Brothers, February is Black History Month, Americans have recognized black history annually since 1926, first as “Negro History Week” and later as “Black History Month”. What you may not know is that Black history had barely begun to be studied-or even documented-when the tradition originated. Although Blacks have been in the Americas as far back as colonial times, and even before that. It was not until the 20th century that they gained a respectable presence in the history books. We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people, of all races, participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the largest demonstration in the history of the nation’s capital and the most significant display of the civil rights movement’s growing strength. After marching from the Washington Monument, the activists gathered near the Lincoln Memorial, where a number of civil rights leaders addressed the crowd, calling for voting rights, equal employment opportunities for Blacks and to end racial segregation. “ I have a dream”, King intoned, expressing his faith that one day Whites and Blacks would stand together as equals, and there would be harmony among the races”.
One day after celebrating the birthday of our late brother Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 19, 2008, the nation gathered again on the steps of The Capitol, The Mall and The Lincoln Memorial to witness the inauguration of the first African- American President, Barack Hussein Obama. The general election drew massive crowds, and his message of hope and change embodied by the slogan “Yes We Can” inspired millions of people.
Brothers please continue to be inspired to do the work of Alpha. Our membership is increasing, Brothers, please take the time to welcome our new Brothers to Mu Lambda Chapter and get reacquainted with current members. There are a lot of exciting events coming our way. Brothers continue to hold the light of Alpha high! See you at the next chapter meeting Thursday, February 4th 2010.
• The Executive Message • Alpha Wives Section • Membership News • Black History Month Events • MLK Day Events
• Last Word
• Beautillion Update
• Haitian Relief Efforts
• Black Facts
• Historical Moment
• Birthdays
• The Alpha House
ALPHA WIVES
An Invitation To All Alpha Wives
The Alpha Wives of Washington D.C. Inc. cordially invites wives of Mu Lambda other Alpha chapters to join us in our 60th year of service. Among Alpha Wives’ purposes are to support projects initiated by the Fraternity and to sponsor programs that include cultural, educational and social activities which meet the needs and interests of our members.
Dues are $35/year. For more information: Modestine Lowery (291-3129), Mary Murray (301) 588-4663, or Charlotte Douglass (667-3390).Our Directory is being prepared; any changes or updates should be sent to Modestine Lowery immediately.
Got books around your house? Some for kids? Don't read them? If the answers to these questions are "yes", then you can critically enhance a young boy or girl's educational opportunities in Africa.
Mu Lambda will be collecting old, new, and used books to donate to kids in Africa. Bring books for kids of all ages to each chapter meeting. We will then send the books to a few preselected villages in Ghana that so earnestly desire to read! You can make a difference by simply cleaning out your book shelf.
Goal: 25 books per chapter meeting
Let's be those Alphas that make the world a better place!
Book Launch and Signing
When: Saturday, February 6, 2010 6pm-730pm
Where: Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th Street NW
Brother Rawn M. James, Jr. pledged at Zeta Chapter in Fall of 1995. As a college brother, James served as Assistant Vice-President of the Eastern Region and won the national Belford V. Lawson Oratorical Competition in 1997. Currently a member of Mu Lambda, Brother James graduated from Yale University and Duke Law School and presently work as a Senior Trial Attorney for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
The riveting story of the two crusading lawyers who led the legal battle to end segregation, one case and one courtroom at a time.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education is widely considered a seminal point in the battle to end segregation, but it was in fact the culmination of a decades-long legal campaign. Root and Branch is the epic story of the two fiercely dedicated lawyers who led the fight from county courthouses to the marble halls of the Supreme Court, and, in the process, laid the legal foundations of the civil rights movement.
Charles Hamilton Houston was the pioneer: After becoming the first African-American on the Harvard Law Review, he transformed the law school at allblack Howard University into a West Point for civil rights advocacy.
Houston, tragically, would die before his strategy came to fruition in the Brown suit, but Marshall would argue the case victoriously and go on to become the first African-American Supreme Court justice always crediting his mentor for teaching him everything he knew. Together, the two advocates changed the course of American history.
Membership News
Brother Mario Simpson earns Masters in Engineering Management from George Washington University in December. His undergraduate degree is in Electric Engineering from the University of Rochester. He joined our Band of Brothers in the fall of 2005 through Upsilon Gamma Lambda Chapter in Boston. He ran track in college and he enjoys sports and keeping his quads finely tuned. Bro. Simpson is a Senior System Engineer for Raytheon Company, supporting NOAA’s Weather and Science Data Collection Satellite Program. He serves as chapter Archivist and he looks forward to organizing the vast array of records, photos, and the many other historically significant items accumulated since 1923.
February Service Project
Saturday February 6, 2010
We will volunteer at Martha’s Table from 10am-1pm preparing food, packing groceries and doing what ever they need us to do.
