily embraced her new sisters. They, in turn, not only embraced Herman but were tireless advocates for her confirmation when President Bill Clinton nominated her to become his secretary of labor. Herman still remembers the senator who said to her, "Who are these Deltas? Tell them to stop calling! You've got my vote."

Think of it as a calling card: Membership in any of these sororities confers an instant acceptance within the sisterhood. You can be a stranger -- but there's a bond based on shared values, experience and expectations.

"It changes the dynamics right way," says Cora Masters Barry, former first lady of Washington and a member of the Delta National Social Action Commission. "There's an openness. If someone says 'I'm a soror,' whatever needs to happen, happens."

Increasingly, that means getting African American women into positions of power: political, business and economic.

"Deltas are a huge part of my base of support," says Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), the first black woman named to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Jones joined a graduate chapter of the sorority 20 years ago, when she first ran for office in Cleveland. (Her campaign manager was a Delta.) It was something she had always wanted, but it also proved to be a career boost. Although the sororities are nonpartisan, individual sorors were instrumental in electing Jones to Congress in 1998. "They helped not only in terms of volunteer time, but in terms of money," she says. This year alone, Jones has spoken at more than a dozen Delta events about mandatory sentencing, teen pregnancy and education issues.

"No matter where I go in this country, there are members of my sorority," she says. "If they learn I'm in town, they make it their business to greet me and present me with a little token."

Sorors used to communicate by newsletters and telephones. Now they have e-mail and the Internet. It's a new-fashioned old girls network.

Making Change Happen


The sororities were founded at the turn of the last century, based on the radical notion that black women could benefit from a liberal arts education, says Paula Giddings, a professor of African American history at Smith College and author of "In Search of Sisterhood," a history of the Deltas.

Some social leaders, led by Booker T. Washington, thought blacks (especially black women) should concentrate on vocational education and training. The female students at historically black universities -- the fortunate few able to afford college -- had bigger dreams for themselves, and sororities gave them a collective voice and purpose.

Three of the four sororities were founded at Howard: AKA in 1908, Delta in 1913 and Zeta in 1920. The fourth, Sigma Gamma Rho, was founded in 1922 at the primarily white Butler University in Indianapolis.

Although all the sororities were committed to the concepts of community service and political rights, each developed a distinct reputation and personality. The AKAs were perceived as the social, privileged and fair-skinned. This caused some of the more politically active members of the sorority to break away and form the Deltas. The Zetas, still regarded as the brainiest, rejected what they saw as "sorority elitism and socializing" and concentrated on social issues. ("We're not as high-profile, but in the earlier days we were more emphatic about grade-point averages," says Lois Sylver, national executive director.) The Sigmas were established by schoolteachers and are still identified primarily with education.

The list of sorors is a who's who of black history: Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Ella Fitzgerald, Coretta Scott King, Toni Morrison and Faye Wattleton (AKA); Mary McLeod Bethune, Barbara Jordan, Johnetta Cole, Camille Cosby and Lena Horne (Delta); Zora Neale Hurston, Minnie Riperton and Sarah Vaughan (Zeta); and Lorraine Hale and Hattie McDaniel (Sigma).

After almost 100 years, the stereotypes linger but the basic mission of all four sororities are essentially the same: health, education and community service. They sponsor hundreds of scholarship, after-school and reading programs for children nationwide. The Washington chapters of AKA handed out school supplies and books at the Black Family Reunion on the Mall earlier this month. The Deltas recently started a science, math and technology program for elementary students. The Zetas just launched their "Z-Hope" education program on preventable diseases and health care. The Sigmas teach young people about money and personal finance.

It's never just about race, and never just about gender. "They're not just blacks and they're not just women -- they're black women," Giddings says. "Black women have a distinct history and distinct needs and distinct identity from either black men or white women."

Sororities, Giddings says, are ideally placed to develop young black women into future leaders. They are self-supporting through dues and don't seek publicity. They allow women who don't want to be associated exclusively with feminist or black advocacy groups to participate in social issues. In short, it's the ideal training ground for future CEOs and politicians.

"It's a wonderful place to learn how to do it," Giddings says. "We don't have that many organizations where you get to be an insider."

Membership and Privilege


Being an insider always has benefits -- and detractors. The black Greek system is an ongoing source of lively debate within the African American community, both from supporters and those who dismiss the sororities and fraternities as elitist, exclusionary and snobbish (that is, "School Daze," Spike Lee's 1988 sendup of the Greeks at an all-black college.) One Internet critic calls them "Those Greek-letter wearin', fancy foot stepping, hand clappin', think they're God's gift to the black race, brothas and sistas."

The most serious criticisms involve hazing, something all Greek organizations have explicitly forbidden in any form. The late-night drowning deaths of two Cal State Los Angeles women last year were initially ruled accidental by police, but the students were at the beach with AKA members, and their families blame the sorority for the deaths. The sorority, which does not have a chapter on the campus, has denied the charge.

