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Black Frat, Sorority Ties Last Far Beyond College Years

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

The pink shirts and pearls worn by sisters of Alpha Kappa Alpha stem from years of tradition. However, it’s the unseen ties that make black frats and sororities so meaningful.

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By DONNA KOEHN of The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

Updated: 02/10/2008 11:30 am

TAMPA - Duke University seemed big enough to swallow Grace Jones' daughter whole. It was her only baby's first time away from home. How could she ever leave her in that mass of strangers?

"I was wearing my colors" of pink and green, recalls Jones, a graduate member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and its adviser at the University of Tampa.

"The dean walked up, threw her arms out to me and said, 'Here's my soror!' I said, 'Here's my daughter!' I could let her go because I knew she would be in good hands."

Flash the colors, offer the grip. For members of black Greek letter organizations, known as BGLOs, the recognition is immediate and bracing, an instant comfort in a strange town.

Formed in the early 1900s when racism was overt and lynching a threat, black fraternities and sororities offered a refuge to men and women scattered and oppressed on campus. Barred from joining white fraternities, they started their own, stressing scholarship, service and social activism.

Friendships run deep.

"There is definitely a pink-and-green network," says Carolyn House Stewart, a Tampa lawyer and national first vice president of AKA. "You know you can go anyplace, and your child is going to be taken care of. Your mother will be taken care of. No matter where you go, a member has your back, your side, your front."

The network of professionals that arose from the black Greek system includes doctors, lawyers, politicians and others from the middle and upper classes.

Many, such as Jones, become members after earning a degree. In traditionally white Greek organizations, 95 percent join in college and usually leave it behind at graduation. But about 50 percent of blacks join later, enticed by the graduate chapters' strong social and business connections and the opportunity to contribute to charitable projects.

"African-Americans have the best networking," says Megan Vadnais, director of Greek life at the University of South Florida. "The students really get this, that it is a lifetime commitment.

"It's also an amazing opportunity for African-American men and women. They get great role models, coaching and support from the graduates, as well as that sense of family."

She says it is not unusual for thousands of members to gather at national events, sometimes in tuxedos and gowns.

Often, parents and grandparents expect their children to pledge their fraternities or sororities.

"It's something that bonds the girls in our family," says Sharon Andrews of Tampa, a psychiatrist who joined AKA in 1984. She is one of 15 female relatives, including her mother and aunt, in the sorority. "I think my baby shower was done in pink and green."

Stepping Out

If colors, special calls and handshakes are highly recognizable to members of black Greek groups, they are not the most visible markers to everyone else. Pop culture and media accounts traditionally link black Greeks to two activities: stepping and violent hazing.

Many older members are bemused by stepping, which consists of rhythmic movements perfectly synchronized and thought to have been influenced by African dances.

Nancy Andrews of Tampa, who pledged AKA at Talladega College in Alabama in 1952, recently attended her first step show, where her niece and other students competed for cash prizes for their chapters.

"Oh, those girls were so cute!" Andrews says. "They were good, too!"

Ryan Tims, 23, president of Kappa Alpha Psi at USF, learned to step in fifth grade.

"In 10th grade, I got in a group that got mentored by Kappa Alpha Psi in things like how to tie a tie and use proper etiquette at the table," he says. "I knew even before I got in college that I would be a Kappa. Yeah, people see us stepping and strolling, but there's so much more that we do."

The organization, with nine members on campus, raised money for hurricane victims in Peru this school year. Its next project is studying black AIDS in America. When he graduates with a degree in history, Tims hopes to become a teacher at the school he attended growing up in Jacksonville.

James Brightman, 23, president of Omega Psi Phi at USF, plans to go to law school after receiving a bachelor's degree in psychology. He knows some are drawn to fraternities because they believe stepping is cool.

"A lot of people are not so mature," he says. "You got riff-raff in every organization. A lot of people want to be an Omega. But we're extra-careful about who we let in."

Brightman, father of a 19-month-old daughter, says he puts family first, then his university studies, then Omega Psi Phi.

