ACHIEVEMENT WEEK 2009
To all of the current and former officers present, who along with their families, friends and guests, are here to help us honor our Founders and to recognize those brothers and citizens who support the local chapters endeavors.
Now, in the appropriate manner, I would like to bring “official” greetings from the
38 th
Grand Basileus, Bro. Warren G. Lee, the 1 st
Vice DR’s from around the world, the 2009/2010 Supreme Council and the
IHQ staff.
I did receive a call today from GKRS, Bro.
Lewis Anderson, who sends his personal

greetings and those from the office of the GKRS, as did Bro. Tony Knox GKF.
Also, I ask you keep in your prayers, those that could not be here with us and those brothers and loved ones who are in uniform and in harm’s way in foreign lands.
Since this traditionally is the period of our Achievement Week Celebrations, I will spend a few minutes honoring the
Founders and the legacy they started.
“Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance &
Uplift”

To all Omega Men, those Cardinal principles are indelibly imbedded on our minds.
All too often we recite those words and cover the founding of our illustrious
Omega, without looking behind the words.
Let’s take a closer look at things.
Those words that comprise our Cardinal
Principles were not just random words selected, but words that reflected the spirit of courage of our Founders.
On page 4 of the “History of Omega Psi
Phi Fraternity by Bro. Dreer, we are told

that Founder Oscar J. Cooper mastered the art of “MANHOOD”, by being a fine gentleman who was neat in his dress and distinctly chivalrous in his manners.
Bro. Cooper was never “flashy” but always fashionable “prim and precise”.
He was kindly towards all and never
“Uppish”.
As we continue to read, it is revealed that Founder Bro. Frank Coleman was known for his “SCHOLARSHIP” primarily through his scholarly demeanor and logic. Bro Coleman graduated with honors from High School as well as college and was immediately offered a teaching position at his Alma Mater,

Howard University and went on to become head of the Physics
Department.
On page 1 of the history book, Bro.
Dreer describes Founder Edgar A. Love as an officer in the U.S. Army during WW
I. He was slightly gasses during the famous Argonne Forest campaign, yet it was written that he displayed,
“PERSEVERANCE” and rallied the men in his command. It is written that even though many did not see him, just the mention of his name was enough to spur them on.
And finally on pages 8 and 9, we learn that Founder Ernest E. Just, who in 1914

began receiving $80,000 a year in grants for his research for the scientific
“UPLIFT” of mankind.
In laying the foundation of the Omega
Psi Phi Fraternity, our history tells us that our undergraduate Founders observed many students on campus and gave particular attention to and compared notes on the “leaders of the leaders”. Those that were at Howard, preparing for places of leadership, that they would assume when they returned to their respective communities, so they would combat injustices and discriminations facing our people.

This was the basis of the Founding of
Omega Psi Phi and not the widely circulated belief that it was because they could not join White fraternities.
This also dispels the myth that Omega does not recruit. (Think about it, if you don’t, then you will get what’s left……)
All Omegas’ know what November 17 th
1911 represents…..The Founding of our great Fraternity…….
But as you begin to research and study that event, you will see that faculty approval or the Fraternity seemed to be, coming too slowly, so the young
Founders arose early one morning and

began placing placards all over the campus announcing the existence of
“The Omega Psi Phi Fraternity”, listing their names as Founders and the names of the charter members.
The student body became all astir with what had been done and the young
Founders merely awaited developments, confident of eventual victory.
The next day, during chapel services, Dr.
Wilbur P. Thirkield discussed what had been done by the students and declared that at Howard, there was no such organization as “The Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity”.

The students began to laugh, but the
Omega men were not embarrassed, but only more determined to convince Dr.
Thirkield that the Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity was not formed to undermine the work of the faculty, but to supplement it….for the Glory of
Howard!!!
The Founders agreed to call on Dr.
Thirkield and win his approval.
Now understand the full gravity of the circumstances…..it was only 44 years after the establishment of the school…..Dr. Wilber P. Thirkield was not a man of color and Howard University was named after Civil War General

Oliver Otis Howard, who was the commissioner of the “Freedman’s
Bureau” in charge of distributing the promised 40 Acres and a Mule to freed slaves.
And according to Dr. Claude Anderson in his book “Dirty Little Secrets”, Howard
University was established as a means to educate the DC congressmen’s mulatto offspring.
Well, Dr Thirkield received the young
Founders cordially and discussed the matter freely and frankly. Our history goes on to tell us that Dr. Thirkield
“rebuked” the young men then gave them an opportunity to speak.

