All five members of Mississippis U.S. congressional delegation other than Thompson are Republicans. Power always changes hands, and Republicans are widely expected to retake the House in the midterm elections. Most folks that I talk to who were members of white fraternities and sororities will talk about it in past tense once they leave college, says Tamara L. Brown, one of the editors of African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision. "Much like in the 1960s, racial politics were worked out at lunch counters, sidewalks, swimming pools; in the 21st century, we work out our racial politics for example in battles over the flag or statues or the names of dormitories," says Tell. ". Debbie Elliott/NPR What do they teach their fraternity members? Grace Segers is a staff writer at The New Republic. Why don't y'all let that die?' Farmer Walker Sturdivant owns the land where Till's body was removed from the river. The body of Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was visiting relatives, was found in the Tallahatchie River near Money, Miss., on Aug. 31, 1955. "By letting the trees and so forth grew up around it, and letting the walls fall down, it's a way to let history fade into invisibility," says Reilly Morse, president of the Mississippi Center for Justice. This environment made day-to-day life for Blacks an arduous task and attempts to successfully achieve in school, nearly impossible. Morse says that for decades, there has been a reluctance to draw attention to the building. Henry Tourner Asher, Dr. Marcus Peter Blakemore, Paul Waymond Caine, George Wesley Edmonds, Dr. Mississippi continues to face tremendous challenges as we confront our health care needs. Despite the growing hostility of Whites toward Blacks in Indiana, some Black students sought a college education at Indiana University, as it was a tuition-free university of the highest quality. Binghamton was over 80% white at the start of Jeffries freshman year, according to figures provided by the school. The obligation to remain involved in Pi Kappa Phi after graduation and to work perpetually to build the ideal fraternity. For her part, Cheney called Thompson a tremendous leader in a statement to The New Republic. Mississippi continues to face tremendous challenges as we confront our health care needs. He was involved with Binghamtons Black Student Union, and in attempting to elevate his fraternitys status on campus, he helped make communities of color more visible to the university as a whole. John Milton Lee. The founders of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. are: Elder Watson Diggs, more affectionately known as 'The Dreamer', Dr. Ezra D. Alexander, Dr. Byron Kenneth Armstrong, Atty. Do you have a sports website? Congressman Thompson has diligently fought to reverse discrimination in the higher education system of Mississippi as an original plaintiff in the Ayers Desegregation Case. These men of vision decided Kappa Alpha Nu would be more than another social organization. Since the beginning, every endeavor was directed toward establishing the Fraternity upon a strong foundation before embarking on plans of expansion. Subscribe to Stathead Football: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Pro Football Reference Database. The primary source of federal aid to K-12 education is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, particularly its Title I, Part A program of Education for the Disadvantaged. Congressman Thompson is and has been a consistent supporter of our armed fighting forces and veterans, making sure that these 22.6 million heroes get the services they deserve. If I have two roads, a paved road with potholes in a white neighborhood and an unpaved one in a black neighborhood, my priority is the unpaved road, Thompson said in a 1985 profile written by Joe Klein for Esquire. "There was a lot of pushback not only from the white community but from the black community also," says Jaynes-Diming. For $5, you can watch a short film in which local residents describe what they remember from 1955, and walk through a hallway of exhibits, including a replica of Bryant's Grocery. On Congressman Thompsons voting record, he has never voted against a Farm Bill during his nine terms in Congress. In fact, all twenty-three counties in the Second District are medically under-served and many citizens are unable to afford health coverage. You have reached your limit of free articles. the highest possible standards of scholarship; Who safeguard the reputation of their chapter Vigilante lynchings of Blacks were commonplace. Bennie was sent to Hins County public school by his parents. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. His district encompasses Able assistance provided by each of the remaining Founders furnished necessary sustenance for the embryonic group. He is well-known among his colleagues, but not necessarily a nationally recognized figure. full responsibility as citizens; I believe that my chapter can become an ideal chapter, Twitter reactivated Trumps account in November after Elon Musk, the companys new owner and chief executive, polled his followers on whether Trump should be reinstated. At the end of FY2010, the Veterans population in the United States was approximately 22.6 million. Thompson defeated the Republican candidate for the seat in a runoff election, mobilizing the districts Black voters. A New York Times article detailing Thompsons victory said he was regarded as far more confrontational than Espy, noting that he made no overtures to white voters.. And he was that kind of guy.. Debbie Elliott/NPR The ideals of the church were an important foundation of the Fraternity. The question of who gets to tell the Emmett Till story is a charged question says Dave Tell, a professor at the University of Kansas and author of Remembering Emmett Till. You can barely make out a "private property" sign posted out front. It remains the only Greek letter organization with its Alpha Chapter on Indiana