Charges of social climbing are harder to prove. It may have been more true in the early years, when there were fewer channels for upward mobility, members say, but today there are far more opportunities. Although some undergraduates might eye the sororities primarily for social reasons, the graduate alumni chapters are far more serious-minded. "To be characterized as someone who's just out for social things is an insult," says AKA chapter president Young.

"A lot of my friends said to me, 'When you become an AKA, don't change,' " says 31-year-old Nkeshi Free, who pledged as a graduate student in Akron, Ohio. "I have to be honest. Some people do use the organization as a reason to display a new persona. . . . I made a life commitment because I believe in community service, and this is the group of women with whom I choose to do it."

There's a lot of mentoring and coaching, a multigenerational network of grandmothers, mothers, daughters, friends, sons and husbands to call upon for advice and leads on internal e-mail groups. Free is trying to break into public relations. Being a soror, she says, won't guarantee her a job but it will probably get her an interview: "You might get the inside track."

Sorority members can tick off all the tangible benefits of their sisterhood, the people they help, the good they do. But the fact is that sorors are sorors because someone or something caught their imagination and never let go.

"It's something I always wanted," says LaFonda Fenwick, 38. Fenwick is a wife, registered nurse and mother of two daughters. She first noticed AKA sorors when she was in high school. "The women of the organization left a lasting impression on me," she says. "They were graceful, professional, ambitious. They instilled values. They motivated me to go to college, get a degree and become as successful as I could possible be."

This May, Fenwick realized the dream when she became an AKA. "For a long time I had this save-the-world mentality. At some point you have to realize you can't save the world by yourself. This gives me the opportunity to work together with other women for change."

'People Helping People'


While the AKAs were finishing up on the Hill on Thursday, the Zetas hosted a reception with the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund at the City Club of Washington.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele picked up an award, then shrewdly assessed the crowd. "It's not about Republicans or Democrats. It's about people helping people."

He had a good audience: In addition to the Zetas in their royal blue, Sigma's national executive director, Bonita Herring, dropped by, as did Delta president Gwendolyn Boyd.

The sororities, says Zeta president Barbara Moore, are helping to define the issues that affect African American women and their families. "They're service sororities, not social," she says. "It's for women who are truly committed to improving the human condition."

Women who like wearing pink and green or red or blue a lot. And maybe, in the process, becoming president one day.

Re: Originally posted in Greek Life
 

I loved this article!!! But the above things really stood out to me.

Not all media is evil
 

Boy, I enjoyed this article. Our anti-basileus and our grad advisor are in D.C. right now for the public policy conference. I also saw the soror from Sorors Ideal08 and allsmiles_22's chapter quoted in the piece.

Soror daughters found black teen mag
 

I picked up this story on another listserv. The publishers of this new mag are daughters of a soror who belongs to Xi Nu Omega, a Chicago-area graduate chapter. The original poster thinks one of the publishers is a soror, too:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/busin...fin-mag29.html

Chicagoans push mag for black girls

September 29, 2003

BY CHERYL JACKSON


Ruben Studdard is on the cover of the fall issue of Melanin magazine, but Publisher DeAnna McLeary worked hard to make sure the profile of the 350-pound "American Idol" champion wasn't the only weighty thing about the issue.

Drawing on free-lance writers, illustrators and photographers, Melanin includes articles about cosmetic plastic surgery, affirmative action and entrepreneurship.

Together with her sister, McLeary, 25, a former business consultant, runs the start-up quarterly magazine targeted at black girls, a demographic publishers say is under-served and marketing experts consider to be trendsetters with loose wallets.

Melanin -- the title refers to the brownish-black pigment found in skin and hair -- claims a readership of 25,000 reached through independent bookstores and Books-a-Million retail outlets in 12 states.

Now McLeary says Chicago-based Melanin is ready to make the leap to national, million-reader production, and beyond that to monthly publication.

Anderson News Co., a Tennessee-based periodical distributor that places periodicals in Wal-Mart and other major chain stores and outlets, agreed to carry Melanin, and that would expose Melanin to millions nationally.

"But to do that, we're basically giving the magazine away" and surrendering the $3.50 cover price to middlemen.

The McLeary sisters are willing to take the chance.

Tiffanie McLeary, a public school teacher, launched the magazine in 2000, geared to females 11 to 18 years old.

"She was watching her girls embrace Seventeen magazine and YM, and she said 'why isn't there a magazine for these young girls?'" said DeAnna McLeary, who shared her sister's concern and joined the magazine.

A recent survey of black youths ranked hip-hop heavy Vibe and Source magazines, Nos. 1 and 2 in readership among the group. At Nos. 5 and 6 sat Seventeen and Teen magazines, outranking Essence, the most prominent magazine targeting black women.

