[JayBEE!]

Just to let you know the world is a huge place, most African Americans living in SoCal
haven't even heard of Howard U., Morehouse much less Alcorn State... Only those kids
whose parents were reared in the south know remotely anything regarding the "traditions" that many Southerner's hold so dear...

This is true. And I have been very fortunate to have attended both a HPWCU and a HBCU. Alcorn State University had a atomsphere that was equal toward all fraternities and Sororities on campus. And then I transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi. Normally any other black organization would not be able to exist on a HPWCU, because of the dominance of NPHC organizations. In my transfer, I brought the same traditions with me that we had at Alcorn State University. We stepped, and the barrier was put up. It was confusion. "Now how are they going to just all of a sudden step." If we didn't do some of the things that are familiar to black people, this national organization would seem more like a local club. And the organization would not draw from the same pool of people. This is the driving force of a step show unassociated with the NPHC.

So out here on the west coast many of our young people first encounter any Greek
Lettered system, and decide to Rush a HPWGLO--which is their right--it hurts those
Afrikan amerikkklans that had to endure water hoses during Civil Rights while they were
wearing their greek letters.

I'm sure we were right in there. This is what I said earlier: "Let me say it like this…. Before Martin Luther King graduated from college in 1958; ….before nine Little Rock, Ark., schoolchildren were escorted to Central High School by federal troops, ending efforts to thwart court-ordered integration in 1957; ….and Before Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, ….Alpha Phi Omega allowed a black campus to have a chapter of a white founded organization in 1947." This was at Johnson C. Smith University (Delta Phi). The significance of this is that it was white people that allow themselves to be integrated, during the time of riots, lynching, and protest. Florida A&M University, Kappa Delta Chapter, is about to have their 50th anniversary next year. That means they were a chapter in 1952. And in the between 1952 and 1953 there was new chapters at Wiley College, (Kappa Pi), Southern University, (Kappa Lambda) and North Carolina A&T University, (Kappa Psi) Howard University, (Zeta Phi) was before 1952. These chapters were all black and all male.

There is a barrier even between our own chapters. Our old traditions are attempting to be washed out by politics and National officers who, like unknowing black people, do not want us to be ourselves. So when I meet black people who don't want us to do certain things, it's the same old story that we get from other chapter who desire us to be more like them. I'm not a clone of them, and the 25/52 family isn't either. We are who we rather want to be. For what purpose, to keep the attraction, our heritage, and our traditions within this mini-country of a HPWCU alive. So that other young men can benefit from the growth material inside that effects every young man in the United States.

These kids, having made their choice, do not realize that when they get into the "working world" and the "corporate ladder" with a "glass ceiling"--and because I moved back to SoCal this same ceiling is "Hollywoodized"--they start coming back wanting to join our organizations--like, now, today, you choose to be Black.

That's why our organizations are actually good for each other. Because in this organization you have to opportunity to work along side white people like you would have to in the corporate world. So when we have a person from a NPHC join they get interaction in all avenues not just the blacks.

You've lost me... Are you saying that because there are numerous other non NPHC GLO's out there we should allow them to step as guests in a step show???

Yes. When it applies. Because if you have all nine or even eight groups of the NPHC stepping the show can be huge already. And it would be good for NPHC groups to visit step shows of other GLO's, and that
Would give a first look of how they would fit in a step show. Or even audition them.

Or what does "squashing barriers" mean?

You have to agree that you didn't approve of even hearing another organization step outside the NPHC. That's understanding. But that is just one barrier. When Ohio State's Gamma Sigma Sigma Chapter first became a colony, they walked out on their campus and they were approach by other NPHC organizations immediately. One Delta even asked her about her colors (Maroon and White) asking them who gave them the right to choose those colors. Deep huh?

Okay, isn't your organization about just "service", so if you wanted to join an NPHC group you still could? If that be the case about your organization, then are you also saying it is not social fraternity? Just asking.

We boast being a service organization because it is in our name. Alpha Phi Omega, National Service Fraternity. However you are correct when you say that NPHC organizations do service. Now, almost every organization on campus does service. And these organizations are national organizations. What make our organizations different is who started them and the race contingency within. All these national organization has something to do with supporting your growth as a human being. The reason why I can join a NPHC is only because our organization is not apart of the black founded organization group of
The National Pan-Hellenic Council. If Alpha Phi Omega, National Service Fraternity did petition itself to join and the NPHC accepted it's petition, dual membership would end. Like most fraternal organizations,
We do have social events. The current state of Alpha Phi Omega, National Service Fraternity overall it acts more like a society or a social club on most predominately white campuses. 95% of those chapters are co-ed. Alpha Phi Omega, National Service Fraternity began to allow chapters to become coed in 1976. After that you saw a big decline in black chapters because none of them voted to allow the female membership.
This is why we are old in tradition but seldom seen. Our chapters, that are in the '25/'52 family are all male and the sorority is all female. But there are both coed chapters in the fraternity and in the sorority. The importance of the '25/'52 family is that it allows who we are to remain alive.

So what you are saying is the major objective of your Fraternity is to help young men...
How you do it is thru your community service. So, basically, you are saying you are just like an NPHC Fraternity??? Because times have changed, NPHC affiliates changed their main objectives... Because of these changes, all NPHC affiliates do community service as one of their focuses, as you are well aware.

That's all the way right. Alpha Phi Omega began on an all male campus by young men to give young men a better start in life by showing them a standard of manhood found in the Boy Scouts of America. The vehicle they choose to help transfer this standard of manhood was service.

.. if you say you all "show out" at step shows, I know some collegiates and maybe some alumni NPHC groups out here would be very angry afterward.

Barrier One. No Doubt. And where does that anger come from? It comes from seeing some thing unfamiliar and not understanding it's existence. That is extremely hard to overcome, especially as immediately as the action is done. There are some collegiates and maybe some alumni NPHC groups that do not have the patience to even hear what they don't know. It's a like the NPHC is a golf country club, within our culture. And like seeing Tiger Woods coming to Augusta, Georgia, and breaking course records in order to get respect, we have to come serious. For instance. Phi Beta Sigma, at the National Step Show Invitational at the University of Florida in 1998, has a four man step team that came out in a black total body covered Ninja suits. They came through the crowd with make shift swords and giving out roses. They got on stage and busted a tight step. And then they got in signal file. And each one pulled off their hoods, one at a time. It was three white guys and one black. But the crowd cheered. It was a contest. They ended the show licking whip cream out of a chair and the females when wild. They placed first. They came with a serious show. Now the what wasn't even seen or mentioned was on stage they were accepted, though they were predominately white on stage. Our stepping chapters will not even be that way. They may have one white guy, but even that is a rarity.

The deep thinking that I have is that your organization can be either a animal house organization with social purposes only, and society dedicated to a single purpose, or a national organization with some cutltural heritage. Each being reflective of the environment they exist in. Alpha Phi Omega has to be considered as the most reflective organization on the planet. Because we have predominately every thing chapters. Predominately female, predominately black, predominately asian, predominately white male, predominately phillipine, predominately mexican. Whatever.

But as a close group, the black male has to be aligned to maintain who we are. I can imagine, because we've been gone in many places for so long, I can expect to get plenty of barriers push in front of us. It's always been a long road. But if I could draw another young man to this organization, it's worth the tribulations.


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JayBEE!

Ay-Phi-Que!
Alpha Alpha Lambda Chapter
Alcorn State Unversity
Fall, October 18th 1980
President, Brothers of the Rising Sun, Atlanta Alumni Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega
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