Kappa Alpha Order at Ole Miss in the news

[AZTheta]

This is lovely (sarcasm intended).

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/armed-s...ing-with-guns/

Rest in peace, Emmett Till.

More of my life is behind me than ahead of me, and I despair for those for whom the reverse is true.

[PGD-GRAD]

Oh, I first read this last night and I just wanted to cry. A big part of me really believed that we’ve been there and done that in the ‘60s and 70’s. But yet...here we are again, still rehashing the same old sh_ _.
AZTHETA, you captured the feeling of many of us in the same age group, and I, too, fear for the future for many reason, racism among them. And these are YOUNG people...

[PhilTau]

Kappa Alpha Order may be the most historically significant fraternity in our country - though not in a good way. I still remember my American history professor's lecture on reconstruction which prominently included some of Kappa Alpha's founders.

Kappa Alpha has a lot of history to contend with and its national leadership should be commended for promptly responding to this indefensible photo which but for social media would likely have just been tossed into someone's drawer.

[AZTheta]

Thank you both for your thoughtful responses. Truthfully, my heart is shattered. I am on a rant about the Two Great Commandments these days, more than ever in the past. Having a very hard time practicing Buddhist principles and loving these three young men, because I absolutely despise what they are doing. Damn, it is hard to love your neighbor as yourself. Damn. Hardest damned commandment ever.

Keep telling myself "you are not in charge". Over and over. Chanting it like a mantra.

[Rod D]

Should we hear what they have to say first? Or should I grab my pitch fork too?

[Jen]

They said everything they wanted to in that photo.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Rod D

Should we hear what they have to say first? Or should I grab my pitch fork too?

What reason could anyone have to pose in front of that sign with a gun? Except the obvious one?

[thetalady]

The message in the photo is clear. It is racist and disgusting. The University has worked very very hard... really bent over backwards in many instances... to resolve racial issues at Ole Miss. These cretins just set every advance back decades.

Sadly, the University says they can do nothing about this, since it happened off campus, is not illegal activity and was not part of anything organized by the fraternity. Frankly, it smacks of the great excuse "boys will be boys." I am glad that KA addressed it and threw them out. KA has a lot of issues at Ole Miss specifically and always has, but they get away with everything because they have very prominent alumni.

[PGD-GRAD]

Actually, Ole Miss kicked out the young man charged with the recent murder. It didn’t happen on campus (as far as we know) and—while there seems to be strong evidence—he’s still presumed innocent until a trial occurs.
These 3 buffoons were at the scene of what is certainly a crime: desecrating a public memorial. Why CAN’T Ole Miss boot them? It would make a STRONG statement, both to future and current students.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by PGD-GRAD

Actually, Ole Miss kicked out the young man charged with the recent murder. It didn’t happen on campus (as far as we know) and—while there seems to be strong evidence—he’s still presumed innocent until a trial occurs.
These 3 buffoons were at the scene of what is certainly a crime: desecrating a public memorial. Why CAN’T Ole Miss boot them? It would make a STRONG statement, both to future and current students.

Yes. Brandon Theesfeld was kicked out of Ole Miss before he was convicted of anything, presumed innocent or not.

I hate to say it, but there is no evidence in the picture of the morons that they desecrated the memorial. They did not post anything with the picture claiming to have shot at it. There is only evidence that they posed with the sign and guns.

I still think they are arrogant, racist, knuckle dragging cretins.

[PhilTau]

From Wikipedia:

Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store.

* * *

They tied up Till in the back of a green pickup truck and drove toward Money, Mississippi. According to some witnesses, they took Till back to Bryant's Groceries and recruited two black men. The men then drove to a barn in Drew. They pistol-whipped him on the way and reportedly knocked him unconscious. Willie Reed, who was 18 years old at the time, saw the truck passing by. Reed recalled seeing two white men in the front seat, and "two black males" in the back. Some have speculated that the two black men worked for Milam and were allegedly forced to help with the beating, which they both denied.

Willie Reed said that while walking home, he heard the beating and crying from the barn. He told a neighbor and they both walked back up the road to a water well near the barn, where they were approached by Milam. Milam asked if they heard anything. Reed responded "No". Others passed by the shed and heard yelling. A local neighbor also spotted "Too Tight" (Leroy Collins) at the back of the barn washing blood off the truck and noticed Till's boot. Milam explained he had killed a deer and that the boot belonged to him.

Some have claimed that Till was shot and tossed over the Black Bayou Bridge in Glendora, Mississippi, near the Tallahatchie River. The group drove back to Roy Bryant's home in Money, where they reportedly burned Emmett's clothes.

In an interview with William Bradford Huie that was published in Look magazine in 1956, Bryant and Milam said they intended to beat Till and throw him off an embankment into the river to frighten him. They told Huie that while they were beating Till, he called them bastards, declared he was as good as they, and said that he had sexual encounters with white women. They put Till in the back of their truck, drove to a cotton gin to take a 70-pound (32 kg) fan—the only time they admitted to being worried, thinking that by this time in early daylight they would be spotted and accused of stealing—and drove for several miles along the river looking for a place to dispose of Till. They shot him by the river and weighted his body with the fan.

* * *

Three days after his abduction and murder, Till's swollen and disfigured body was found by two boys who were fishing in the Tallahatchie River. His head was very badly mutilated, he had been shot above the right ear, an eye was dislodged from the socket, there was evidence that he had been beaten on the back and the hips, and his body weighted by a fan blade, which was fastened around his neck with barbed wire. He was nude, but wearing a silver ring with the initials "L. T." and "May 25, 1943" carved in it. His face was unrecognizable due to trauma and having been submerged in water. * * *

[33girl]

Originally Posted by thetalady

Yes. Brandon Theesfeld was kicked out of Ole Miss before he was convicted of anything, presumed innocent or not.

I hate to say it, but there is no evidence in the picture of the morons that they desecrated the memorial. They did not post anything with the picture claiming to have shot at it. There is only evidence that they posed with the sign and guns.

I still think they are arrogant, racist, knuckle dragging cretins.

I got the impression that the sign was vandalized long before these cheese dicks got there. The picture is bad enough.

[AnchorAlum]

It's the old saying that is still so true...you cannot fix stupid. I can only hope those boys have the decency later in life to be thoroughly ashamed.

[Titchou]

This report is over a year old and has been circulated here in the South for some time since then. I knew about it when it happened. Just an FYI...

[Kevin]

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