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During the twentieth century, black Greek-Letter organizations (BGLOs) united college students dedicated to excellence, fostered kinship, and uplifted African Americans. Members of these organizations include remarkable and influential individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr., Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, novelist Toni Morrison, and Wall Street pioneer Reginald F. Lewis. Despite the profound influence of these groups, many now question the continuing relevance of BGLOs, arguing that their golden age has passed. Partly because of their perceived link to hip-hop culture, black fraternities and sororities have been unfairly reduced to a media stereotype—a world of hazing without any real substance. The general public knows very little about BGLOs, and surprisingly the members themselves often do not have a thorough understanding of their history and culture or of the issues currently facing their organizations. To foster a greater engagement with the history and contributions of BGLOs, Black Greek-Letter Organizations in the Twenty-first Century: Our Fight Has Just Begun brings together an impressive group of authors to explore the contributions and continuing possibilities of BGLOs and their members. Editor Gregory S. Parks and the contributing authors provide historical context for the development of BGLOs, exploring their service activities as well as their relationships with other prominent African American institutions. The book examines BGLOs' responses to a number of contemporary issues, including non-black membership, homosexuality within BGLOs, and the perception of BGLOs as educated gangs. As illustrated by the organized response of BGLO members to the racial injustice they observed in Jena, Louisiana, these organizations still have a vital mission. Both internally and externally, BGLOs struggle to forge a relevant identity for the new century. Internally, these groups wrestle with many issues, including hazing, homophobia, petty intergroup competition, and the difficulty of bridging the divide between college and alumni members. Externally, BGLOs face the challenge of rededicating themselves to their communities and leading an aggressive campaign against modern forms of racism, sexism, and other types of fear-driven behavior. By embracing the history of these organizations and exploring their continuing viability and relevance, Black Greek-Letter Organizations in the Twenty-first Century demonstrates that BGLOs can create a positive and enduring future and that their most important work lies ahead.
At the turn of the twentieth century, black fraternities and sororities, also known as Black Greek-Letter Organizations (BGLOs), were an integral part of what W.E.B. Du Bois called the “talented tenth.” This was the top ten percent of the black community that would serve as a cadre of educated, upper-class, motivated individuals who acquired the professional credentials, skills, and capital to assist the race to attain socioeconomic parity. Today, however, BGLOs struggle to find their place and direction in a world drastically different from the one that witnessed their genesis. In recent years, there has been a growing body of scholarship on BGLOs. This collection of essays seeks to push those who think about BGLOs to engage in more critically and empirically based analysis. This book also seeks to move BGLO members and those who work with them beyond conclusions based on hunches, conventional wisdom, intuition, and personal experience. In addition to a rich range of scholars, this volume includes a kind of call and response feature between scholars and prominent members of the BGLO community.
The rich history and social significance of the “Divine Nine” African American Greek-letter organizations is explored in this comprehensive anthology. In the long tradition of African American benevolent and secret societies, intercollegiate African American fraternities and sororities have strong traditions of fostering brotherhood and sisterhood among their members, exerting considerable influence in the African American community and being in the forefront of civic action, community service, and philanthropy. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, Arthur Ashe, and Sarah Vaughn are just a few of the trailblazing members of these organizations. African American Fraternities and Sororities places the history of these organizations in context, linking them to other movements and organizations that predated them and tying their history to the Civil Rights movement. It explores various cultural aspects of the organizations, such as auxiliary groups, branding, calls, and stepping, and highlights the unique role of African American sororities.
Black Greek 101 analyzes the customs, culture, and challenges facing historically Black fraternal organizations. The text provides a history of Black Greek organizations beyond the nine major organizations, examining the pledging practice, the growth of fraternalism outside of the mainstream organizations, the vivid culture and practices of the groups, and challenges for the future.