Black teenage girls want celebrity news and fashion tips, to be sure, magazine owners say, but today's teens need more than the Foster Sylvers and Stoney Jackson profiles that Right On! offered their moms. On the radar of today's publishers are articles about sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and gang violence.

The magazine stresses diversity in body types, skin tone and self-esteem along with health, fashion, etiquette and how-to articles written with black girls in mind. The same issue that features interviews with the likes of B2K and Tyrese might offer a chat with U.S. presidential candidate Carol Braun, and touch on how to find money for college, the pitfalls of teen motherhood or the allure and dangers of dating thugs.

"We focus on uplifting young girls; erasing negative images," McLeary said. "Part of that includes having heavyset girls and dark-skinned teens pictured in the magazine."

McLeary is counting on advertising sales, not subscription or single-copy sales, to cover the $22,000 cost of producing an issue and to turn a profit.

"You can't get rich off a $3.50" cover price, she said.

Melanin's list of advertisers is typical of a start-up -- local retailers, health-and-beauty salons, a bookstore. But McLeary aims to convince national advertisers with extensive ad budgets that her readers are worth reaching.

"For a young person, all of their income is disposable," she said.

A 2002 survey of 16-to-20-year-olds by Philadelphia-based market researcher MEE Productions found those young adults, from households with incomes of $25,000 or less, had a relatively high amount of spending in entertainment consumption.

On average, they went to the movies twice a week. About 62 percent said they went to the movies twice a month. And about 48 percent said they spend $16 or more per trip.

"They seem to over-consume relative to their household income," said William Juzang, vice president of MEE. "They tend to be trendsetters in terms of fashion and a lot of things in entertainment. In terms of fashion, black females are very much on the forefront, particularly youth fashion."

Still, while there have been attempts -- including Johnson Publishing Co.'s Ebony Jr.! in the 1970s and BET Holding's YSB in the 1990s -- at general interest magazines for black youths, black girls have rarely been singled out.

In common entrepreneurial fashion, McLeary upped the ante on the success of Melanin, recently quitting a $65,000-a-year consulting job to work full time at the magazine.

"The only way the magazine was going to grow was for me to put everything I had into it. This could not be part time," said McLeary, who along with her sister, has been working with angel investors of family and friends.

Tiffanie McLeary sold her home and invested about $30,000 into the Melanin. But she continues teaching fifth-graders at Beasley Academic Center at 5255 S. State, which has the added benefit of keeping her in touch with her target readership.

McLeary plans to later target Hispanic and Asian readers for the magazine, as they too need to see more positive images of their peers.

The mainstream teen magazines, she said, typically are too sexualized.

"These magazines are risque. The content is sexual. A lot of parents really don't want their children reading them," McLeary said. "We have the celebrity profiles, the fashion information -- all the bells and whistles. But at the end of the day, Melanin magazine will stand for something."

Cheryl Jackson is a Chicago business writer.

Shades of an existing magazine for start-up

While Melanin makes a bid for big-time publishing, another periodical aimed at young black females is hoping to add just a few thousand extra readers.

Shades magazine started in 1995 as a black-and-white 16-page newsletter, then moved to digest size, then to the Internet and finally relaunched last year as a quarterly newsmagazine-sized quarterly sporting a $3 cover price.

The audience has remained the same, said Publisher Theresa Tracy: "There was a void historically in the magazine industry. Particularly for African-American women. Young women."

Tracy, 37, recalled her own teen years and the cocktail of periodicals she'd consume for fashion, dating and entertainment information. "I might find entertainment that I want in Right On! and the makeup information in Ebony and the relationship stuff I was looking for in something like Seventeen. I had to buy all these publications. When I started Shades, I thought of it as the NyQuil of publications for African-American females. Finance, health, romance, relationships. It's all in there."

The new Shades issue focuses on sexual harassment in schools. Past articles have looked at the alarming spread of herpes among African-American teens.

Students contribute articles to the four-color magazine, which costs more than $10,000 to produce. Operated as a not-for-profit, Shades runs off sponsorships.

"The real focus is to provide very critical information about issues young girls are facing every day and don't have the outlets like other girls do," Tracy said.

WELL READ

Market researcher MEE Productions surveyed about 2,000 black youths on their reading preferences. Here's how their tastes broke down:

What kinds of magazines do you read most often?


All Male Female
Ethnic 17% 9% 25%
Men's 2 4 NM
Music 24 27 22
News 2 2 2
Sports 4 9 NM
Other 18 14 22
No Answer 32 35 29

NM: Not meaningful

SOURCE: MEE Productions' 2002 Urban Young Lifestyle Study
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Bobby Phills Scholarship Fund was established in memory of Bobby Ray Phills, former Charlotte Hornets star forward. As a tribute to her husband, Kendall Phills seeks to continue his legacy by supporting those values Bobby believed in. Those values: family, community, athletics, academic excellence, and the arts. The fund is not bound to scholarships, but rather the overall support of youth and youth-based initiatives through contributions and partnerships with other organizations that serve youth.