The Founders then laid out several contentions…….that Howard should be honored that such an organization like
“Omega Psi Phi Fraternity” should be established on the campus…….
and based on our records, we deserve to establish the “Omega Psi Phi Fraternity” on a Negro institution of higher education.
Based on their records!!!!!!
In a recording made for the Fraternity by
Founder Bishop Edgar Amos Love, he said that Omega Psi Phi Fraternity was born out of a dream that 3 young men, who were freshmen at Howard

University, had, and who were drawn together and an abiding friendship.
He goes on to say that there was already, on the campus at Howard
University, a fraternity, which was born not on the campus itself, but was part of a Fraternity that came into Howard 2 years earlier. They seemed to be a bigoted group, who were status conscience: that only men who had money to spend or who had a great family backing, or were even color conscience, and we (referring to the 3 young Founders) were not interested in becoming a part of it.

Even the Dean and an influential professor encouraged them to join, but the Founders maintained their convictions.
Let’s stop here for a minute and look at what the world was like at that time in
1911.
The U.S. was on the brink of a World
War. Taft was coming out of an abominable presidency and Woodrow
Wilson was courting the Negro vote in his effort to win the presidency in 1912.
After enticing the Negro to abandon the
Republican Party and vote him in as a
Democrat, Woodrow Wilson

immediately passed laws that propelled
Negros backwards.
Wilson, removed Bill Lewis, the Negro
Assistant Attorney General that Taft had appointed in June of 1911.
Lynching’s skyrocketed, Negro’s, along with their crops were doused with kerosene and burned, and their livestock was poisoned.
Conditions became so unbearable in the
South that Blacks started leaving to go up North and that eventually triggered the “Great Migration” of the 20’s & 30’s.
An interesting side note is that during my research, I discovered that Woodrow

Wilson crossed Omega’s path a couple of times.
Omega’s first honorary member, Col.
Charles Young experienced a situation early in his career. A white Lieutenant named Dockery, refused to serve under
Young because he was “colored”.
The issue escalated up to Secretary of
War, Newton Baker, who demanded that the White Lieutenant comply or resign from the service.
The president of the United States, intervened and said that the White Lt. didn’t have to serve under a “colored” officer and allowed Lt. Dockery to

transfer………Guess who that president was??????
Again, at the outset of WW I, Colonel
Young, who was the first Black to achieve the rank of Colonel in the active military, and who had compiled an exemplary combat record, was retired instead of being promoted to Brigadier
General.
Col. Young then undertook his famous horseback ride from Ohio to Washington
D.C. to prove his fitness, but was denied by what president? “Old Woody”…
One other point that I thought was interesting was that in 1915, the film

Birth of a Nation was aired. As most of you know, “Birth of a Nation”, by D.W.
Griffin, was about reconstruction and a
Black man that raped a White woman.
This was depicted in the picture, as the act that spawned the rise of the Ku Klux
Klan as a righteous vigilante group.
Negro leaders denounced the film as race riots broke out, but Woodrow
Wilson, after viewing the film said “It was like writing history with lightning, and his only regret was that “it is so terribly true”!!!!!!

We have to understand that our
Founders displayed “COURAGE” back in
1911 and through subsequent years.
They made choices and embraced a vision that is almost 100 years old.
Our Founders stopped believing in where they were, and started believing in where they were going.
If we really want to honor our Founders and their legacy, then we have to change our behaviors. It’s hard I know…..
Again, referring to Dr. Claude Anderson, he says for hundreds of years:

We were labeled as apathetic but were punished for being aggressive and assertive.
We were called poor and ignorant, but were denied the fruits of our labor and educational opportunities.
And we were constantly being told that we should remain with our own kind, but were prevented from running away from enslavement to join our own people.
We have the power to change; we just have to harness that power properly and to stop conducting inappropriate behavior.

