AKAs reverse course on protest clothing mandate

The mandates made national headlines and enraged members, many of whom had been on the front line of national protests.

Wilson’s letter stated:

“We expect our members to be actively involved in solving the social justice issues raised by those cases. The immediate response throughout the country has been to protest, march, and/or rally. We strongly support and encourage our members’ peaceful and lawful participation in these activities and as such, we issued guidelines for participation in these events.

We do not want to be distracted from our mission of fighting for justice and equality for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Dontre Hamilton, and the countless other young black men across the country victimized by a criminal justice system that places little value in their lives. However, it appears the request to refrain from wearing the sorority’s letters has become a distraction and a distortion of the sorority’s position on these issues that is diverting attention and effort away from the broader fight to secure social justice and reform.

We are therefore relaxing our original position on the wearing of Alpha Kappa Alpha paraphernalia and attire.”

As of Thursday afternoon neither the Deltas nor SGR had announced any changes to their original mandate. In the wake of the Brown and Garner grand jury decisions, Zeta Phi Beta, the fourth national black sorority, encouraged their members to become socially active.

Original Version

Identified simply as Queen K., she delivered the most rousing speech of the night, urging the protesters to transfer the pain they were feeling into positive, aggressive action. She wore a red sweatshirt, with a white pyramid on it, easily identifiable to anybody familiar with black Greek culture as a symbol of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

A week later, a Dallas newspaper ran a front page photo – it quickly went viral — of a Delta getting arrested at a rally protesting the choking death of Eric Garner.

In response to the Dallas incident – and the growing presence of black Greeks taking part in protest rallies – Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. (AKA), and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., each sent out notices to their members this week urging them not to wear sorority paraphernalia during the protests of police killings of unarmed black men.

The AKAs, the country's oldest black sorority, sent an email saying sisters could wear the sorority colors of pink and green at protests but asked them to "refrain" from wearing any sorority "paraphernalia."

The Deltas — the largest black sorority, fresh off of its centennial — posted a similar prohibition on their organization's website. They all cite legal liabilities behind the bans.

Calls to each organization were not returned Wednesday, but each group had previously come out against the two grand jury decisions.

But they are still under fire from some of their own members, offended that they are being asked to distance themselves from their organizations and reject the fundamental values of social activism and racial progress on which the organizations were founded more than a century ago.

Especially at a time when African-Americans – all over the country – are mobilizing to respond to one of the most volatile civil rights issues of this generation. In Atlanta, which has a sizable black Greek population, several members have been highly visible at protests, rallies and "die-ins" wearing their letters.

In an email posted on TheRoot.com Tamura Lomax, a Delta and co-founder of The Feminist Wire, voiced her frustrations.

“I’ve always been extremely proud that Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. was born in protest and stood on not only the front lines of the Women’s Suffrage Parade in 1913, but the March on Washington in 1963.”

Lawrence Ross, author of "The Divine Nine: The History of African-American Fraternities and Sororities," said he didn't see the message as discouraging activism, but he said he had a problem with the request to no wear letters.

“On a legal and technical sense they may be absolutely correct, but there is a disconnect with understanding what your body is actually saying and doing,” Ross said. “This is not about posting something on Facebook and calling it activism. This is about folks saying ‘enough’ and a tipping point where people are going to protest.”

Ross said he pledged Alpha Phi Alpha in large part because as a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, the brothers led the campus’ South African anti-apartheid movement. He said black Greek organizations can’t market their historical goals, principles and history, while trying to disassociate themselves from legitimate controversy.

“On a regular basis, members at step shows do more damage to us than any protest we have ever seen,” Ross said. “We forget sometimes that social action is messy, loud and angry.”

A famous photograph of Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, Hosea Williams and Jesse Jackson – taken on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel shortly before King was killed – is often memed to illustrate that they each are members of the four major black fraternities.

Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King were members of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Fannie Lou Hamer was a Delta. As is Myrlie Evers-Williams.

Queen K., who disrupted Attorney General Eric Holder’s speech last week at Ebenezer Baptist Church, has been relatively quiet on the issue.

“People should learn to still remain powerful, even when told no,” she said. “No one should ever stop you from stating your opinions. Even when they tell you no.”

Asked if she would wear a Delta sweater at any of the upcoming rallies she and her group are planning, Queen K. paused then laughed.

“If that is what I have on that day that is what I am wearing,” she said. “I am still trying to take it all in.”