A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
“With education symmetrical and true we will take the dead mass buried by slavery's hand and touch them to life.” – Bishop William T. Vernon
Chapter Meeting, December 28, 1924, St. Louis, Missouri. During his speech, Vernon stated, “The boys seem to think I don’t know any politics. Now if they aren’t careful, I’ll move that we adjourn, and if they give me overnight, I’ll be the Grand Polemarch. You know I’m a bishop and know all the ropes.” Vernon composed an article for the December 1924 Kappa Alpha Psi Journal entitled “The Hour of Enlistment,” in which an excerpt stated, “Real fraternity men seek the forefront of the battle-line. Unmindful of sufferings, evading no hardships, they are willing to PAY, PAY, PAY if humanity may be made happy. Brothers, KA Ψ yields to none when duty calls.” He was a distinguished guest of the 20th Grand Chapter Meeting, December 27-31, 1930, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A broadcast message from President Franklin D. Roosevelt was to be transmit- ted during the meeting, but technical dif- ficulties caused a delay in programming. Vernon was asked to say a few words to the audience while the situation was rectified. Vernon responded with such eloquence that even after the difficulties were resolved, listeners urged Vernon to continue. He did not resume until after the President’s message was heard. Vernon’s Legacy Vernon’s achievements were celebrated during his life and after his death. His earliest formal recognition was the renaming of a church in his honor. In 1905, when African Methodism first arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the church trustees voted to change the name from Burton Chapel to Vernon AME Church. This church came to be distinguished for the events that occurred on May 31, 1921, when the Tulsa Race Massacre oc- curred in the affluent Black Greenwood District, which decimated the commu-
tant Superintendent of Schools of Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma. This ap- pointment was met with protest due to his race. Instead, Vernon was appointed Special Agent of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington. This posi- tion covered all states in which Blacks and Creek Indians were students, where 90% of them were Black. Vernon was subsequently appointed Supervisor of Government Schools under the office of the Secretary of the Interior. He served in that capacity from 1911-1912. President Woodrow Wilson subse- quently sought to appoint a Black man (Adam E. Patterson, Chicago (IL) Alumni, 1924) for the position in 1913. Some Southern Senators expressed their opposition to Patterson due to his race, adding that they opposed any Black person for an office that would put them above Caucasian women. Patterson withdrew his nomination and was not appointed. A White man was appointed as Register of the Treasury – the first Caucasian to hold the position in fifteen years. Additional Work with the AME Church Vernon resigned from his work for the government and accepted an appoint- ment from the AME Church to serve as president of one of their affiliate schools, Campbell College, Jackson, Mississippi (1912-1915). Following that tenure, Vernon took an offer to pastor Avery Chapel, Memphis, Tennessee (1915- 1920). While there, he published his second book on race and politics, What the American Negro Expects of World- Wide Democracy, a Statement of the Negro’s Case and Cause (1919). While at the 1920 AME Church General Conference, St. Louis, Mis- souri, Vernon was elected and ordained as the AME Church’s 45th Bishop. He received the highest vote of any Bishop
elected in the church's history at that time. Vernon subsequently performed missionary work in South Africa’s north- eastern 17th Episcopal District (then consisting of Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State, Natal, and Basuto- land), 1920-1924, where he coordinated the building of churches and schools. His wife accompanied him, and one of the schools constructed was the Em- ily E. Vernon Mission School, named after his wife, in Basutoland (now the Kingdom of Lesotho). The General Con- ference subsequently assigned Vernon over the 15th Episcopal District (then consisting of Bermuda, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Michigan). Vernon was as- signed the work of Bishop Levi Coppin following his death in 1924. Vernon was also editor of an AME Church publica- tion, The Western Christian Recorder. During the Great Depression, the AME Church withdrew its monetary support for Western University, and the state of Kansas began funding the school. Vernon retired as Bishop in 1933, and the governor appointed him superintendent of the State Industrial Department and served as a member of the State Industrial Board. Vernon appointed a competent faculty, and they succeeded in getting Western’s accredi- tation restored before he stepped down in 1936. Nevertheless, the school was greatly affected by the Great Depression and was forced to close in 1943. The buildings were later razed. Nothing but the cornerstones of the earliest two halls remain in existence today. Fraternity Involvement Vernon was one of twenty-one charter initiates of the Kansas City (KS) Alumni Chapter when it was established March 23, 1923. He served as Keynote Speaker for the opening of the 14th Grand
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