This past April...

On behalf of the Bobby Phills Scholarship Fund, Kendall Phills donated $40,000 to create a partnership with The New Orleans Hornets and Dillard University. “Hoops for Higher Education,” provided a total of $160,000 in financial assistance (32 one-time $5,000 scholarships in combined funds) for selected Dillard University freshman.

This was printed in the SU Digest (Friday's issue)
 

Roena Wilford: first female SGA president

Gabrielle Maple
October 10, 2003


During the height of the modern women’s movement, SU Physics Instructor and 1971 SU Graduate Roena Wilford made history by becoming the first female ever elected Student Government Association president at Southern University.

She was encouraged to run by the president of the Beta Psi chapter of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated to run against the opposing candidate who represented the "political machine."

"I can remember her pacing back and forth in the Shrine Room. She said, Wilford, you should run for president," she remembered. "I tried to ignore her until she shouted, Wilford, you WILL run for president!"

Wilford along with members of her sorority, fellow classmates and faculty members developed a campaign strategy. She still has the bookmark that bares her slogan, "One Aim, One Goal, Once Body."

"During the rally the biggest problem was the fact that I was woman. They didn’t care whether or not I could do the job," she said.

To the tune of nine votes, enough people looked beyond that fact and elected her SGA President.

"I couldn’t believe it," she said.

Even more interesting, her ex-boyfriend, who ran on the other ticket, was elected vice-president.

"He thought that he was going to escort me but I told him that he would escort Miss SU and Mr. AKA would escort me," she said candidly.

During her administration, she introduced the student loan program where students were allowed to borrow $50 with the co-signature of a faculty member. She also introduced the cabinet administration that created positions such as business director and program director. Her administration also was the first to give Miss Southern a $200 stipend.

As a physics/mathematics education major, Wilford was involved in numerous campus organizations.

She was a member of Kappa Delta Education Honors Society, Alpha Kappa Interdisciplinary Honors Society, and the Association of Women Students. She was the president of the Beta Psi Chapter and the 2nd National Vice President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

As deep as the mighty Mississippi River, Wilford’s roots run through Southern University and the Baton Rouge community.

Throughout her life she has been a champion for education. Her parents, Louis and Molly Wilford graduated from Southern in 1935 and were both education majors.

Her father, who worked in the university laundry to pay his way through college was forced to set aside his dreams of becoming a teacher to take a job in the labor force at the Ethyl (now known as Ablemarle) Corporation. He worked there for 25 years to support his court."

In 1956, Wilford, along with four of her siblings were selected to be the first African-American students to integrate Baton Rouge public schools.

By the 5th grade, she had attended four different schools. Afraid that she would get caught up in the system, her parents moved her to Southern University Laboratory School to join her older siblings.

"I was told by my high school guidance counselor that I would be a physics teacher," Wilford said. "It was really a natural choice considering I came from a family of educators."

She received a full academic scholarship to Ithaca College in New York but she declined the offer.

"The climate during this time wasn’t quite favorable for African-Americans," Wilford said. "I didn’t want to be subjected to that at a place were I wouldn’t be accepted."

Besides, she had to deal with discrimination all her life.

Despite scholarship offers to other schools, Wilford said she decided to stay on safer grounds by moving a few yards to "the yard."

"I had the safe haven and support at Southern that I couldn’t get anywhere else," she said.

After graduating summa cum laude in 1971 and later earning a master’s of arts degree in Curriculum Instruction and EDS Specialist at Louisiana State University, she began teaching in the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System.

For the past 20 years she has been an instructor of physics Southern.

"Sometimes, I feel like a weird duck in the department because most of my colleagues are theorists and I’m into educating young minds," Wilford said.

Wilford’s family legacy at Southern extends beyond her parents. Her maternal aunt, Mildred Alexander, her brothers Winn and Carl, a retired Air Force Sergeant attended SU.

Her nephew, Leslie, a lieutenant colonel in the air force and her great niece Tyquincia Wilford, a graduating senior and immediate past Association of Women Students president, attended the university as well.

Although Wilford did not have any biological children, her goddaughters Juanita Johnson Waldron and Shundale Hills graduated and earned master’s degrees from Southern.

Wilford is also involved in host of church and civic organizations.

She plays an active part in the lives of girls through the Audubon Girls Scout Council where she serves as troop organizer and cadette and senior girl scout leader at Mount Caramel Baptist Church, team member of Service Unit 619 and member of the Gold Award Task Force. She also teaches Sunday school and serves as a Youth Council trustee at Mount Carmel.

Wilford is also affiliated with the Nu Gamma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated where she serves on the Founder’s Day and mentoring committee.

She is the founding president of the Louisiana Equal Opportunity Association (LEOA) and the East Baton Rouge Parish Magnet School Advisory Council.

