Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and the Fight for Civil Rights
6 LAYBOURN_PARKS_FINAL.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 2/20/2016 4:48 PM OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY AND THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS WENDY MARIE LAYBOURN† & GREGORY S. PARKS†† I. INTRODUCTION he narrative of African Americans’ quest for racial equality T and social justice in the twentieth century is typically construed in the context of main-line civil rights organizations— NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and the like. However, for decades, black fraternal networks helped lay the groundwork for the major civil rights campaigns that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.1 Much of this history emerged from the efforts of the predecessors to black Greek-letter collegiate organizations—black secret societies. Black secret societies were created in response to the racialization and racism experienced by blacks in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.2 Blacks were subjected to legal, political, financial, and social exclusion, and this marginalization was institutionalized, which allowed for its perpetuation.3 As a result, black secret societies formed, not only as an act of self- and race-consciousness, but also to combat these oppressions.4 † Sociology Doctoral Student, University of Maryland-College Park. †† Assistant Professor of Law, Wake Forest University School of Law; National Chair, Commission on Racial Justice for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. This was a massive undertaking. Thank you to the Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy staff for the incredible work. Also, thank you to my research assistants for the tremendous effort: Alena Baker, Ashley Escoe, Steven Franklin, Ashlee Johnson, Brian Kuppleweiser, Eli Merger, Ryan McIntrye, Adam Nyenhuis, Hannah Rudder, and Sarah Walton.
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