Expanded and revised edition of the first book devoted solely to black fraternity hazing. Are black men naturally violent? Do they define manhood in the same way as their counterparts across lines of race? Are black Greek-letter fraternities among the most dangerous student organizations on American college and university campuses? Can their often-dangerous initiation processes be stopped or even modified and, if not, what should be done about them? In this second edition of Black Haze, Ricky L. Jones takes on these questions and more. The first edition was an enlightening and sometimes disturbing examination of American men’s quest for acceptance, comfort, reaffirmation, and manhood in a world where their footing is often unstable. In this new edition Jones not only provides masterful philosophical and ethical analyses but he also forces the engagement of a terrifying real world process that damages and kills students with all too frequent regularity. With a revealing new preface and stunning afterword, Jones immerses the reader in an intriguing and dark world marked by hypermasculinity, unapologetic brutality, and sometimes death. He offers a compelling book that ranges well beyond the subject of hazing—one that yields perplexing questions and demands difficult choices as we move forward in addressing issues surrounding fraternities, violent hazing, black men, and American society. “Black Haze is a landmark study on hazing culture within black Greek-letter organizations. With an insider’s eye and scholar’s touch, Jones masterfully captures the emic contours, complexities, and contradictions of black fraternity hazing as ritual act and cultural practice. This text is at once rigorous and accessible, theoretical and practical, classic and urgent. Anyone interested in understanding hazing, masculinity, BGLOs, or black cultural practice must read this book!” — Marc Lamont Hill, coauthor of The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America “Black Haze is a compelling survey of black Greek-letter organizations, their history, purpose, and their most damning traditions. This is an examination of how the virtues of brotherhood and civic service coexist with brutal violence and cruelty within some of the oldest organizations in black America. Professor Jones has produced a vital contribution about a crucial and enduring problem.” — William Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress “Ricky Jones’s Black Haze is an important study of black male identity development. By examining black men’s relationship with fraternities, he uncovers larger and brilliantly penetrating insights into issues of masculinity and political identity among African American males in the post-civil rights era.” — Peniel E. Joseph, author of Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America “Black Haze is a riveting coup de grâce against ritualized violence in black fraternities. The second edition of Black Haze is the most penetrating, illuminating, and articulate sociopolitical and cultural analysis of the chilling legacy of violence in black Greek-letter fraternities. As one of the world’s leading authorities on black masculinity and organizations, Ricky Jones intelligently confronts traditional verities, social norms, and myths that seek to justify and continue ritualized violence in black fraternities through the courageous prism of a reformed insider dedicated to the preservation of black dignity and life.” — Jeremy I. Levitt, author of Black Women and International Law: Deliberate Interactions, Movements and Actions Praise for the First Edition “ provides valuable insights into the reasoning behind hazing, a practice that extends into the realms of sports and even high school, and is relevant for not only fraternity members and officials, but the general public as well.” — The Griot “ an important contribution because of the skillful manner in which Jones incorporates and critically analyzes relevant literature and other related scholarly writings Jones, himself a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, offers personal observations as well as first-hand views and perceptions of hazing.” — Journal of College Student Development
The 1950s are arguably the watershed era in the civil rights movement with the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, and the desegregation of Little Rock (Arkansas) High School in 1957. It was during this period--1955 to be exact--that sociologist Alfred M. Lee published his seminal work Fraternities without Brotherhood: A Study of Prejudice on the American Campus. Lee's book was the first and last book to explore diversity within college fraternal groups. More than fifty years later, Craig L. Torbenson and Gregory S. Parks revisit this issue more broadly in their edited volume Brothers and Sisters: Diversity in College Fraternities and Sororities. This volume draws from a variety of disciplines in an attempt to provide a holistic analysis of diversity within collegiate fraternal life. It also brings a wide range of scholarly approaches to the inquiry of diversity within college fraternities and sororities. It explores not only from whence these groups have come but where they are currently situated and what issues arise as they progress.
Starting in the early twentieth century and still thriving in the contemporary era, Black Greek-letter organizations (BGLOs) provide social support, networking opportunities, and service for the Black community. Although BGLOs have always been majority-Black organizations, there are small numbers of non-Black individuals who choose to pledge their membership. Diversity in Black Greek-Letter Organizations: Breaking the Line explores the experiences of these non-Black members who have immersed themselves in organizations rich with Black history and culture. Through in-depth interviews with thirty-four such members, Wendy Marie Laybourn and Devon R. Goss reveal how and why these individuals come to identify with organizations designed for the uplift of races other than their own. For non-Black BGLO members, the association with a Black organization provides them the opportunity to consider the meaning of racial inequality and their own racial identities. Although many non-Black BGLO members recount challenges to their membership, the participants in Diversity in Black Greek-Letter Organizations ultimately find a sense of belonging with their Black brothers and sisters, which Laybourn and Goss argue can provide an example of the challenges and promises of cross-racial interactions as a whole.
Popular culture portrays college Greek organizations as a training ground for malevolent young aristocrats. Films such as Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, Old School, and Legally Blonde reinforce this stereotype, but they fail to depict the enduring influence of these organizations on their members. Inside Greek U. provides an in-depth investigation of how fraternities and sororities bolster traditional, and potentially damaging, definitions of gender and sexuality. Using evidence gathered in hundreds of focus group sessions and personal interviews, as well as his years of experience as a faculty advisor to Greek organizations, Alan D. DeSantis offers unprecedented access to the world of fraternities and sororities. DeSantis, himself once a member of a fraternity, shows the profoundly limited gender roles available to Greeks: "real men" are taught to be unemotional, sexually promiscuous, and violent; "nice girls," to be nurturing, domestic, and pure. These rigid formulations often lead to destructive attitudes and behaviors, such as eating disorders, date rape, sexual misconduct, and homophobia. Inside Greek U. shows that the Greek experience does not end on graduation day, but that these narrow definitions of gender and sexuality impede students' intellectual and emotional development and limit their range of choices long after graduation. Ten percent of all college students join a Greek organization, and many of the nation's business and political leaders are former members. DeSantis acknowledges that thousands of students join Greek organizations each year in search of meaning, acceptance, friendship, and engagement, and he illuminates the pressures and challenges that contemporary college students face. Inside Greek U. demonstrates how deeply Greek organizations influence their members and suggests how, with reform the worst excesses of the system, fraternities and sororities could serve as a positive influence on individuals and campus life.