100 YEARS
100 YEARS
COVER STORY
COVER STORY
thusiastic about the promise of the chapter and spoke specifically about a bright young man who was doing so much to make the chapter what it was. This was my first introduction to J. Ernest Wilkins…”
ters and one alumni chapter from the states of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania. The 1919 Grand Chapter meeting was the first of three held in Chicago in a fourteen-year span. Iota served again as a host chapter, along with the The- ta and Chicago (IL) Alumni Chapters, for the 12 th and 23 rd Grand Chapter Meetings held in 1922 and 1933 respectively. The 1922 Conclave was highlighted by the adoption of Guide Right as the fraternity’s national service program and the election of then Iota Chapter Polemarch J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. to the newly combined office of the Grand Keeper of Records and Exchequer, an office he would maintain until 1947 when he was elected as the 13 th Grand Polemarch. In 1933, the Conclave returned to Chicago after eleven years and was the largest attended Conclave in the fraternity’s his- tory to date with 449 registered brothers. Delegates to the 23 rd Grand Chapter Meeting elected Dr. J. Jerome Peters as the fraternity’s eighth Grand Polemarch and the International House on the UChicago campus was host to the Closed Banquet and several social events. Throughout the decades of 1920s and 1930s, chapter members contributed articles periodically to the Kappa Alpha Psi Journal providing updates on chapter officers, graduating chapter members, chapter academic progress and achievements, intramural sports, and various chap- ter activities. One example is the April 1924 Journal where Brother Girard T. Bryant (Iota 1923), who would later become the fraternity’s seventh Grand Historian, wrote: “According to the report of various Kappa brothers of both alumni and Theta chapters, and accord- ing to my own observations, Iota pull off one of the best dances that has ever been given in the his- tory of Kalumet Kastle. It was the famous “spring dance” given on the rainy night of March 28, 1924. Beautiful decorations, beautiful women, excellent music and a good crowd made the affair a crowning success.” Multiple instances in the Journal where the chapter re- ported their collective academic progress and achieve- ments. Iota continually and proudly measured the chapter’s overall GPA standing against all UChicago fra- ternities. The May 1924 issue of the Kappa Alpha Psi Journal had the following: “Iota Chapter tied with two white national fra- ternities for first place in scholarship at Chicago U. for the Winter Quarter. They came from 22 nd place to up to first. This shows what united effort
can do.”
(Iota 1934);
Brothers
Interestingly, in a November 1923 Journal article on Iota, the chapter reporter wrote the below acknowledge- ment that foreshadows Kappa and world history: “Guess Iota’s ready to receive ‘Congrats’. We’ve a junior Kappa in our midst. Brother Polemarch J. Ernest Wilkins, also our Grand Keeper of Records and Exchequer, is the chesty father of a fine baby boy.” Fifteen years later, that “fine baby boy” would become Kappa Alpha Psi’s ® youngest initiate in its history, even- tually his father’s successor as Grand Keeper of Records and Exchequer, and a world renown physicist and math- ematician, Brother J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. (Iota 1938). Several Iota members during this era contributed free- lance articles to the Journal such as: • Kappa Alpha Psi ® Journal, August 1933 : “ A Code of Pledging ” by Brother William R. Ming (Iota 1930); • Kappa Alpha Psi ® Journal, October 1933 : “ An Undergraduate on the Grand Board of Direc- tors ” by Brother Orion Page (Iota 1926); • Kappa Alpha Psi ® Journal, February 1936:
In addition to the charter line members, Brothers Bryant and Wilkins Jr., other members of the chapter from this era included: long time Chicago (IL) Alumni Chapter members Joseph L. O’Neal (Iota 1919), Arthur N. Turn- bull Sr. (Iota 1925), William E. Gist (Iota 1932), William M. Jones Sr. (Iota 1935), Jesse A. Reed Jr. (Iota 1935), and Stanton H. Wilson (Iota 1938); Robert L. Lightfoot (Iota 1919), Hon. John M. Branion Sr. (Iota 1921), Dr. Alfred F. Nixon (Iota 1922), Levi Southe (Iota 1922), Antonio M. Gassaway, Esq. (Iota 1922), Joseph J. At- twell Esq. (Iota 1932), Dr. Paul A. Batties (Iota 1934), Dr. Lucius Wimby (Iota 1938), Dr. Oliver W. Crawford (Iota 1938), Faburn E. DeFrantz Jr. (Iota 1938) and Weather Sykes (Iota 1941). The first Journal editor and eighth Laurel Wreath laure- ate Lionel Artis (Nu 1920) supervised the Journal publi- cations while a UChicago student earned his B.A. degree in 1933. The lead editorial, entitled “ An Open Letter to Frater- nity Men ” appeared on the front page of the February 18, 1937 issue of the school newspaper, Daily Maroon, which began: “We cannot but thoroughly deplore the actions of the Interfraternity Council Tuesday evening in refusing admittance into its ranks Kappa Alpha Psi®, a recognized Negro fraternity. Such action puts fraternities on record as being out of step with the University’s tradition of enlightened and liberal thought.” In 1937, the chapter’s attempt and subsequent rejec- tion for membership to the UChicago Inter-Fraternal Council (IFC) that year made headlines in school pub- lications, the Daily Maroon , the Phoenix , and Univer- sity of Chicago Magazine as well as the Kappa Alpha Psi Journal. IFC members rejected the chapter’s petition to join based on a membership provision in the IFC charter requiring chapters to own a fraternity house. For Iota, meeting this provision was unachievable due to the dis- criminatory restrictive housing covenants enforced in the residential neighborhoods that surrounded the campus. These contractual covenants restricted homeowners in those neighborhoods from selling or renting their prop- erty to African Americans. Consequently, the acquisi- tion of a suitable and convenient house for the chapter Iota and IFC
Earl B. & J. Ernest
Two legendary Kappa Men and future Grand Pole- marchs, Earl B. Dickerson (Beta 1913) and J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. (Beta 1918), were significant influences dur- ing the chapter’s nascent years. Both missed the chapter chartering with Dickerson serving in the U.S. military
while Wilkins completed school prior to joining the WWI effort. The following year after the war’s conclusion, both returned to the States and entered the University of Chicago Law School. Initially enrolled in the fall 1915, Dicker- son returned in the spring of 1919 to complete his studies and gradu- ated in March 1920 becoming the first African American to earn an J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School. tion and earned his J.D. degree in 1921. Both brothers were instru- mental promoting the fraternity to the school’s best male African American students. Both func- tioned as role models and mentors for future Iota men as well as oth- er members of the fraternity and many African American attorneys in Chicago.
While Dickerson returned to UChicago to finish his law degree, Wilkins Sr. was starting his law school matricula-
Book review of T. E. Lawrence’s “ Seven Pil- lars of Wisdom ” by Brother Harry F. Kelley
First Era of Iota Chapter 1918-
1941
Soon after chartering, Iota was confronted with a con- siderable challenge for a neophyte chapter: hosting a Grand Chapter meeting. The 1919 Conclave was the first of four Grand Chapter meetings that the chapter would host. In addition to Iota, the host chapters for the eighth Grand Chapter Meeting held in April of 1919 were the Northwestern University Chapter, the Theta of Kappa Alpha Psi® chartered in 1917 and the Chi- cago (IL) Alumni Chapter which was chartered during the eighth Grand Chapter Meeting. At the time, the fraternity was comprised of nine undergraduate chap-
42 | WINTER ISSUE THE JOURNAL
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
THE JOURNAL WINTER ISSUE | 43
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