Through her efforts to better the lives of children in her community, she has earned many accolades including the state of Kentucky’s 1981 Woman of the Year Award.

A Wedding Story on TLC
 

The Oct. 20 edition of "A Wedding Story" on TLC features the June wedding of a soror from Epsilon Iota Omega (Camden, Del.) Chapter:

http://tlc.discovery.com/schedule/ep...28&channel=TLC

Copied from the News thread...
 

http://www.kamalaharris.org/images/header_right.gif
Kamala Harris elected San Francisco DA

S Rajagopalan
Washington, December 10



The United States now has a District Attorney of Indian stock. In a bitterly-fought election, Kamala Harris has trounced her former boss and two-term
incumbent Terrence Hallinan to become the DA of San Francisco, a coveted public office.

The 39-year-old Kamala, daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, defeated the 67-year-old Hallinan by a wider margin than what some pollsters had projected. She polled 56 per cent of the votes against Hallinan's 44 per cent.

After Bobby Jindal's narrow defeat in the Louisiana gubernatorial race, the San Francisco DA election had come to attract disproportionately large attention among the Indian Americans. But then, African-Americans also claim Kamala Harris as their own.

Kamala thanked her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, for her success. "My mother raised two daughters in Berkley, where she fought for civil rights. She raised us in an environment where women were strong and giving back to community was important," she told a jubilant crowd of her supporters.

A political novice but a protege of outgoing Mayor Willie Brown, Kamala had mounted a vigorous campaign, attacking her opponent's work record of low convictions, huge backlog of cases and strained relations with the police department. The police union had come out in full support of her candidature.

"I'm just delighted that Kamala Harris...will bring San Francisco back to real competence," Mayor Brown said as he joined Kamala's victory celebrations. Paul Grewal, president of the South Asian Bar Association
of Northern California, hailed Kamala's "historic victory".

Kamala, who will also be San Francisco's first-ever woman DA, said: "I'm optimistic and hopeful about the future. We've done a great job. I'm honoured and I don't feel entitled to it because no one's entitled to
serve in a public office -- you have to earn it."

A prosecutor in Alameda County for eight years after graduating from San Francisco's Hastings School of Law in 1990, Kamala had a two-year stint in her opponent Hallinan's team. The association came to an end in
2000.

During the campaign, Hallinan grumbled that his challenger had hijacked his agenda. "She came after my voters. She adopted my agenda -- in fact she hijacked my agenda. And it appears she did a pretty damn good
job of it," he finally conceded.

TTT/Sorors competing as Miss USA
 

Soror Victoria Franklin (Fall 2000, Iota Tau) is participating in the upcoming Miss USA pageant from Nevada. The pageant is April 12. Unfortunately, the Miss USA site hasn't been updated with Soror Franklin's information, but here's a couple of links. One has a picture of Soror Franklin:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...516053628.html

http://www.tftj.com/miss/USA/04states/NV/a_NV.htm

UPDATE: Have also learned that Soror Janaye Ingram (Fall 1999, Alpha Pi), is competing from New Jersey.

http://www.ninimomo.com/2004missnewjerseyusapageant.htm

TTT/interesting perspective about Soror Kamala Harris and ethnicity
 

I'm an alumna of the Maynard Institute, a post-graduate journalism education program. Here's a thought-provoking column by William Wong, a veteran NoCal journalist, that appeared on its Web site.

http://www.maynardije.org/columns/gu...is/kharris.jpg

The D.A. Is Half Asian, So Why Does The Media Label Her 'Black'?
Posted Feb. 9, 2004

By William Wong

When Kamala Harris was elected as San Francisco’s district attorney in December, local press accounts made special mention that she was the “first black woman” to win that high office.

It is common journalistic practice to note pioneering facts about prominent public figures – the first woman this, the first black that, the first Latino whatever, the first openly gay something or other. It’s either a sign of social progress or “political correctness.”

But how accurate and how relevant are such ethnic and gender labels? In Harris’ case, not totally accurate and somewhat relevant.

A minority of the stories I read about Harris leading up to her election provided information about her mixed ethnic background. Her father is black; her mother is of South Asian descent. I even recall reading that Harris is proud of her partial Asian heritage.

But most stories, when they used an ethnic label, limited her to being a “black woman.” Why was that? Doesn’t that simplistic – and misleading – label deny part of who she is? And why is any kind of ethnic labeling needed, in the first place?

Racial Labeling Is Controversial

It is worth noting that racial and ethnic labeling is a journalistic tradition, usually loaded with controversy. That is certainly the case with slapping a racial or ethnic label on crime suspects. The press has been somewhat schizophrenic on this particular practice. Once it was common to put a racial or ethnic label on criminal suspects. Then it was verboten. Now one sees such labels creeping back into stories.

Why may ethnic labeling be needed? Well, it’s California in the early 21st century.

