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Sunday, July 30th, 2023

Oldest Black fraternity pulls 2025 convention out of Florida citing ‘hostile’ policies

Author:     Ana Goni-Lessan
Source:     Tallahassee Democrat
Publication Date:     26 July 2023
 Link: Oldest Black fraternity pulls 2025 convention out of Florida citing ‘hostile’ policies
Stephan:  

When I was a younger man, back in the late 1950s and early 60s, I travelled deeper into the South with a Black friend. He had something called, if my memory serves, The Green Book. It listed things like hotels where Blacks could get a room, towns and cities to avoid, particularly at night, restaurants where a Black person could get a decent meal. Being a prep school educated affluent White boy I had never seen such a thing before and was appalled. After the Civil Rights Act I thought I would never see such racism again, and yet here we are in the second decade of the 21st century, and the NAACP is warning Blacks about travelling to Florida, and the largest Black fraternity in the country is pulling its conference out of Florida because the state has become unwelcoming to Blacks. Christofascist racist Ron DeSantis and the legislature he controls are destroying Florida’s wellbeing in many ways, this being but the latest.

Hundreds participated in the National Action Network demonstration in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s efforts to minimize diverse education.  Credit: Tallahassee Democrat

The oldest intercollegiate Black fraternity in the country is moving its 2025 conference from Florida, calling the state “hostile” to the Black community.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will relocate the fraternity’s 99th General Convention and 119th Anniversary Convention from Orlando “due to Governor Ron DeSantis’ harmful, racist, and insensitive policies against the Black community,” according to a press release from the organization.

The event was expected to generate $4.6 million, according to Alpha Phi Alpha.

“Although we are moving our convention from Florida, Alpha Phi Alpha will continue to support the strong advocacy of Alpha Brothers and other advocates fighting against the continued assault on our communities in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis,” said General President Dr. Willis L. Lonzer, III.

Alpha Phi Alpha, whose membership has included historical figures like civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., Adam Clayton Powell and Thurgood Marshall, joins other national Black organizations that have either pulled their conventions out of Florida or denounced […]

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1 Comment

  1. S B on Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at 8:50 am

    See the awesome, pithy, funny!, movie Green Book…I was unaware til then