The state of Indiana became the 19th state of the Union in 1816 and it founded Indiana University in Bloomington four years later. Politics | 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. Congressman Bennie G. Thompson is a firm believer of giving back to those whom afforded him an opportunity to serve. The obligation to become engaged in the college or university community. It's also available for basketball, baseball and hockey. Web6-0 , 210lb (183cm, 95kg) Born: February 10 in New Orleans, LA (Age: 60-069d) More bio, uniform, draft, salary info. In a video posted last year to his Kappa Alpha Psi chapters Instagram, Jeffries said he was grateful to Cordero for appointing him president of his pledge classwhich preceded his eventual election to lead the whole chapter. The University of Mississippi fraternity brothers who posed with guns at the bullet-pocked marker were suspended by the Kappa Alpha Order, an organization that glorifies the Confederate South. 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.. Pi Kappa Phi is the only Greek organization which owns its own philanthropy. He calls commemorative sites like signs and monuments the new lunch counters. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. A segregated pool was closed, and land was repurposed to build a new municipal building. When Rep. Some of Till's relatives will be a part of the ceremony. 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. 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. A bullet-riddled sign that once marked where Emmett Till's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River is now housed at the Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Miss. All five members of Mississippis U.S. congressional delegation other than Thompson are Republicans. Even so, the site draws attention and visitors, like one couple from Brooklyn on a civil rights road trip through the South. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Two of these men, Elder Watson Diggs and Byron Kenneth Armstrong, had previously attended Howard University and had come into contact with men belonging to the only national Black Greek-Letter Fraternity currently in existence. That is not who we want to be.". Serving his 13th Once every year, the group meets in the District of Columbia tounderstand current legislation that affects members of our communities, and to develop talking points and plans of action for engaging elected representatives in the House, the Senate, and respective state assemblies, and local city halls. Denied an abortion, woman tells senators she nearly died on their watch 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. As our world constantly changes, we must develop our policy stances to modern advancement to bring our world closer together; our nation increasingly faces the factors affecting and influencing our societys melting pot. 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. 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. (In the 1985 Esquire interview, Thompson said he didnt think that he was the right piece of equipment for the job of congressman. Thompson became chair of the Homeland Security Committee in 2007 and introduced legislation implementing the remaining recommendations provided by the 9/11 Commission. WebOne of the 5 Objectives of the Fraternity is: To promote the spiritual, social, intellectual and moral welfare of members. Many aspects of the Fraternitys rites are engrained in Christianity ideals and contain excerpts from the Bible. The following is a transcript of an interview with Representative Bennie Thompson that aired Sunday, January 23, 2022, on "Face the Nation." They were also notorious for discriminating against Black students. For their works to establish the fraternity, Diggs was named permanent chairman, Lee was designated as secretary and Armstrong as sergeant-at-arms. The district includes most of Jackson and is the only majority-black district in the state. Over the past year, Thompsons new committee has proceeded at a rapid clip, as members issue dozens of subpoenas, conduct depositions, review thousands of pages of documents, and gather additional evidence. Most of them were working their way through school. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? 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. 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. Since the beginning, every endeavor was directed toward establishing the Fraternity upon a strong foundation before embarking on plans of expansion. The college provided him with the framework to understand the structural racism that underpinned life in Mississippiwhy his side of town had no sidewalks or spaces for recreation, why his schools textbooks were secondhand and out of date. WebRate This Fraternity. Milam (left) and Roy Bryant sit with their wives, Juanita Milam (second from left) and Carolyn Bryant, in September 1955. When Rep. Local chapters of Kappa Alpha Psi participate in community outreach activities to feed the homeless, provide scholarships to young people matriculating to college, serve as mentors to young men, participate in blood drives and serve as hosts of seminars for public health awareness to name a few. Emmett Till's killers J.W. These incidents caused the Founders to change the name of the Fraternity. The duty to lead and the privilege to serve others in order to better the world around you. Do you have a sports website? But telling his story in the Mississippi Delta remains fraught. He plans to donate a long-term lease to better protect the site. Committee members including Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff pushed back and said such a decision had not been made yet. "And they cured him of his problems.". 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. But, although he has had his fair share of big-name interviews, Thompson has maintained a relatively low profile. He wrote the legislation creating the National Center for Minority Health and Health Care Disparities in 2000 and advocated for federal funds to be properly allocated after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, as well as calling for greater oversight and reform of federal agencies that managed the aftermath of the crisis. "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.". His district encompasses Happy Black History Month! And so in this moment, as he chairs the January 6 [committee], the importance of holding people accountable for the insurrectionist acts on our nations Capitolif we dont hold people accountable, he clearly understands it only opens the door for more acts of domestic terrorism.. Triangle. Subscribe to Stathead Football: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Pro Football Reference Database. 