Diversity Is Part Of Our History

The Golden State has a rich, and racially and ethnically contentious history, ever since James Marshall discovered gold near Sutter’s Mill in the California foothills in 1848. That monumental event attracted fortune-seekers from around the world. San Francisco (then called Yerba Buena) ballooned from a sleepy little village to a rousing, wild frontier city almost overnight. Its population – and that of the region surrounding it – became more “multicultural” in a matter of months, but power resided with white men who took charge of the major public and private institutions. (Native Americans and Spaniards were numerous before the Gold Rush.)

That’s ancient history. What about now? Even more so, California and San Francisco are “multicultural” to a fare-thee-well. Latinos, or Hispanics, are a major presence in California. So, of course, are people who trace their ancestral roots to Europe. Asians and African Americans are also a significant, but less numerous, presence. People with West Asian roots (Persians or Iranians, Afghanis, and so-called Middle Easterners) are in California in growing numbers too.

Does Blackness Trump Other Identities?

With that kind of racial and ethnic diversity and with many political, social and cultural issues related to race and ethnicity still largely unresolved, it is no surprise that the local press makes it a habit of identifying a newly elected public official like Kamala Harris by ethnicity. But why is she mostly “a black woman” to some Bay Area reporters and editors? Why don’t most press stories, when they choose to label her ethnically, tell the whole truth?

The same thing happens to Tiger Woods, the golf superstar. In most early stories about him after his meteoric rise as a professional golfer, he was called an African American. That is only partially true. His mother is Thai. His father is only partially African American. Some stories about Woods’ ethnic background say his father has a mixture of races and ethnicities, including Chinese. That makes Tiger Woods more Asian than black, yet, according to most news-media labeling, he is black.

Not Only Blacks And Whites

I suppose Harris is called a “black woman” because it reflects an old black-white paradigm of U.S. race relations. For the eastern half of the United States, especially the Deep South, that model has been dominant throughout most of the country’s history. In California and other Western states (including Hawaii), the black-white scenario has never been the governing model.

I am not here to deny the profound significance of black-white racial relations to the nation’s history. I realize that labeling people who descended from African slaves has a complex history. I also realize that many, perhaps most, African Americans aren’t “pure” black African but are of mixed racial and ethnic heritage too. One aspect of that complexity has to do with the so-called “one-drop” rule that deemed that a person in the United States who had “one drop” of “African blood” was considered “black,” even if he or she also had “white” or “native American” blood. The one-drop rule and other aspects of how white society regarded “black people” reflected institutional racism that stubbornly hangs on today, in perhaps less overt ways than the old Jim Crow era.

I am here to try to help set the record straight as it relates to California and western U.S. history. People of Asian descent – Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos mostly in the last half of the 19th century – and of Mexican background are integral to California and the west’s history. So, of course, are Native Americans of various tribal nations. And black people too, but not to the degree African Americans have been in the south and eastern U.S.

How Should Press Treat Ethnic/Racial Labels?

As much as I wish we lived in a “colorblind” society, we don’t, so some form of race and ethnic labeling is inevitable. This is so even though some political thinkers argue that race isn’t a scientific, but a social, concept. Whatever it is, “race” and ethnicity continue to be profound forces in our political, economic, social and cultural lives.

The United States has made impressive progress in racial, ethnic and gender relations over the past 40 or so years. But we have not reached the social “promised land” yet. That means there are and will continue to be public issues with racial, ethnic, religious and gender implications. And these are issues that the news media need to write and comment about.

I am reluctant to offer a journalistic Top Ten list on How to Label Someone by Race, Ethnicity, Religion, or Gender With Sensitivity, Compassion, and Historical Accuracy. There are style guides around, offered by various “minority” journalism associations, but some of those suggestions are too prescriptive and pedantic for my tastes.

The Relevancy Test

There is a relevancy test, however, that I believe should govern a journalistic ethnic or racial label. Journalists ought to engage in active discussions about the use of a label like “the first black woman” when they report about Kamala Harris or whether it is relevant to put a racial or ethnic label on a criminal suspect. Answer the question, “Is it relevant to this story that we label someone by race, ethnicity, gender, religion?” If it is, then get it right. Don’t leave off some of a person’s heritage.

On the matter of labeling a criminal suspect by race or ethnicity, the test should be more precise and bear high standards. Generalizations about racial or ethnic characteristics, as well as vague height and weight features, are virtually useless and can feed negative stereotypes of certain people. Moreover, eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. If, however, law-enforcement officials have precise and detailed descriptions and if a suspect is considered a threat to public safety, then I would say an ethnic or racial label is warranted as part of a physical description.

Mixed-race identifications can be wordy or awfully cumbersome. Maybe reporters should avoid shorthand descriptions and instead construct a sentence or two to describe someone’s racial or ethnic background, if it is deemed necessary to do so. In an increasingly nuanced and complex world, brevity may not be a virtue.