What is inappropriate behavior? In Dr.
Claude Andersons book “Powernomics”, he explains “Inappropriate Behavior” as the fact that as Black people, we participate in our own subordination and exploitation.
We distort reality and it causes us to live in a state of denial, tolerating and justifying why we are in an oppressed state.
We are willing to accept our poor quality of life and avoid any form of competitiveness, unless it is against members of our own group.

We have the ability to break that cycle, we just have to display the same amount of courage that Bro. Dr. Ernest E. Just,
Bro. Dr. Oscar J. Cooper, Bro. Bishop
Edgar A. Love, and Bro. Professor Frank
Coleman displayed.
There is hope because of the courage and commitment of people like our 4
Founders, and others known and unknown, throughout the Civil Rights struggle and up to the recent election of
Barack Obama, the 44 th
president of the
United States. Perhaps that pattern of
“Inappropriate Behavior” is beginning to be broken down.

Let’s put things in a little better perspective. In 1865, slavery was abolished in the United States. Less than
150 years later, Barack Obama, has become the 1 st
Black Man to hold the highest political office in the United
States.
No longer will we, as Black people, have to hold on to the obscure allegations that: That Thomas Jefferson, the 3 rd elected President, Andrew Jackson, the
7 th
elected President, Abraham Lincoln the 16 th
, Warren G. Harding the 29 th
and
Calvin Coolidge, the 30 th
elected
President were Black because if their
Mulatto ancestry.

Barrack Obama took his oath of office blocks from where slaves were once housed in pens and sold for profit. He sleeps in a house that was built in part by slave labor, and near the room where
Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation. A Black Man will host dinners where Teddy Roosevelt entertained the 1 st
African American formal dinner guest in 1901, and a Black
Man will command the most powerful military on earth. An institution that was not officially integrated until 1948.
There has always been a paradox between Democratic values preached in this country and the way in which they

are practiced. This is especially important to us as African Americans because our relation with American democracy has always been “star crossed” because of racial slavery and the need to carry on the struggle.
Omega’s impact in the “Struggle” is part of an exhibit that was displayed at the
Omega Psi Phi, John H. Williams
Museum in Decatur Ga.
For those that are not familiar, the museum was dedicated under Grand
Basileus George Grace, but it lay relatively empty until GKRS Bro. Lewis
Anderson and International Membership
Chairman and former 12 th
District

Representative, Bro. Keith W. Neal, assisted me in compiling and chronicling hundreds of artifacts and items of memorabilia and capturing oral and video interviews of the oldest brothers in each District.
One of the exhibits that was developed was, “Omega Men in the Civil Rights
Struggle” and it was featured at the
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the exhibit was “held over” 3 additional months.
Other priceless artifacts displayed in the museum include a rare portrait of Carter
G. Woodson, by famous Harlem
Renaissance painter Louis Mailou Jones,

Dr. Ernest E. Just’s microscope, his
College diploma , a wall sized mural of
Col Charles Young, a first edition purple cover Herman Dreer History of Omega
Psi Phi book and much, much more.
Recently discovered is a transcribed version of one of the last interviews of
Founder Bro. Bishop Edgar A. Love, conducted by Bro. Joshua Mark Hyman, in 1973, one a few months before Bro.
Loves death.
In that interview (that filled 6 pages), one of the questions that was asked of
Founder Bro. Love was, “Do you think
Omega Men are living up to your initial

inception by way of the 4 Cardinal
Principles?
Bro. Love’s answered by saying, (and I’ll paraphrase) “Not all of them are, I’m sorry to say the Master made a mistake, he only chose 12 disciples and among them a traitor. You can’t expect Omega to have over 30,000 members without making some mistakes. We have got to be very careful, we don’t want men just because they are great athletes without character or because they are outstanding in some phase of school life, with no character, we don’t want them!
There is a place for mediocre men but not in Omega.

With that in mind, let me close with the words from a Poem written by a former slave, upon gaining their freedom.
“We ain’t what we oughta be”.
“We ain’t what we wanna be”.
“We ain’t what we gonna be”.
“But thank God”,
“We ain’t what we used to be”.
God Bless you all and President Obama, and may you keep the flame of Omega burning bright for all to see and follow.
Thank You!!!!