Positive Power

[Professor]

Darryl R. Matthews: Positive power

Note to media: Look again at black America

04:47 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 24, 2005

I had the pleasure of meeting media mogul John H. Johnson some years ago during a fraternity function. As a young college student and initiate of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, I became familiar with the names of such stalwart members as Mr. Johnson, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson.

These were the type of men I read about in Mr. Johnson's Ebony and Jet magazines. It wasn't just the photos of well-dressed men of color that impressed me; it was that their intelligence and integrity came across, crystal clear, in the articles. They were college-educated African-American men who stood up for justice and weren't just interested in making a quick dollar. Reading about them allowed me to believe I could be bold and daring, just like they were.

The images were powerful, personal and distinctly African-American. There is nothing like a positive image, and there was no one better than Mr. Johnson, who died this month at age 87, to foster the dreams and aspirations of African-Americans.

For nearly 60 years, Johnson Publishing provided the alternative view to the modern-day Step 'n' Fetchits blaring across our TV screens, lurking in the cinema and broadcast over the airwaves. I have to wonder, what happened to the images of African-Americans that promote hope and pride?

Mr. Johnson's death has caused me to reflect on this seemingly never-ending media battle for respect and parity. Mr. Johnson was an old-school warrior who forced white corporate America to recognize and, in some ways, value the African-American marketplace and consumer. Failure wasn't an option for him – not only because he had to answer to a supportive mother who gave her life savings to start his business, but also because he felt obligated to his race, who was trusting in him to make a difference.

He never compromised his or the larger community's integrity, and he knew the value and importance of black media ownership. Some of our black media moguls today could take a lesson from Mr. Johnson – a lesson that quality never goes out of style.

More than a philanthropist and media mogul, Mr. Johnson was also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, of which I now serve as national president. Founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha is the oldest intercollegiate, Greek-letter fraternity created by African-American men in the country.

Our motto is "First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All." Mr. Johnson lived this motto to the fullest, and I am committed to ensure that members of Alpha carry on this legacy well into the next millennium. The image of the African-American male is not what it once was, but there is hope inside and outside Alpha Phi Alpha on college campuses and communities throughout the country. Organizations like this one continue to bring great men and great men-in-training together under the rubric of fraternalism and service.

Unfortunately, you are still only most likely able to read about them in the pages of Ebony and Jet magazines. But the media should not be hard-pressed to find us. We are the men working with Big Brothers Big Sisters, running for the March of Dimes and raising funds for college scholarships for inner-city youth.

Mr. Johnson had a solution for this image problem, and it still has validity today. The African-American community must never stop fighting for our dignity, and we should always strive to learn how to be that positive image every day – for all to see.

Darryl R. Matthews Sr. is the national president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. (www.alphaphialpha.net), the nation's oldest and largest historically African-American intercollegiate fraternity. His e-mail address is president@apa1906.net.