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.. H cuRRenT membeRs H Bennie Thompson 1948 united states representative democrat from mississippi 1993 "So it's not just history," he says. Both Facebook and Twitter faced significant headwinds in taking aggressive action against problematic content by President Trump and his supporters, partly out of fear that they would be classified as overly partisan, according to the report. 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. It's part of our culture. The Mississippi congressmans long struggle for civil rights is culminating with his role atop the January 6 committee. 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. The historic marker was taken down after three white fraternity brothers from the University of Mississippi were pictured holding guns next to the sign. A memorial first installed in 2008 to mark the spot where 14-year-old Emmett Till was recovered from the Tallahatchie River in 1955 has been repeatedly vandalized shot through with bullet holes. 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. Hakeem Jeffries at a Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Binghamton Alumni Chapter and Mu Kappa Undergraduate Chapter meeting in 1991. The administration maintained an attitude of indifference, as Blacks slowly matriculated and were likewise swiftly forgotten. His net worth is estimated to be around $1.6 million US dollars. The panels investigators interviewed technology industry executives and law enforcement and intelligence officials, along with Trump aides and Republican election officials. Thompson has been the lone Democrat in Mississippis congressional delegation since 2011. 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. But the local chapter president has reached out to Memorial Commission Executive Director Patrick Weems, who welcomes a dialogue. Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Favorite Healthcare Staffing. The Bryant's Grocery building is in ruins, overtaken by trees and vines. One of the 5 Objectives of the Fraternity is: To promote the spiritual, social, intellectual and moral welfare of members. Many aspects of the Fraternitys rites are engrained in Christianity ideals and contain excerpts from the Bible. A replica of Bryant's Grocery is part of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center Museum in Glendora, Miss. What do they teach their fraternity members? As fraternity president, Jeffries coordinated and emceed the Mu Kappa chapters fashion show fundraiser. 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. Membership into these organizations were typically White Only.. 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. Charter Line Spring 1979 Rutgers University! Bennie Thompson Family And Net Worth. I call him a quiet giant. Hes someone who can walk in the room without saying things, but he makes you feel secure and comfortable, said Representative Joyce Beatty, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Some of the topics discussed at the annual James "Biff" Carter Legislative Conference include immigration policy, criminal justice reform, voting rights, and United States Supreme Court vacancies. He was very good at it. Blacks could go weeks without seeing one another on campus. The event was originally conceived by James T. Carter Jr. (Xi, 1948), a retired teacher from the DC public school system, who became an aide to Congressman Conyers. "Emmett was murdered because of racial hatred," says Gordon-Taylor. Politics | With assistance from Sarah Frier, Alex Barinka and Emily Birnbaum. Bolton, Mississippi benniethompson.house.gov Born January 28 Joined October 2009 562 97.2K Followers Replies Media Pinned Tweet Hes all about getting the job done, said Representative Ritchie Torres, the vice chair of the Homeland Security Committee. To combat the repeated attacks by vandals, he has helped the Memorial Commission create a smartphone app called the Emmett Till Memory Project a virtual tour including pictures, documents, and maps. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Rep. Sanford However, few Blacks could remain longer than a year or so without having to withdraw in search of employment. For a long time, Thompson says, people didn't talk about Till's lynching. "I think all these folks are stirring crap up," he says. And the one person who can manage it, who is uniquely equipped to manage it, is Bennie Thompson.. 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. He lives in Sumner, Miss., where the two men who killed Till were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury, only to confess to the killing when they sold their story to Look Magazine months later. Kappa Alpha Psi, now comprised of functioning Undergraduate and Alumni Chapters on major campuses and in cities throughout the country, is the crystallization of a dream. Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., testifies before the House Rules Committee on Dec. 14, 2021. Power always changes hands, and Republicans are widely expected to retake the House in the midterm elections. Politics | What is their social impact to their community?" Mississippi continues to face tremendous challenges as we confront our health care needs. On January 5, 1911, the Fraternity then became known as Kappa Alpha Nu, possibly as a tribute to the Black students of 1903 (the Alpha Kappa Nu Greek Society) who preceded them at Indiana University. Civil rights tour guide Jessie Jaynes-Diming stands on the banks of the Tallahatchie River, one of several Emmett Till Memorial sites that local officials are trying to have protected under the National Park Service. 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. The name was officially changed to Kappa Alpha Psi on a resolution adopted at the Grand Chapter Meeting in December 1914. Who are bound together in a common loyalty, Who realize that membership means personal responsibility, Who bring credit to the fraternity by striving to attain, Who safeguard the reputation of their chapter, Who prepare themselves diligently to shoulder their. 