Non-Blacks In Historically Black Greek-Letter Fraternities & Sororities (2009 Book excerpt, chapter written by Dr. Matthew W. Hughley)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is part of a new ongoing pancocojams series on non-Black members of historically Black Greek lettered fraternities and sororities.

This post provides an excerpt from the Google review of the 2009 book Brothers and Sisters: Diversity in College Fraternities and Sororities edited by Craig LaRon Torbenson and Gregory Parks. The portion of the book that is quoted was written by Matthew W. Hughey.

The Addendum of this post provides a partial list of the first non-Black members of the Divine Nine (historically Black Greek Letter Organizations BGLOs), using information that is given in this post and information that I've found online. Please help to complete this list.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Dr. Matthew W. Hughey and all others who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Dr. Matthew W. Hughey is a White member of the historically black Greek-letter organization, Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. He pledged and “crossed over” to that fraternity in 1996 while he was a student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughey

Click the "non-Black members of Black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs)" for subsequent posts in this pancocojams series.

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REVIEW OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS: DIVERSITY IN COLLEGE FRATERNITIES AND SORORITIES
Edited by Craig LaRon Torbenson, Gregory Parks (Associated University Presse, 2009 - Education - 320 pages)
From https://books.google.com/books?id=lJ0hFQlKx4oC&dq=Gregory+Parks+white+Alphas&source=gbs_navlinks_s
"The 1950s are arguably the watershed era in the civil rights movement with the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, and the desegregation of Little Rock (Arkansas) High School in 1957. It was during this period--1955 to be exact--that sociologist Alfred M. Lee published his seminal work Fraternities without Brotherhood: A Study of Prejudice on the American Campus. Lee's book was the first and last book to explore diversity within college fraternal groups. More than fifty years later, Craig L. Torbenson and Gregory S. Parks revisit this issue more broadly in their edited volume Brothers and Sisters: Diversity in College Fraternities and Sororities. This volume draws from a variety of disciplines in an attempt to provide a holistic analysis of diversity within collegiate fraternal life. It also brings a wide range of scholarly approaches to the inquiry of diversity within college fraternities and sororities. It explores not only from whence these groups have come but where they are currently situated and what issues arise as they progress."

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GOOGLE BOOK CHAPTER EXCERPT: "Crossing The Sand: NonBlacks In Black Greek-Letter Organizations" from the 2009 book Brothers And Sisters: Diversity In College Fraternities And Sororities
[chapter author] Matthew W. Hughey

[page 258]

[...]

The first collegiate fraternity for African American men still exists today. Alpha Phi Alpha was established in 1906 at Cornell University. However, like their white counterparts, fraternities for nonwhite groups often excluded students who were not members of their particular racial group. Accordingly, when questioned about the need for fraternities for nonwhite students in 1949, Alpha Phi Alpha president Wilbert Whisett responded “If we are not permitted to join other fraternities, we must form a fraternity of our own. We have no other choice. “ E. Franklin Frazier affirms in Black Bourgeoise that BGLOs were founded in direct response to the refusal to allow blacks to join white Greek organizations. So too, Swedish economist Gunner Myrdal, in his classic study An American Dilemma remarked that “America has an unusual proliferation of social clubs, recreational organizations, lodges, fraternities and sororities…. Despite the fact that they are predominately lower class Negroes are more inclined to join associations than are white….in this respect, Negroes are “exaggerated” Americans…With rare exceptions, these associations have only Negroes as members, and their large number is in some measure a product of the prohibitions against having Negroes as members of white organizations.

While Myrdal praised black fraternal organizations for their “exaggerated” Americanness of civic participation, he went on to decry black fraternal organizations as “pathological” and “a poor substitute [for] political activity”. Sadly ironic, he missed how BGLOs were vehicles for political and social change. Skocpol, Liazos, and Ganz argue “To gain critical leverage against US white racism and build as much black solidarity as possible…African American fraternalists have always been internationalists. They became human rights universalists, as it were, long before this stance was fashionable…and thus enhanced the power and dignity of appeals for racial equality inside the United States.” Accordingly, while many white Greek organizations were excluding black members, BGLOs were breaking the color-line. Even though BGLOs were either changing their constitutions early on in

[259]

their organizational history, or never possessed racial restrictive clauses, nonblack membership (especially for whites) was often framed as a taboo topic. Walter Kimbrough writes “Whites who goes against the grain of societal norms and seek membership in groups founded to serve the Black community. This is definitely a controversial subject”.