Black History Events in Washington
Important Dates
Black History Month
February 1 – 28, 2010
Share Your Love of Nature
This Valentine’s Day, treat your sweetie, friends and loved ones the way you treat nature, with care. February 14, 2010
President’s Day Observed February 15, 2010
National Children’s Dental Health Month February 1 -28, 2010
Washington, DC celebrates Black History Month and remembers the contributions of African Americans in the United States with numerous events and cultural programs. Here are some special events and relevant places to visit in Washington, DC to remember and recognize the history of Black Americans.
Smithsonian Black History Month Family Day Celebration Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. The Smithsonian kicks off its celebration of Black History Month with a day of music and drama performances, arts and craft activities and other themed activities.
National Archives
Celebrate Black History Month in February with special films, public programs, and lectures. These programs are open to the public and will be held at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC and at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
Anacostia Community Museum
The Smithsonian Institution’s museum of African American history and culture offers exhibitions, educational programs, workshops, lectures, film screenings and other special events that interpret black history from the 1800s to the present.
January Service Project at the MLK Library
Brother Justin Davis & MLK coordinator
Brother Larry Davis
Brother Darrell Chase & Joseph Housey
Brother Darrell Chase & a Beau Brothers gather outside of the MLK Library
Photos By Brother Samuel I Armstrong
FIncreasing the Educational Attainment and Performance of Black Males
BY ANTOINE M. GARIBALDI
or the majority of my professional career, the educational attainment and performance of Black students have been primary themes in my research. But over the last three decades, more of my attention has been devoted
experiences as an elementary school teacher, an Urban League Street Academy principal, and an Upward Bound teacher, serving as the chairperson of a 1987 task force to review the status of Black males in the New Orleans Public Schools gave me and my committee the opportunity to take an introspective look at this critical issue and identify more than two dozen solutions.
More than 20 years after the New Orleans study “Educating Black Male Youth: A Moral and Civic Imperative,” Black males have achieved some gains in educational performance and attainment but national data show they are still disproportionately represented in negative indicators such as dropouts, suspensions and expulsions. Also, their numbers in gifted and honors programs and postsecondary institutions remain low. However, colleges and universities can play a major role in increasing the academic achievement and college attendance rates for both Black males and other high school students.
Females as a group exceed the number of males both enrolled in college and graduating with undergraduate and graduate degrees. The attendance gap between Black !002,707 saw
But on a positive note, Black females and males increased their share of bachelor’s degrees by 54.6 percent between 1993-94 and 2003-04. Black females’ share increased by 62.7 percent compared with Black males’ increase of 40.6 percent. Still, Black females earned more master’s degrees than Black males in 2003-2004 (32,453 compared with 13, 017); more doctorates (1,780 compared with 946); and more firstprofessional degrees (3,508 compared with 2,127).
So how can we “scale up” the educational attainment of Black males? First, we must reinforce their academic performance and achievement at every level of the academic continuum. Providing support and encouragement to these young men will motivate them to do well in school and
lead to their matriculation into college and graduate/professional schools. Even more, recognizing their academic achievement serves a dual purpose in dispelling the myth and minimizing the pervasive negative peer pressure that doing well in school is not “cool.” Many are surprised when I tell them Black males scored higher than Black females on the SAT between 2005 and 2007. But I use that statistic to emphasize that Black males have the ability to attend college and that teachers must talk about college with both students and their parents in the elementary grades. As the surveys in the New Orleans Public Schools study confirmed, Black parents share the college aspirations of their children. But they need the assistance of colleges and universities that can host financial aid workshops to show them how a college education is a ordable with federal and state grants, as well as scholarships.
their interest in attending college. Colleges and universities should augment these programs by establishing unique partnerships with elementary and secondary schools, where they can use their students as mentors to convey the benefits of pursuing a bachelor’s degree. Gannon University has
Recognizing their academic achievement serves a dual purpose in dispelling the myth and minimizing the pervasive negative peer pressure that doing well in school is not “cool.”
developed some of these mentoring and high-school-based programs, and there are many local students who will now attend college as a result of participating in our pre-college initiatives.
Improving the educational conditions of Black males is an achievable goal. However, we must remember to acknowledge the educational attainment gains Black males have made over the last two decades and redouble those figures and our e orts to ensure that these young men will succeed at even higher levels.D
Additionally, colleges and universities should develop more pre-college programs to increase the number of college students overall, but particularly Black males. Much of the college enrollment growth of Black students in the 1970s was because of federally funded summer and weekend pre-college enrichment programs such as Upward Bound, Talent Search and others. Those programs have helped to increase students’ academic performance in high school and
— Dr. Antoine M. Garibaldi is the president of Gannon University in Erie, Pa. This column is based on his chapter, “The Educational Status of African American Males in the 21st Century,” which was published in the book Black American Males in Higher Education: Diminishing Proportions. Garibaldi’s chapter was fi rst published in the 75th Anniversary issue of The Journal of Negro Education , a scholarly refereed journal of Howard University, in the summer of 2007.