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. Blacks were not allowed to reside in on-campus dormitories, were not afforded off-campus accommodations, and they were also denied the use of all other university facilities, and were barred from participating in contact sports. Debbie Elliott/NPR Debbie Elliott/NPR Bennie combines the wisdom, judgment, patience, and good humor necessary to guide our committee at this historic moment, she said. Diggs presided as president, while Irvin was assigned as temporary secretary of Alpha Omega. hide caption. Hes one of the few people in politics who has no ego. She says the repeated vandalism just adds more pain. All of a sudden, there was a part of the campus that just didnt know that we even existed, and then we were like the Beatles on campus, Cordero says. The Kappa Alpha Psi Legislative Conference, as it was originally named, was established by Congressman John Conyers (Gamma Eta, 1951) in 2002. It Doesnt Always Make It Easy for Them to Lead. The ideals of the church were an important foundation of the Fraternity. "It would be the same thing if I had a Bible up there, or if I had the flag up there and you shot it up," she says. Happy Founders Day to the men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. You would be hard-pressed to find somebody whos a member of a Black Greek letter organization who talks about it in the past tense.. The percentage of Blacks on campus was less than 1%. Born: Today, the building is in ruins, overtaken by trees and vines. Bennie G. Thompson @BennieGThompson. A "private property" sign posted out front is barely visible. The Bennie Thompson Affair. Bennie was always like a grown-up, said Oleta Fitzgerald, now the Southern regional director of Childrens Defense Fund, but once a classmate of Thompsons at Tougaloo College. Politics | Troy Carter of Louisiana got to Congress in 2021, he and Jeffries joked about how they would work on growing their ranks in Congress. Former members of Congress who were Kappas include Alcee Hastings of Florida, Don McEachin of Virginia, and Louis Stokes of Ohio, who helped lay the foundation of the Congressional Black Caucus. Jeffries and Ervin Graves at a Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Binghamton Alumni Chapter and Mu Kappa Undergraduate Chapter meeting in 1991. The event also creates opportunities for community leaders in the fraternity to meet with, and hear from current members of the House and Senate, who are also members of the fraternity. Emmett Till's killers J.W. Instagram/Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, 6 Decades Later, Acquittal Of Emmett Till's Killers Troubles Town, Emmett Till's Cousin On Reopening Of Case: 'An Opportunity For The Truth To Be Told', Fraternity Suspends Students Who Posed In Front Of Emmett Till Memorial With Guns, A Brutal Lynching And A Possible Confession, Decades Later, Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation in Chicago. Primarily, under the efforts and leadership of the calm, methodical, and philosophical Elder W. Diggs and the critical, and scholarly Byron K. Armstrong, the Kappa Alpha Nu Fraternity was founded. Three college students posed in front of the Emmett Till memorial sign in Tallahatchie County, Miss. Bennie Thompson was born on February 10, 1963. "People only in closed circles whispered about the atrocities of the death," he says. Trump hasnt tweeted since his initial suspension after his supporters attacked the US Capitol two years ago. 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. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Spring 1990. Guy Levis Grant, Edward Giles Irvin, and Sgt. Major cities like Detroit and New York donated firetrucks and garbage trucks. Track and Field was the only sport which Blacks were able to demonstrate their athleticism. Henry Tourner Asher, Dr. Marcus Peter Blakemore, Paul Waymond Caine, George Wesley Edmonds, Dr. 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. Some people are possessed with a preternatural sense of purpose, a seriousness that lends them an air of gravitas even at a young age. (It was also where he met his wife of more than 50 years, London.). Morse says that for decades, there has been a reluctance to draw attention to the building. Tougaloo helped me make the connection of how that develops. For Thompson, one of the honors of his committee chairmanship is in showing that the son of man who never votedwho couldnt vote in the apartheid state of Jim Crow Mississippican lead the investigation uncovering the truths of a dark day in U.S. history. Mississippi social justice consultant Susan Glisson, who has also been working with the Memorial Commission, says the persistent vandalism sends a clear message. Grace Segers is a staff writer at The New Republic. For many of them, joining Kappa Alpha Psi represented a lifetime commitment to leadership and social change. When the Mississippi State Highway Patrol set up roadblocks to harass Black citizens during voter registration drives while he was in office, Thompson recalled to me, he took them to court. We present them here for purely educational purposes. WebOne of the 5 Objectives of the Fraternity is: To promote the spiritual, social, intellectual and moral welfare of members. Many aspects of the Fraternitys rites are engrained in 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. He didn't die in vain, and he triggered, I believe, the civil rights movement.". That pattern is set to repeat this year, with Nancy Pelosi stepping down as House Speaker to make room at the top for Jeffries, while sticking around to help guide the 52-year-old as he manages the caucus. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Thompson, who grew up in a small Mississippi community in 1971, sympathized with the group known as the Republic of New Africa, participating in a news conference blaming law enforcement for instigating clashes with the group which led to a dead police officer and a wounded FBI agent. The James "Biff" Carter Legislative Conference (aka "Kappas on Capitol Hill") brings together members of Kappa Alpha Psi to effect meaningful change. the highest possible standards of scholarship; Who safeguard the reputation of their chapter Kappa Alpha Psi, a college Fraternity, was born in an environment saturated in racism. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that Trumps former lawyer must turn over a trove of documents, also concluding in his decision that the former president more likely than not attempted to illegally obstruct the counting of electoral votes.
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