Members Of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. Wearing One Or More Kente Cloth Stole/s With Their Graduation Cap & Gown

D'Andre Stewart, Jun 12, 2019

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me along the way. On May 5th, I received my Bachelors of Arts in Environmental & Sustainability. This is chapter performance we did after 2 other brothers and myself crossed the stage. I’ll continue to vlog it just won’t be college vlogs anymore for now!

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision: March 13, 2022

This pancocojams post showcases videos of  some members of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. wearing one or more kente cloth stole/s with their graduation cap and gown.

The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to all those who published these videos on YouTube.
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A pancocojams post on this subject has been published for each of the "Divine Nine" historically Black Greek letter organizations. Click the "kente cloth graduation stole" tag below or click the name of the historically Black Greek letter organization in the tags below to find the pancocojams post on this subject that showcases videos of that paticular Black Greek letter organization wearing kente graduation stoles and/or another type of kente stole during university graduations.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series about kente cloth graduation stoles. 

Kente cloth is a traditional fabric of the Akan people of Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo West Africa. The custom in the United States of African Americans wearing kente cloth as stoles during graduation (particularly from universities, but sometimes also from high school and from middle school) is an adaptation of the ways that kente was traditionally worn. Since 2012, it has become customary for many African Americans who are graduating from universities (colleges) to wear a particular design of kente cloth stoles that has a green, gold, red, and black color combination. Because those are the colors for the Pan-African flag, I refer to this kente graduation stole as the "pan-African kente graduation stole".

Members of historically Black Greek letter fraternities or sororities (regardless of their race or ethnicity) may wear customized kente cloth stoles instead of or along with the green, gold, red, and black kente graduation stole. The customized stoles have the two colors that represent that Greek letter organization and also include that organization's name an Greek letters. Graduates who wear the pan-African kente graduation stole and/or their fraternity or sorority's customized kente stole may also wear other academic stoles that they have earned. Much less frequently, kente cloth stoles may be worn by Black graduates in the United States at other levels such as children graduating from elementary school or teenagers graduating from high school.

The green, gold, red, and black pan-African kente cloth graduatation stole seems to be the standard kente graduation stole for African Americans as a whole since at least 2012. It appears to be customary for some members of historically Black Greek letter organizations who are graduating from a university to also wear a customized stole for their fraternity or sorority as well as any academic stole that they have earned in addition to or in place of that pan-African kente graduation stole. The customized fraternity or sorority kente graduation stoles have that organization's two colors, the organization's name, and its three Greek letters (such as Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. (ΙΦΘ). 

I've been watching YouTube videos of historically Black Greek letter organizations searching for examples of kente cloth stoles that are worn by members of those fraternities/sororities. I haven't found any videos that show kente stoles being worn by members of those historically Black Greek letter organizations other than for their university graduation ceremony and their stepping, strolling, hopping, singing performances immediately afterwards.* Prior to around 2010 or 2011 members of historically Black Greek letter organizations wore customized graduation stoles made out of some shiny materials [?] or made out of cloth. Graduation stoles made out of kente cloth began to be seen in those videos from 2010 or 2011** on, although those customized graduation stoles made from other fabrics appear to still be worn by some members of those historically Black Greek organizations (BGLOs).
Starting in 2012, a  number of YouTube videos can be found of members of historically Black fraternities/sororities wearing what I refer to as the pan-African kente cloth graduation stole starting in 2012.  
*If you know of any examples of customized kente stoles being worn by members of historically Black Greek letter organizations other than as graduation stoles, please share that information in this post's comment section below. Thanks!
** 2010 is the earliest year that I found for members of historically Black Greek letter organizations wearing customized kente cloth graduation stoles. The earliest YouTube video that I've found that shows a member of a historically Black fraternity/sorority wearing a customized kente graduation stole is Delta Sigma Theta (video published August 10, 2010) https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-delta-sigma-theta.html . 

Two other early examples of kente cloth graduation stoles are Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and kente cloth graduation stoles  (video published in May 2011)
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-phi-beta-sigma.html and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity- published in June 2011).  
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-omega-psi-phi-fratrnity.html

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-color-combinations-for-kente-cloth.html  for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "How The Color Combinations For Kente Cloth Stoles Have Changed For African American Graduating Students." That post provides more descriptions of the pan-African kente cloth graduation stole.

Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/black-university-graduates-in-united.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Black Fraternity & Sorority Tradition Of Strolling During Or After A University Graduation Ceremony". That 2018 post provides information about the historically Black Greek letter organizations traditions of stepping and strolling .

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ADDITIONAL SHOWCASE VIDEOS

These are the YouTube videos that I found which met my criteria for this pancocojams post (i.e. members of  Iota Phi Theta Fraternity wearing one or more kente cloth stole/s with their graduation cap and gown). 

These videos are given in chronological order (except video #1) and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

SHOWCASE VIDEO #2: Iota Phi Theta - Centaur Walk & UF Graduation Fall 2010

tonystark1963, May 6, 2010

My Fall 2010 graduation & another brother at the University of Florida (Gamma Omicron Chapter). We also did the Centaur Walk after.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: 

UAlbany Iotas, May 23, 2017

On behalf of the brothers of the Delta Rho "DeathRow" Chapter of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc. , we would like to congratulate brothers Jarius Jemmott, Matthew Sierra, Richard Ogarro, Nathan Honegan, Cameron Crawley and Nicholas Reyes for graduating SUNY Albany with their Bachelor's Degrees. Keep paving the way brothers. OW OW!

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