I don't know if this has already been brought up elsewhere; I didn't see anything about it when I ran a search ...
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/me...2metkappa.html
Old South fraternity's plans rile neighbors
By ANDREA JONES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/02/06
ATHENS — It is, at its core, a battle over symbols.
On one side, a declining working-class neighborhood of clapboard houses and wood frame cottages, a symbol of what once was the center of thriving African-American life in Athens — so much so that it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
(ENLARGE)
A copy of the Kappa Alpha page in the UGA yearbook shows some of the fears — partying and, in the case of black neighbors, displays of Confederate symbols — of its prospective new neighbors in the West Hancock district of Athens. Kappa Alpha Order officials say it is modeled on the teachings of Robert E. Lee and not on racism. KA's problems arose when the university wanted new uses for the land it owned at the site of several fraternities, at least one of which also has run into opposition over its proposed new site.
Ben Gray/AJC
(ENLARGE)
The Rev. Ben Rivers, pastor of the 140-year-old Hill First Baptist Church, opposes Kappa Alpha moving into the neighborhood.
On the other, a group of young men, proud of their Southern heritage, who don Confederate battle uniforms at antebellum balls and espouse the teachings of Robert E. Lee — symbols, they say, of the romantic, chivalrous South.
Now the young men — Kappa Alpha Order fraternity members at the University of Georgia — are planning a brick, white-columned fraternity house in the West Hancock district of downtown Athens, big enough to house 30 members.
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