Dear Brothers:

 For your intellectual enlightenment, I share with you a brief excerpt from our posthumous brother Frederick Douglass who wrote the following in a speech titled "What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July?"

"What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a  sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and  equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and Thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour." Brother Frederick Douglass, 1852 (Omega Chapter)
 

EVERY NEOPHYTE  NEEDS TO ATTEND HIS FIRST CONVENTION

Songtress Oleta Adams sang "I don't care how you get here, get here if you can." Let me echo that phrase and urge every neophyte who reads this page to make plans to come to Dallas. There is nothing like your first convention. In my opinion it is the glue that seals the bond and commitment for your involvement in the fraternity. At a National Convention, you get to meet other brothers, see Past General Presidents, and share in the fraternal spirit. There is a photograph of Jewel Callis posing with the brothers for a convention photo. One of the college brothers standing behind Callis has his hands placed firmly on his shoulder's. Priceless indeed. Come to the convention and learn more about the fraternity than what you see in your chapter. Let money not be an issue. Pool your resources  with other brothers.. Check the Internet for cheap tickets. Take Greyhound and leave the driving to them.  It is worth the sacrifice to come. I missed my first convention in 1982 simply because I did not know about it. Unfortunately, the chapter members failed to mention to me that there was a convention that summer of 1982 in Los Angeles. The following summer by an act of divine faith, I attended the convention, replacing a brother who was unable to go from my chapter. It was there that I met and took pictures with Brother Charles Harris Wesley (go to my redesigned website and click Alpha, you will see us), 
Past General Presidents Ernest Morial, Lionel Newsom and so many others. I took photographs of everything and everybody. That was 16 years ago and I have not missed a convention since. I promise you after you experience a National Convention, your view of the fraternity will not be the same. At this convention, you will witness the nomination and electrifying acceptance speeches of the candidates for General Presidents. 
 

RECLAMATION: 2000 for 2000

If I  sound like I am running for something, I'm not; well at least not yet. (SMILE)  I am personally kicking off 2000 for 2000.  2,000 reclaimed brothers for the year 2,000. This is my personal goal for reclamation throughout the country through this newsletter. Alpha needs you! That chapter needs you too! So many  of you have written and said that you have decided to reactive and join a chapter. I have printed and saved those letters. If you are one in that number, please drop me a line and let me know what chapter you have  affiliated with. Come on brothers, no more excuses, just do it.  There is power in numbers. I recognize my goal of 2000  large, but I believe that there are 2,000 of you who have been mulling and thinking about reaffiliating with a chapter. Utilize the Corporate Website for assistance. If that doesn't work, utilize me. If you are in an area and you are unsure of a chapter, I will list your request in a SHM(with your email address) and ask a brother to contact you directly with contact information and forward it to you. Is that more work for me, yes. But it is worth it. So many of you have already ask me for a chapter or contact. Every brother ought to be about reclaiming. I am just using this medium as an outlet. Don't worry brothers you will still get the vintage Skip Historical Moment. I just want to take this a step higher. Read From the Lips of a Jewel to see what Jewel Murray said about reclamation. By the way Life Membership goes up to $2,000 in 2000. It is currently $1000. You still have time to make a deposit on your life member and pay by installments. The convention is Atlanta next year. Yes, my hometown, the city too busy to hate. The city where Charles Wesley unveiled the first copy of the Alpha History book in Atlanta, where Jewel Chapman attended his first convention in over 20 years, where Jewel Callis and Jones both visited and spoke. 

SPECIAL FEATURE: 
The General Presidents, cont'd- 

Provided are brief excerpts on the 4th, 5th, 6th General President from the book "The Talented Tenth: The Founder's and President of Alpha" in a continuing series  highlighting the legacy of these 30 men. Is there one who can recite all of the General President with the same enthusiasm as you do the Jewels?. The first person to recite all of them to me at the convention will get a special gift. I mean it. We must be about our father's business in the House of Alpha. 

Dr. Charles H. Garvin
The 4th General President
Alpha's First Historian
"…In the fall of 1912, General President Charles Garvin and Secretary Fugett made a special attempt to have all of the founders present at the Fifth General Convention. He sent letters to each one of them inviting them to come to the convention. It is also the first correspondence which acknowledges that there were seven founders... 

After his tenure as President, Brother Garvin remained active with the fraternity. By 1917, during the war years, he was appointed as the fraternity's first Historian and collected a substantial amount of data that  he gathered during the years he was General Secretary and General President.  In 1920, he served on the commission on Graduate Work and Public Affairs…"

The 5th General President- Henry Lake Dickason
"Referred affectionately as the "big guy or the fat guy," Henry Lake Dickason was a colorful character in the annals of the fraternity.  Brother Dickason was born in West Virginia and received his early education from the Bluefield Institute. He was a classmate of James Morton, who was one of the original seven at Cornell University when the fraternity was founded.  Dickason attended college at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where he earned a BA and MA degrees.  As a math and physics teacher for 22 years, Dickason was an inspiration to thousands of students. For ten years, he served as Registrar of Bluefield State College and twelve years as Dean, before being elected as President of the college in 1936, where his tenure lasted until 1952..,"
 

The 6th General President- Howard Hale Long
"…By 1919, Brother Long  moved to Augusta, Georgia and Paine College where he was appointed Dean. Paine had a rich Methodist tradition and  Long himself was a member of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church(CME). 

 He later accepted an appointment as the Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Washington, DC and as the Dean of Administration in the College of Education and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce University.  Brother Long served as chairman of the Commission on Evaluation  of the  American Council on Human Rights

Initiated into Beta Chapter,  Brother Long served his fraternity as General Treasurer in 1914, General  Secretary in 1915 and was elected General President in 1916…"

WHAT'S ON THE DRAWING BOARD:
-Why the "House of Alpha" was written
-An article on C.C. Poindexter
-The origins of the Ape (as it relates to our pledging process) 
 

"A partial answer to the foregoing is that these Brothers need a real heart to heart talk with a view of reacquainting themselves as to how absolutely necessary it is for them to continue to affiliate with their local chapters,  as they did in the beginning of their undergraduate days. The fraternity needs them as necessary integral parts of its forward moving program. Brothers do not make the mistake of stressing the need of their returning merely to help in some financial program because that is not the idea the speaker wishes to convey. Far be such an idea. Let the Brother be persuaded by personal visits and talks to come out and see for himself what a wonderful thing it is to be a part of Alpha Phi Alpha whose efforts will live forever. "
Jewel Nathaniel Allison Murray