A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
Brothers at the unveiling with artist Shawn Michael Warren.
were resigned to work blue-collar jobs to make ends meet, unlike many of their white counterparts. This experi- ence further ignited Dickerson’s passion to succeed. He quit his job and made preparations to attend college at the University of Illinois. He stated, “I will become a professional so successful that I won’t have to be subjected to double employment like so many of the profes- sional men I see here. To become such became an obsession with me, which ripened into a vow” (Blakely, 2006). While in college, Dickerson’s pur- suit of obtaining a better life than the injustices he and other Blacks faced in Mississippi continued to elude him. Although his cognitive development improved, he found many of the same racial disparities he hoped to abandon.
Dickerson recollected, “I entered the University of Illinois seeking signs and guideposts that would assist and offer directions in my personal quest to erase the injustices that were so pervasive in my early life. However, in those days of 1911 and after, Champaign-Urbana offered little change in the totally seg- regated community from which I had recently migrated” (Blakely, 2006). During the winter of 1913, Dickerson met with Kappa Alpha Nu Fraternity Founder Elder Watson Diggs, who was seeking to expand the young fraternity. Diggs shared their mutual experiences of being denied the use of university facilities, restricted from participating in many sports and clubs at their respective universities. Diggs convinced Dickerson to have his organization, the Il-li Club,
composed of Black students, to become the Beta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Nu to help address these issues. Dickerson subsequently became a charter initi- ate of the fraternity’s second chapter and served as its first Polemarch. His chance encounter with a public speak- ing instructor during his junior year influenced him to switch majors from medicine to law. Dickerson completed his degree requirements and took courses in educa- tion to become certified to teach. Upon receiving his certification, Dickerson sought employment, but these efforts were thwarted by further acts of segrega- tion at white institutions. Dickerson taught briefly at Tuskegee Institute and subsequently replaced Diggs as principal at a Black school in Vincennes, Indiana.
THE JOURNAL ♦ WINTER 2021 - SPRING 2022
PUBLISHING ACHIEVEMENT IN EVERY FIELD OF HUMAN ENDEAVOR
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