NATIONAL NEWS: SPOTLIGHT ON CAMPAIGN HONORARY CHAIRMAN
today.”
for me. He was an Alpha and he wanted me to become an Alpha…so when the Smokers rolled around, I went to the Al- pha Smoker, the Omega Smoker and the Kappa Smoker. The one that not only impressed me and the one where I had the most fun was the Kappa Smoker.” “There were four of us from my high school who came to Howard together; one of my classmates was committed to pledging Kappa because he had a cousin who was a Kappa at Howard.” “The other two guys decided to go Kappa and I decided I’d go with my buddy and so we pledged Kappa and only two of us made it on the line we pledged; the other two made it later.” “But two of us made it on the Fall 1954 line. I was Dean of Pledgees and it was a great job for me to have because I got to train young Scrollers into the kind of Kappas I thought they should be and I was able to protect them from any issues that would [affect academic suc- cess.] I was at Howard on a four year scholarship, I had to graduate in four years and [governed myself accordingly.] And so I was very protective of my line and I made two lines during my tenure at the Xi Chapter. Kappa taught me that it’s okay to be sure of yourself, but you cannot be crazy and dictatorial, and you always have to think brotherly.” with ROTC, I viewed the military as the best job a Black male college graduate could get in 1957 because the Army was still in the process of integrating itself, but America outside of the Army wasn’t trying to integrate itself.” “So in getting a commission, I saw the Army not only as a good job, but as a place where a young 22-year-old Black guy could be in charge of something, in charge of bud- get, in charge of getting missions carried out by people (Black and White) that he was charge of.” “So for me, the military provided an opportunity to display leadership, it pro- vided an opportunity to acquire stature, if not from white folk, certainly from Black folk because the Black soldiers On Military Service “The Army part of my journey begin
looked at a Black man with bars on his shoulders as somebody and I was no longer that little poor boy for 25.5 years who grew up in a three-room shack with no electricity, no gas, whose mother was cooking on a wood stove, whose father did not own a car and who did not own a home. But suddenly, here is this young guy who is in charge of other folk and for me, I saw the Army as place where you could go and not only have a job, but display and learn more about leader- ship and to be in charge, that was hope and faith.” On Fraternal Service Jacob reflected on Kappa Alpha Psi and living a life of service. “I had the good fortune of coming into the frater- nity when it had greater clarity on who it was and what it was about. What I am saying is the focus of the fraternity was on brotherhood, that’s what pledging was all about, building a bond with your brother. You knew there was no such thing as 18 guys on a line, what you learn is that you are all one, you’re all one, not 18 different guys. You are ob- ligated to ensure that your brother also get what’s best for him too, it is about your brother. It is about the brotherhood which is created during this process and I say that because when I look at how the fraternity is behaving today, I see the emphasis is on membership, not on brotherhood and there is a significant difference. I look at the guys that I made the fraternity with, the guys I was in the Xi Chapter with and if we don’t see each for 50 years, when we bump into each other anywhere, it was like yesterday (going back to the Bond of Fraternity). And if we need each other, we just pick up the telephone and so brotherhood was the ‘calling card’ of the fraternity and the fraternity’s focus was not only on making each other better, but in mak- ing the environment in which you find yourself better because we understood that Black folks did not have the luxury of ignoring those brothers who may not be able to go to college, to grow and to develop and we still had to make life better for them too.”
On Fraternity In reflecting on how Kappa Alpha Psi and the United States Army prepared him for life’s challenges, Brother Jacob said, “When I went to college, I did not have a clue what a fraternity was. I did not know anyone in a fraternity and I’m the first one to go to college in my fam- ily. I didn’t know any guy that had gone off to college that I had interacted with and so I did not know what fraternity was. When I arrived on Howard’s cam- pus, one thing became very clear to me and that was Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. ran our campus.” “They had an alliance and they fundamentally drove all of student clubs and activities.” “I prided myself as being a leader. I was president of my high- school graduating class. I was president of the honor society, I was vice president of student council and I was president of the acapella choir.” “I prided myself as a student leader, so when I arrived to Howard, I may not have known what college was about and I may not have known what you do in college other than get a degree, but I was tuned into what leadership looks like and so as I observed who was in leadership positions on the campus, it was Kappa Alpha Psi and Alpha Kappa Alpha in an alliance. In fact, they had a song that said, ‘AKA Psi, AKA Psi, AKA Psi Til We Die!’ “So I observed that, and my first se- mester I saw the fall line of Kappa Alpha Psi probate go on and I was impressed with how they looked and how they behaved and I became aware that the president of the Howard University Stu- dent Council was Bill Santos (Xi 1954), a Kappa; I became aware of Kappas who were Phi Beta Kappa and I became aware of Kappas who were just doing it!” “So when it came time to pledge, I was being courted royally by Alpha Phi Alpha because one of the guys from my hometown who was a year ahead of me at Howard. In fact, he was one of the guys who considered himself looking out
62 | WINTER 2019 ♦ THE JOURNAL
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