Universitys campus. Mississippi social justice consultant Susan Glisson, who has also been working with the Memorial Commission, says the persistent vandalism sends a clear message. Tougaloo helped me make the connection of how that develops. That's not the America that we want to live in. Trump hasnt tweeted since his initial suspension after his supporters attacked the US Capitol two years ago. She says the repeated vandalism just adds more pain. Farmer Walker Sturdivant owns the land where Till's body was removed from the river. In fact, all twenty-three counties in the Second District are medically under-served and many citizens are unable to afford health coverage. JACKSON, Miss. Other Kappa Alpha Psi alumni include famed NBA center Wilt Chamberlain, civil rights activist and quarterback Colin Kaepernick, lawyer Johnnie Cochran, and New York Times columnist Charles Blow, as well as Mandela Barnes, the former Wisconsin lieutenant governor who nearly flipped a U.S. Senate seat last year. Politics | There was an additional misunderstanding being attributed to the acronym of the Fraternitys Greek letters, KAN. Some confused the abbreviation of the letters to refer to the state of Kansas. The Greek Letter was chosen in place of N and the Fraternity acquired a distinctive Greek letter symbol and Kappa Alpha Psi thereby became an indistinguishable Greek-letter Fraternity. Bennie G. Thompson, (born January 28, 1948) is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993, and the ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security since 2011. Denied an abortion, woman tells senators she nearly died on their watch Bennie Thompson was born on February 10, 1963. Bennie Thompson played 159 games over his career. One of those men, 21-year-old Bennie Thompson, had run for office because he wanted change for the towns Black residents: improved housing and infrastructure, fire and police protection, recreation for young people. Realizing that they had no part in the social life of the university and drawn together by common interests, they decided that a Greek-letter fraternity would do much to fill the missing link in their college existence. The company found its own response to the incitement of violence troubling, according to the report, but no substantive work was done to improve the situation in 2021, including in other high-profile elections such as in Brazil last year. The charter members were Elder Watson Diggs, Byron K. Armstrong, John M. Lee, Henry T. Asher, Marcus P. Blakemore, Guy L. Grant, Paul W. Caine, George W. Edmonds, Ezra D. Alexander and Edward G. Irvin. He attended a public school in the heart of the borough, and he later recalled the culture shock of arriving at Binghamtons campus in 1988. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. The highest number of lynchings in the country between 1882 and 1968 occurred in Mississippi, according to the NAACP. Track and Field was the only sport which Blacks were able to demonstrate their athleticism. Plans for violence were telegraphed on both far-right forums and mainstream platforms, which pushed Jan. 6 as a critical day in the Stop the Steal movement, the report said. These incidents caused the Founders to change the name of the Fraternity. The inaugural edition of the Kappa Alpha Nu Journal debuted April 1914 and has printed uninterrupted since with the exception to 1918 and 1919, due to WWI. We will continue to monitor and enforce our policies across the platform.. Javascript is required for the selection of a player. To help address these challenges Democrats introduced the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Debbie Elliott/NPR Members of Greek letter organizations also get the opportunity to participate in numerous philanthropic and community service events. The percentage of Blacks on campus was less than 1%. "So it's not just history," he says. AP But, although he has had his fair share of big-name interviews, Thompson has maintained a relatively low profile. Thompson is married to London Johnson of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and has a daughter, BendaLonne, a granddaughter, Jeanna, and a grandson, Thomas. Miguel Correa finds parallels to events today. Consequently, eight other men met with Diggs and Armstrong for the purpose of organizing such a fraternity. The mission that helped launch the fraternity nearly eight decades before Jeffries joined carried over to each new chapter across the country, including Binghamtons Mu Kappa chapter. It is a fact of which Kappa Alpha Psi is proud that the Constitution has never contained any clause which either excluded or suggested the exclusion of a man from membership merely because of his color, creed, or national origin. Magazines, Digital One day as one of the Fraternity members, Frank Summers, was running the hurdles, Founder Diggs overheard a White student state, He is a member of Kappa Alpha Nig. Who are bound together in a common loyalty Politics | As far as replacing the sign, Weems is getting help from a fifth-generation local farmer, Walker Sturdivant, who owns the property and plans to donate a long-term lease to better protect the site. Since their inception, each organization has contributed countless hours of community service, donated millions of dollars toward educational scholarships, and have provided leadership to communities around the country. and I shall do my share to make it so. Tougaloo was probably that point in my life that convinced me to stay in Mississippi, to choose public service as a lifelong occupation, and just to try to make, in my own way, a difference in the lives of my state and my community, Thompson said. | Follow my Instagram: @benniegthompson . Representative John Katko, the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, said he and Thompson have a terrific partnership, stemming from an understanding of the bipartisan importance of the committees purview. That is not who we want to be.". That included accounts of the impact of