Beautillion Update
The Beautillion Committee would like to extend a warm and sincere “Thank You” to all of the Brothers who volunteered their services for mentoring this Beautillion season. In the month of February and moving forward this program will focus heavily on Ad Sales and Fundraising. Your assistance with fundraising and/or making personal donations toward this program is greatly appreciated. Please contact a Beautillion Committee member for details regarding Ad Sales, Fundraising or Donations. Our program will continue to have successful growth with the tremendous efforts you put back into our community.
The February academy/workshops schedule will be held every Sunday beginning at 2:45 p.m. and will include the following:
February 7, 2010 – Nutrition / Dance Rehearsal.
February 14, 2010 – No Session -Valentines Day
February 21, 2010 – Morality and Decision Making / Dance Rehearsal.
February 28, 2010 – Presentation of Community Service Project / Dance Rehearsal.
2010 Beautillion Gala
When: Friday, April 16, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Martin’s Crosswind
7400 Greenway Center Dr. Greenbelt, MD
Tickets are now available!
The Beautillion Committee is also asking for the support of ALL Brothers by purchasing a pair of tickets and attending the 2009 –2010 Beautillion. For your convenience the committee has three (3) payment plan options available to assist you with your financial planning this season.
Payment plan options are:
Option #1 - Jewel table ($1000)
First payment in December - $400
Second payment in January - $300
Third payment in February - $300
Fourth payment in March - if needed with remaining balance due.
Option #2 - Standard table ($850)
First payment in December - $300
Second payment in January - $300
Third payment in February - $250
Fourth payment in March - if needed with remaining balance due.
Option #2 - Pair of tickets ($170)
First payment in December - $60
Second payment in January - $60
Third payment in February - $50
Fourth payment in March - if needed with remaining balance due.
As always, we thank you sincerely for your continued support. For details regarding the Beautillion Program and ticket sales, please contact the following Brothers for details:
Brother Mark Ross – 2009 – 2010 Beautillion Chairmen
Brother Kent Benjamin – 2009 – 2010 Beautillion Co-chairman
Email – kabride62@verizon.net
Cell Phone – (703) 401-0888
Haiti Earthquake Relief Organizations Work To Aid Victims
Want to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti? Aid organizations need your assistance but warn that well-intentioned efforts like collecting bottled water and clothing on your own may not be the most helpful thing for a disaster-ravaged country that does not have the infrastructure to distribute them.
Some tips from InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based international non-governmental organizations:
• Donating cash to established relief organizations is the best way to help because it allows professionals to get exactly what they need and does not use up scarce resources such as transportation, staff time or warehouse space.
• If you decide to donate supplies and not cash, contact an established relief organization before you collect anything. If you have already collected items, donate them to a relief organization within your community or sell them at a yard sale or charity auction and donate the proceeds.
• People who want to volunteer should have previous disaster or international experience or technical skills and should work through a relief organization. More information is available from the Center for International Disaster Information, www.cidi.org
Anyone trying to locate family members in Haiti should contact the State Department at (888) 407-4747.
Here is a list of organizations accepting donations:
• InterAction has a list of agencies responding and how to donate to them. Find it here
• American Red Cross Text “HAITI” to “90999″ to make a $10 donation. Phone Number: (800) REDCROSS (733-2767).
• AmeriCares -- AmeriCares gives disaster relief and humanitarian medical aid to people in crisis in the USA and around the world. Phone Number: (800) 486-4357
• Doctors Without Borders has set up teams in Haiti to treat the injured; They are accepting donations to help the effort.
• Haitian League Founded, in 2003, the nonprofit headed by Union Township-based Haitian native is also active in hurricane relief efforts.
• Haiti Solidarity Network A networking organization that brings together Haitians in New Jersey.
• To find out how to help the International Rescue Committee, visit www.theIRC.org or call toll free, 1877-REFUGEE.
• To donate through Oxfam's emergency appeal, visit www.oxfam.org.uk
• UNICEF UNICEF U.S. Fund, which helps children around the world, is accepting donations on their website.
• Yele Haiti The Haitian-born Wyclef Jean, who grew up near East Orange, called the earthquake a "natural disaster of unprecedented proportion," His non-profit is donating $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund to those who text "Yele" to 501501 (the charge appears on your cell phone bill).
• Habitat for Humanity International is addressing shelter solutions for low-income families affected by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti. To lend support, donations are being accepted at www.habitat.org.
• International Medical Corps (800) 481-4462. By mail: International Medical Corps, ATTN: Development Dept., 1919 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 400, Santa Monica, CA 90404.