William Wong is author of "Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America" (Temple University Press). For more than 30 years, he was a reporter, columnist, and editor for, among others, The Wall Street Journal, The Oakland Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, and Asian Week. In the mid-1980s, he served as the ombudsman for The Oakland Tribune.

This article first appeared in Grade The News. An earlier version appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.



http://www.maynardije.org/columns/guests/040209_harris/

Copyright © 2004 Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education

As always, Steeltrap, another thought-provoking piece, with a lot of credible points. It seems most racial categorizing is government-sponsored, so this issue is going to be with us awhile...I don't see it as a major problem.

However I do view Tiger slightly differently. He's certainly entitled to be "Cablinasian" or whatever label he chooses. But he was fine being "Black" when Nike put $40 million in his pocket in 1997 when he came on tour. Remember his commercial ----> "Hey world, are you ready for me?...There are courses I cannot play because of the color of my skin, blah, blah, blah."

His golf dominance provides a natural platform to say things that would advance his sport. He seems smart, credible, and would most likely bring a different perspective, given his upbringing.

Good point, Tony. And I do remember Eldrick's commercial. But I'm not surprised that Eldrick wouldn't strongly ID with being "Black." He grew up in Orange County, Calif., where we make up less than 2 percent of the population :eek:, and it was even less back in his formative years. I know a little something about OC -- it's my residence during the week.

Is Kamala Harris AKA?
 

This is a very confusing issue. I suppose the best thing to do is to ask Ms. Harris how she would like to be identified. Although I wouldn't ask anyone "what are you." I may ask, as a journalist, how he/she would like to be identified in the article. :confused:

I know two sisters, Asian mother and Af Am father, who differ in how they would like to be identified. One just says, "I'm black" (and is interested in Our Fine Sorority, BTW) and the other is adamant about not leaving out her Asian heritage if you chose to label her at all.

Have you ever heard of a campus student group called HAPA? They are a group of people who are of partly Asian descent; all of them are Asian and (something else). It seems that there are many of these types of groups cropping up. Many people whose looks don't define their race seem to like to associate with groups where their identity is defined by the group so that they can avoid questions, I guess.

Anyway, very confusing. I guess the "one drop" rule doesn't apply any more, for many, many, many reasons. Things are changing and I'm trying to understand but it seems like the "Black" population is getting smaller and smaller as people of racially mixed parentage chose not to identify as Black (probably in part because young black people who do identify as black don't accept when people who don't look black say they're black). How do we unify and have strenghth in numbers if this is the way the trend is swinging? :confused:

Racial classification is very personal for all of us. There are some that prefer to be called African American, while others prefer Black. However, for those of mixed heritage, solo inclusion in one group excludes not just the other group, but the other parent.

Imagine being a Black woman with an Asian husband and your child refused to be called Black. How would that make you feel as a mother? As a woman? As a Black woman? That child is undoubtebly considering that at some point in life as well.

I commend those who acknowledge all the components of their cultural collage. But we shouldn't chastise those who refer to something other than what we think they should. The world can be complicated enough for everyone with anything other than purely White heritage and features.

Excellent point.

This is kind of an interesting topic that seems to merit its own thread so that AKAlades can go back to being AKAlades. What do you think? Is there a thread on this already? I guess I'll try a search (have no idea how to do this but will figure it out).

TTT/Soror Linda quoted in article
 

The Louisiana Weekly

Work in progress to address Cosby's criticisms
By Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Washington Correspondent
06-21-04


WASHINGTON (NNPA) -- While comedian and philanthropist Bill Cosby was
busy criticizing low-income black people for not fulfilling their
obligations to society and to their race, there were thousands of
people already engaged in helping the very people Cosby was
upbraiding.

"We run a wide range of after school programs across the country. And many of them are successful. We touch probably about 600,000 to 700,000 kids a year, which is considerable," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. "For example, we have a male responsibility program that we run in Chicago. I said to the director, 'How many people do you serve in a year?' He said, '300.' I said, 'How many could you serve?' He said, 'Awe man, I could serve
5,000 if I had the resources.'"

More than 100 Urban League chapters around the country, most surviving on corporate donations, foundation grants or government contracts, reach as many people as possible with after school tutorial, job training, leadership development and responsible decision-making programs.

And they would be doing more -- if they had the resources.

"On an overall basis, one of our core competencies, one of the most important things we do is reach out and serve youth in America's urban communities," said Morial, former mayor of New Orleans. "But one thing I have noticed is that even with our most successful programs, we're not touching the ones we need to touch because of money."

The Urban League is among thousands of organizations that seek to address many of the age-old problems cited by Cosby.

Speaking in Washington, D.C. at an observance of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Cosby complained that "the lower economic people are not holding up their end of this deal."

He said, "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for their kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics'...They're on the corner and they can't speak English ..."