Trumps Dec. 19 tweet, but the panel mostly focused on the conduct of Trump and his associates. Jeffries was only a college sophomore at Binghamton University when he was elected president of the schools fledgling chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi. He had joined the fraternity just a year earlier in search of community in his new home, nearly 200 miles and a world away from his Brooklyn upbringing. The James "Biff" Carter Legislative Conference (aka "Kappas on Capitol Hill") brings together members of Kappa Alpha Psi to effect meaningful change. The committee may also have to wade into controversial waters and call Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomass wife, Virginia, to testify, based on reports that she lobbied the White House chief of staff to pursue efforts to overturn the election. That was a very different and liberating feeling as compared to the neighborhoods of central Brooklyn in the 1980s in the midst of the crack-cocaine epidemic.. Copyright 2022 The Brooklyn-Long Island Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If nobody would stir that damn pile of stuff up, it wouldn't stink.". Bennie Thompson weighed 210 lbs (95 kg) when playing. Somebody saying we have racial disparity here. hide caption. A "private property" sign posted out front is barely visible. Milam (left) and Roy Bryant sit with their wives, Juanita Milam (second from left) and Carolyn Bryant, in September 1955. Even now, when hell face relentless demands on his time as House Minority Leader by lawmakers, lobbyists and donors, Jeffries stays in touch with many of his frat brothersboth his classmates and others from the wider network of Black fraternities. Thompson became chair of the Homeland Security Committee in 2007 and introduced legislation implementing the remaining recommendations provided by the 9/11 Commission. "Fella who came down here and got in trouble overstepped his bounds to a degree some folks thought," says Whitten. He plans to donate a long-term lease to better protect the site. It was 1969, one year after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., and in Bolton, Mississippi, white Southerners ugly backlash to the gains of the civil rights movement was a powerful force. 2x Pro Bowl. The obligation to become engaged in the college or university community. Though those who knew him back then dont remember him speaking about national political ambitions, Jeffries was involved in campus politics and especially focused on uplifting students of color. Supporters of former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro that ransacked government buildings on Jan. 8 this year used tech platforms to cast doubt on his loss in last years presidential election. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. "This is justice for our family," says Till's cousin Airickca Gordon-Taylor who runs the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation in Chicago. That network may be part of what set him on his path to Congress in the first place. "And in 2019, you have another hate crime of vandalism occurring where they want to desecrate the space that we've allotted for memory of him.". Some people are possessed with a preternatural sense of purpose, a seriousness that lends them an air of gravitas even at a young age. WebCongressman Bennie G. Thompson is a firm believer of giving back to those whom afforded him an opportunity to serve. "We came by to see this part of history about Emmett Till," says Alexis Ortiz. Five chapters were chartered from 1913-1915, centered in the Midwest; with the first chapter being established in the East in 1915. It would be the only Greek-letter organization founded with the concept of achievement. It was always hard. The sign was removed last month after an image surfaced of three white University of Mississippi fraternity brothers posing next to it with guns. He plans to donate a long-term lease to better protect the site. Hakeem Jeffries at a Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Binghamton Alumni Chapter and Mu Kappa Undergraduate Chapter meeting in 1991. Write to Mini Racker at mini.racker@time.com. Most of them were working their way through school. Wicker was the only member of the states Republican congressional delegation not to cast votes on Jan. 6 challenging the Rep. Sanford Bishop of Georgia is a Kappa too, as is Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who served as chairman of the groundbreaking Jan. 6 committee. Careful consideration was given to ensure the organization established a firm foundation the first year before efforts to expand were attempted. Triangle. The towns white population revolted, and an unsuccessful lawsuit to prevent the three from taking office ultimately died in a federal court of appeals. Born out of the vestiges of racism, Kappa Alpha Nu encountered another metamorphosis, partially related to action of bigotry. The historic marker was taken down after three white fraternity brothers from the University of Mississippi were pictured holding guns next to the sign. Except for the years of World War I and II, when some Grand Chapter Meetings were suspended, Kappa Alpha Psi has grown and prevailed with unabating impetus. Through their combined labors, the fraternitys ritual and ceremonial forms, constitution, hymn and motto were created, and insignia and emblems were fashioned. The expectation that you find your passion and excel. Jeffries college days were marked by a playful streakhis pledge class was called Demolition because its four members were always breaking thingsbut even back then, his ambition foreshadowed a distinguished career. Please see our Contributors and Sources page for data source details. Thompsons chairmanship of the select committee is not just a capstone of the career of a respected congressman and chair of the Homeland Security Committee, but of his lifes work of subverting systems while still acting within them, using his relative power to methodically scrub the