BLACK FACTS
Eric Holder sworn in as first Black Attorney General of the United States
February 2, 2009
White Supremacist, Byron De La Beckworth
LITTLE KNOWN BLACK HISTORY MOMENT
Oscar Devereaux Micheaux
January 2, 1884 – march 25, 1951 father of the African American cinema
Oscar Micheaux was born in near Metropolis, was finally convicted of killing Medgar Evers, Illinois and grew up in Great Bend, Kansas. One nearly 31 years after Evers was gunned down of eleven children of former slaves. As a young in Jackson, Mississippi. boy, he shined shoes and worked as a porter on February 5, 1994 the railway. As a young man, he successfully homesteaded a farm in an all-white area of South Dakota, where he began writing stories. Micheaux overcame many of the racist attitudes and restrictions on African-American publishers and authors by forming his own publishing company to sell his books door-to-door.
ΑΦΑ Tags for DC, MD & VA
The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity licenses plates for Washington, DC are on the road!!! Brothers interested in acquiring DC tags should contact Bro Arthur King at aking536@aol.com or 202.744.6624.
For Maryland tags contact Brother Vernon Dorkins at (410) 664-0911.
For Virginia tags contact Brother Chuck Johnson at chrlzej06@gmail.
2010 Beautillion Academy February Schedule. Please mark your calendars.
Introduction to Dance February 07
No session this Sunday February 14
Morality & Decision Making February 21
Community Service Project February 28
(Save the date cards and tickets now available)
The advent of the motion picture industry intrigued him as a vehicle to tell his stories. He formed his own movie production company and in 1919, became the first African American to make a film. He wrote, directed and produced the silent motion picture, The Homesteader, starring pioneering African-American actress Evelyn Preer, based on his novel of the same name, he used autobiographical elements in The Exile, his first feature film with sound. In 1924, his film, Body and Soul, introduced the movie going public to Paul Robeson.
The Producers Guild of America called him “The most prolific black – if not the most prolific independent filmmaker in American cinema” During his illustrious career, Oscar Micheaux wrote, produced and directed forty-four feature length films between 1919 and 1948 and wrote seven novels, one of which became a national bestseller.
Micheaux died in 1951 and in 1987, he was honored with a star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame.
Writer, Producer and Director
February Birthdays
Legand L. Burge, III Feb. 05
Wayne Ryan Feb. 07
Orlando Xavier Hixon Feb. 11
Garnett Wood Feb. 14
Sysvester C. Booker Feb. 16
Beautillion Academy is just around the corner
Talmadge Roberts Feb. 16
Zevlin Layeon Staton Feb. 17
Sean L. Ponder Feb. 21
Michael Clarke Feb. 22
George R. Johnson, Jr. Feb. 25
President
2010 Mu Lambda Housing Assessment
Please remember to pay your 2010 Housing Assessment: $50 per chapter meeting (10 meetings) or $500 for the year. Remit to Mu Lambda Foundation, PO Box 4582, Wash., DC 20017-4582
The 2009-2010 Executive Committee
Tim Fitzgerald
301-332-7507 timfitz06@comcast.net
Vice President Reginald Salter 301-379-6102 rsalterdds@aol.com
Recording Secretary Sean Bellamy 336-575-7677 sean.bellamy@dc.gov
Treasurer Mark Ross 202-422-8493 rossmarka@aol.com
Financial Secretary Arthur King 202-744-6624 aking536@aol.com
Corresponding Secretary Joseph Housey, III 561-932-3599 joe3rd@hotmail.com
Chaplain William Hawkins 202-583-3211 whawk39564@aol.com
Historian Justin Davis 678-787-8344 jed55@cornell.edu
Archivist Mario Simpson 240-493-6009 simpson_mario@hotmail.com
Associate Editor to the Sphinx Antwan Lofton 202-997-8498 antwan_lofton@yahoo.com
Editor of the Torch
Walter Whitley 202-255-9258 walterwhitley@msn.com
Webmaster Larry Ware 202-621-3745 larryware@gmail.com
Director of Intake James Heck 202-5352605 jkcjh@aol.com
Director of Education
Geoffrey Johnson 202-487-0785 noplga@aol.com
Parliamentarian Eddie Neal 301-440-4055 ewneal@hotmail.com
Member-at-Large
Wiley Bowling, Jr. 301-218-3167 bowlingw@aol.com
Immediate Past President James McDonald 202-544-5026 macdee06@yahoo.com
www.mulambda.org
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Mu Lambda Chapter PO Box 1993 Washington, DC 20013-1993 ….Share the Light of the Torch with our inactive Brothers and Brothers new to the DC area…. February Meeting Thursday, February 04, 2010 7:06pm School of Dentistry Howard University Campus