Psychologist Julia Hare, co-founder of the Black Think Tank based in San Francisco, said Cosby's comments would have been more helpful had he suggested ways to address the problems.

"He should have said, 'Following this meeting and this feel-good
session of Brown v. Board of Education, I am going to personally
gather together the Jack and Jills, the Links, all of the Greek letter
organizations, the coalition of this, the coalition of that, like 100
Black Women, 100 Black Men and the Black Church," Hare said. "You (Cosby) throw out all of these criticisms and you don't have any kind of solutions, I've got to look at you and I just wonder if you're just floor showing."

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), the oldest of the black
Greek-letter sororities, has operated its Ivy Reading Academy for
grades K-3 has for nearly two years with $1.5 million from the U.S.
Department of Education. :D :D

Linda White, AKA's national president, eagerly explains why her
organization chose to focus on the early years of a child's life.

"Children who have not developed the basic reading skills in the very early years find it extremely difficult to become competent readers in the later grades," she said. "And when they are unable to read effectively, then they don't perform well in the other subjects and other higher-level educational tasks and they don't finish school, they can't function in society."

She adds, "Most of us would not be where we are today if someone had not reached back and helped us, whether it was the neighbor next door who encouraged you or the teacher in your school. Most of us did not come from well-educated well-to-do backgrounds. What matters is the person who shows some caring and love and provide encouragement for that child."

Hare said children too often get the blame for circumstances over
which they have no control.

"They're not responsible for the ebonics," Hare states. "They're not responsible for the situation that causes them to stand on street corners. If you look at the figures, you have a society that will not employ their mothers, will not employ their fathers. In fact, you have a society that sent most of their fathers to prison."

DeLacy Davis, a sergeant in the East Orange, N.J. police department and executive director of the department's TRY (Together Redirecting Youth) program, is using the police department to help rather than lock up troubled youth.

"They come every day and they go straight to the police department. We give them access to the Internet. They do their homework at the police station. My staff comes from behind the desk and the children take over. We teach them office skills. We show them value and love," Davis said.

"We call it giving an overdose of support services for that child. In
other words, while the parents may be drug addicted, it doesn't mean that child can't make it. They may say, 'I go to the gang because it's protection. I go to the gang because they feed me. I go to the gang because it's my family.' What we're going to have to do is make sure that child is eating every day, that we remove all of the factors that our children have told us as reasons for them going to gang activity. We take those arguments off the table."

And the program is working, says Davis, who is also president and
founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality.

"Two children last year who failed every subject, they were 15 and 16, they were held back in the 9th grade and now are on honor roll."

Such support and encouragement is crucial, said MaryLee Allen,
director of Child Welfare and Mental Health Division at the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that researches and advocates on behalf of children.

"We try to ensure that there are comprehensive services and supports available to the children and their families because you can't separate a child from the family and community in which they're living and in which they're being raised," she said. "There are gaps in terms of being able to reach the needs, but there are some things that we know work. But what we've got to do is try to make those things work for many, many more children."

The federal Head Start program is a terrific example of a
comprehensive program that provides an early childhood education to children three to five years old, Allen said. But Head Start serves only 60 percent of eligible children, more than a third of them black.

Allen said Head Start should be expanded to serve children from birth to age three as well as assisting their parents.

Morial said everyone has an obligation to help the needy.

"Anybody who's halfway enlightened understands the interdependence in society," he said. "You can't build a wall around yourself and pretend to be successful if there's pain and suffering all around."

Thanks!
 

Yay, but our Reading program is more than 2 years old. :D ;)

:cool:

Sidebar: Ummmmmmmmm, this paper isn't heavily circulated on my side of the River. I'm going to have to travel to get it. :p :o :mad: :rolleyes:

Re: Thanks!
 

Oh, I know our program's more than 2 years old.;) The writer should have mentioned that, but I digress.:p

Soror Danica Tisdale is Miss Georgia 2004
 

http://www.missga.org/1009c90b0.jpg

She was initiated into Mu Pi (Spelman College) chapter Fall '00. She competes for the title of Miss America on Sept. 18th.

ETA: Apparently, she is also the FIRST African American to hold this title.

That dress is beautiful.

Re: Soror Danica Tisdale is Miss Georgia 2004
 

OMG!! This is wonderful news. I'm glad to see she's doing well! :D

Congrats

congrats.

Her gown is gorgeous. Is it sheer at the top? It's almost like that gown Halle wore to the Oscars.

Hay! That's my Spelman Sister! Yeah for Danica! She's way after my time, though....

ETA: I know that should be Hey, not hay. Hay is for horses as my mother used to say when I used that as a greeting. I won't change it totally since my Spelman Sister abaici quoted me!

Yeah, let me edit to add that IMPORTANT fact!!

Way to go!

Congratulations Soror Danica, and good luck.

Congratulations!!http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmili...ty/yelclap.gif

Good Luck and all that good stuff. :D