Instances in nonblack membership in BGLOs started to make headlines in the 1940s. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity pledged Bernard Levin, a senior at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry on June 21, 1946. “Pledging a white student, the opposition maintained, would violate an ancient Alpha tradition of seeking recruits from the cream of college-bred Negroes. Supporters of the admission of Bernard Levin attacked these arguments as smug bigotry. To oppose reaction of an interracial fraternity amounted to justifying Jim Crow, they said. After hours of heated wrangling, the interracialists finally triumphed and Levin was pledged. In 1949 Mrs. Marjorie T. Ware and Miss Olive Young became the first two white women into Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Both members attributed their choice of membership in the black sorority to their belief in human rights and racial integration. In 1953 at the University of Kansas, a white man named Roger L Youmans pledged Alpha Phi Alpha and moved into the fraternity house during the next fall semester. After Youmans gained media attention for his move, a cross was burned in the front lawn of the fraternity house.

Chi Delta Mu (one of the first BGLOs, no longer exists today), along with Omega Psi Phi fraternity at Howard University, admitted white members in 1949. In 1954 at Philander Smith College, Georg Iggers (who fled Nazi Germany when he was twelve years old when the German army began rounding up Jewish citizens to put in concentration camps) became the first white member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. Five years later in 1959 at the Omega Psi Phi conference, Herbert F. Tucker, the assistant attorney general of Massachusetts, urged all BGLOs to encourage interracial membership and challenged the members in attendance by stating “Negro fraternities had only token white membership.” These patterns of sporadic nonblack membership continued into more recent years. As a corollary to the University of Alabama (UA) attempts at cross-racial membership that were discussed in the preceding section, several BGLOs have succeeded in obtaining white membership before the aforementioned Twilley, Johnson, and Houston examples at UA. In 1986 a white student made headlines when she joined the UA chapter of Zeta Phi Beta sorority at UA. In 1987, Mark Brafford became a white member of Zeta Phi Beta’s brother organization-Phi Beta Sigma. Jeff Choron became a white member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at the UA in 1990 because he felt “they were more tolerant, because differences are to be

[260] This page is not part of this [Google book] review.

[261]
“Most people didn’t want me to be part of the chapter. They didn’t want to be known as the ones who allowed a White soror to slip in”. Davina Brown, a black member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority remarked “we service the special needs of our black communities- it just makes me uncomfortable in knowing that, here again, is a tradition that is slowly being taken away from us. Yet, Lawrence C. Ross, Jr, author of The Divine Nine, argues that the fear of whites taking over BGLOs is unfounded and almost impossible, and that even though white membership in BGLOs has grown, it is far from a “white stampede”. Accordingly, a white professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, Jere Robinson, pledged Omega Psi Phi in 1977 and stated that his fraternity brothers “made me feel at home, comfortable, and happy.” Many feel that contemporary racial politics would be an impediment to cross-racial amity due to prejudicial attitudes based on white stereotypes. However, Damian L Duchamp, who became a white member of Phi Beta Sigma at Clemson University in 1997 stated “Some of my brothers would say that I’m the Whitest gay they know…I grew up in a very Caucasian environment.“

Despite these differences, most white BGLO members report substantial accord and unity. Writing in the Cornell Sun online discussion forum in conjunction with the one-hundredth year anniversary of Alpha Phi Alpha, White Alpha member Karl Rainhold stated “While it would be understandable if I were not well received amongst the ranks of the organization given the still persistent divisions and inequities in our society today, my experience for the last 15 years has been quite to the contrary. Does it raise eyebrows? Yes, but not with the feelings of animosity or exclusion, only curiosity at the visual singularity of my presence. I am welcomed and embraced as a Brother in the organization, an inspiring testament to working by example, fellowship, and brotherhood, without preoccupation or undue regard to my racial or cultural background.”...

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ADDENDUM- PARTIAL LIST: NAMES & DATES FOR THE FIRST NON-BLACK MEMBERS OF THE DIVINE NINE ORGANIZATIONS
As a means of making this information easier to find, as of this date, here are the names that I've found for the first non-Black members of the historically Black Greek letter organizations that are informally known as the Divine Nine (along with the date they joined their organization and where they pledged). [given in chronological order]

Unless otherwise noted, this information is given in the chapter that is quoted in this post.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity - Bernard Levin (June 21, 1946)

Omega Psi Phi Fraternity - (name not given in chapter quoted above) - 1949 [Howard University?]

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority - Mrs. Marjorie T. Ware and Miss Olive Young, 1949 [Howard University?]

Zeta Phi Beta sorority - (name not given in chapter quoted above), 1986 [University of Alabama]

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity - Georg Iggers, 1954, Philander Smith College, 1987 [University of Alabama]

Delta Sigma Theta - Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (1962, Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi). http://www.watchtheyard.com/deltas/joan-mulholland-delta-sigma-theta-white-member/

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Please add to this list sharing the names of the first non-Black members of the historically Black Greek letter organizations that aren't listed here yet. Corrections are welcome. Thanks!

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority

Iota Phi Theta Fraternity

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