"We're trying to redirect the idea that we're one-dimensional. Omega is a whole lot more than stepping."

Underground Hazing

Nothing stops an undergraduate chapter member faster than queries about pledging. Many avoid the word, preferring to say their chapters use only the benign "membership intake" process. Any other questions are deferred to advisers, who affirm that everyone follows the rule set in 1990 by the National Pan-Hellenic Council, the governing body of black Greek letter organizations: no hazing allowed.

Yet, repeatedly, hazing incidents occur. Sometimes pledges die during severe beatings. Some, such as Marcus Jones of Decatur, Ga., are injured physically and mentally.

According to published reports, Jones and 25 others hoping to join Kappa Alpha Psi at Florida A&M University in 2006 were whipped with wooden canes as thick as baseball bats. They stood in a warehouse, blindfolded by sanitary pads as the blows were delivered.

Jones' buttocks were so damaged he required a trip to the emergency room.

The case was a test of Florida's new anti-hazing law, one of the nation's toughest, which makes hazing a felony. Two of the perpetrators were sentenced last year to prison; three others pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor. Jones, who dropped out of college, has a civil suit pending against the men and KAP.

Studies reveal that deaths and injuries at traditionally white fraternities usually are related to drinking, either through alcohol poisoning or accidents. But black fraternity pledges are more likely to be injured or killed by beatings inflicted by members.

Walter Kimbrough, a psychologist, the president of Philander Smith College in Arkansas and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, says the ban on hazing served only to drive it underground, where even less monitoring can occur.

"People are still interested in pledging," says Kimbrough, author of "Black Greek 101." "People feel like this process has value."

He says some college chapters have assimilated a violent street culture, something graduates may not comprehend.

For older members, pledging - "crossing the burning sands" - meant proving manhood, bonding, and gaining self-esteem and respect. Going through a secret, physical ordeal together meant members could rely on one another.

James Tokley, Tampa's poet laureate and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, calls crossing in 1967 one of the defining moments of his life.

"One could provide an argument that it has symbolized the painful rebirth of an individual from being a landlocked person to one who is spiritually free."

Some members think suffering physically is a tribute to those who endured slavery and were on the forefront of the civil rights movement.

Although not as common as frat incidents, injuries and abuse have been reported at sororities as well. Some women have been hit with canes or forced to eat garbage. Branding occurs in both genders, although women usually have small Greek letters burned on the inner thigh or bikini line. Men sport larger brands on their forearms or shoulders.

Kimbrough says the hazing process can be a form of brainwashing, causing prospective members to become so confused and tormented that they accept their fate.

"They think it's something they have to do to be accepted," he says. "It's a form of self-preservation."

Those who are "paper" - meaning they did not go through a physical hazing process - are maligned by peers, he says.

He says students engaging in hazing "have no idea of the history as to why we do certain things."

"It's a very rich culture, and this just cheapens it."

Greek Relevance

It's difficult to know how many people belong to black Greek letter organizations. For at least 14 years, the National Pan-Hellenic Council has reported having 1.5 million members. Calls and e-mail to the organization for a membership update went unreturned.

As the AKAs and Alphas celebrate 100th anniversaries of their beginnings, the future of black Greek organizations is being debated. In educational journals such as Diverse and popular magazines such as Ebony, some scholars praise the groups, while others assert their time has passed. The national organizations are faulted for failing to resolve or even acknowledge the problems of hazing and the public's perception of stepping as the groups' sole purpose.

"I think they are stagnant," Kimbrough says. "Each organization needs to take a hard look at itself and at the directions they're going. How do we become more relevant in this century? We have the same old tired goals."

For Tokley, membership is about social good and commitment to causes greater than himself. But also important is the sense of oneness, of spiritual and personal value that belonging confers.

"The thing that is most unique about black fraternities and sororities is that they are for life," he says. "It's not surprising to see a 19-year-old sharing the grip with a 91-year-old.

"Once you join, you are forever young."

Reporter Donna Koehn can be reached at (813) 259-8264 or dkoehn@tampatrib.com.

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