grout of racism and corruption from their halls. A spokeswoman for Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, didnt respond to a request for comment or confirm the authenticity of the document. Hes very careful and inclusive as chairman. WebRate This Fraternity. "There is way more at stake than simply a history lesson on what happened in 1955," Tell says. "We're here in the cotton gin where they received the fan, the old fan, that they attempted to dispose of the child's body with," says museum founder and Glendora Mayor Johnny Thomas. It's part of our culture. Nor would the new Fraternity seek its members in the manner of other Greek organizations from among the sons of wealthy families or families of social prestige. She says the family is also awaiting word from the U.S. Justice Department, which has reopened the Till murder case. According to Brown, Black Greek life in the U.S. arose from exclusion and racism in higher education. Their experiences at Howard gave rise to the chief motivating spirits which sowed of the seed for a fraternity at Indiana University and crystallized the idea of establishing an independent Greek-letter organization. Kappa Alpha Psi, a college Fraternity, was born in an environment saturated in racism. Kappa Alpha Psi was the first to Black Greek Lettered Organization to issue a monthly publication. Since 1980, 13 members of the fraternity have served in the United States House of Representatives, the most by any member organization of the National Pan Hellenic Council. Although Thompson can be seen giving interviews on cable news, he is not a fixture. The Delta is in the northwest. Taking careful attention to detail and to ensure the fraternity was rooted in authenticity, these Founder Diggs took courses in Greek heraldry and mythology and applied their combined knowledge to the development of these articles. Its a real joy working with him, said Katko, who is retiring at the end of the year. It means giving blacks the same quality of service as whites., After his election to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors in 1979, his statewide influence quickly grew. In 1980, Thompson was elected to the Hinds County board of supervisors, where he served 13 years. It was kind of an icebreaker, Thompson, now a member of the U.S. House, told me more than five decades later. "Whites and blacks came to our meetings and [said] 'Why are you all bringing this up? WebBennie Thompson - US Congressman William Clay - US Congressman Louis Stokes - US Congressman Marshall Pitt, Jr. - Mayor of Fayetteville, NC Michael Coleman - Mayor of Columbus, Ohio Sports & Athletics Arther Ashe * - Tennis Kenny Lofton - Baseball J.J. Birden - Football Wilt Chamberlain - Basketball Gayle Sayers - Football Jon Drummond - "The basic idea is that you can't shoot an app," Tell says. Their intolerance toward Blacks fueled the negative mindset of other Whites residing there. Bennie Thompson had 40 receiving yards over his career. When Thompson and Flowers faced off in 2020, Thompson ended up winning by more than 30%. "Just like Mississippi, there's the white side of the story and there's the black side and they don't necessarily agree," Thompson says. The panels investigators interviewed technology industry executives and law enforcement and intelligence officials, along with Trump aides and Republican election officials. Fraternities and sororities have been an integral part of collegiate life since the establishment of colleges and universities in America. "Emmett was murdered because of racial hatred," says Gordon-Taylor. Jeffries office did not make the congressman available for an interview for this story. All Rights Reserved. In the US, Facebooks Samidh Chakrabarti, then the product lead for the US election, suggested forming a working group to study the torrent of election delegitimizing content on Facebook. Guy Rosen, Facebooks chief information security officer who was running the companys safety and integrity efforts at the time, told Chakrabarti that even studying the problem would just create momentum and expectation for action that he didnt support. In a previous Web version of this story, we incorrectly said the Mississippi Delta is in the northeast part of the state. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? The idealist, John Milton Lee also contributed significantly to the fledgling organization. "Kappa Alpha Psi", "KA", and the Coat of Arms of Kappa Alpha Psi are registered trademarks of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. But again, I didnt tear up the place because I cast a vote.. His 43 years of public service is a testament to his The Founders sought one anothers company between classes and dropped by one anothers places of lodging to further discuss the means of formulating the fledgling fraternity in an effort to relieve the depressing isolation. Judge: Former California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes not defamed by Esquires Iowa farm story ), When Espy was selected by President Bill Clinton to serve as secretary of agriculture in early 1993, Thompson ran in the special election to fill the vacant seat. 37 46 37 37. Read More: America Loves to Celebrate Firsts Like Hakeem Jeffries. Join our linker program. Through its worldwide prominence, Kappa Alpha Psi has had a global impact on events which affect our local communities as well as places around the globe. Although two Republicans sit on the panel, they have largely been excommunicated from their own party, and Thompson has the unenviable task of ensuring the work of the committee is not seen as politically motivated. The report covers the shortfalls of other platforms, including mainstream companies such as Googles YouTube and Reddit Inc. as well as those with a smaller user base such as Parler Inc. and Gab. But the local chapter president has reached out to Memorial Commission Executive Director Patrick Weems, who welcomes a dialogue.

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