Top: Tuesday, March 24th and Wednesday, March 25th, 2015, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Kappa Delta Lambda Chapter (logo shown above) (Lansing Alumni) and Shabazz Public School Academy will host the “REAL MEN READ!” challenge. Shown above: Attorney Richard King, Haywood J. Edwards, Sr. and Dr. Eugene Cain during “Real Men Read” last year.
LANSING, MI — Since its founding on December 4, 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African-Americans and people of color around the world.
Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-Americans, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood among African descendants in this country. The Fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell.
While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha also recognized the need to help correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African-Americans.
For over forty years, the Kappa Delta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., (more affectionately known as KDL) has diligently served the Lansing, Michigan community. It is through this service that they endeavor “to aid downtrodden humanity in its efforts to achieve higher social, economic, and intellectual status.”
They indicate that their chapter is the instrument by which Alpha Men of the Greater Lansing area come together to carry out the aims of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated: “Manly deeds, Scholarship, and Love for all Mankind.”
For over thirty years, Kappa Delta Lambda chapter has been a proud sponsor of the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in Lansing. This celebration is one of the first of its kind in the nation and has been ongoing for thirty-five years. The chapter annually awards the Martin Luther King Jr. Citizenship Award to deserving youth involved in community service and are an example to other youth and the community. Additionally, the chapter was out front early with fundraising efforts for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Project and sent forty youth from the Shabazz Public School Academy, a school with an Afro-centric focus to learning and the local Boys and Girls Club to Washington DC for the unveiling of the monument in October 2011.
Over the years the chapter has provided scholarships, developed mentoring programs such as the Alpha Esquires (the first urban scouting program of its kind in the nation) and has adhered to national programs such as “A Voteless People Is a Hopeless People”, “Project Alpha”, and “Go to High School, Go to College”. Recently the chapter adopted and partnered with Shabazz Public School Academy to assist and be an example to their students.
The “Go-to-High-School, Go-to-College” program, established in 1922, concentrates on the importance of completing secondary and collegiate education as a road to advancement. Statistics prove the value of this extra impetus in making the difference in the success of young African-American men, given that school completion is the single best predictor of future economic success. Through the educational initiative, young men receive information and learn strategies that facilitate success. Alpha men provide youth participants with excellent role models to emulate.
Chapter member Ernie Cabule said, “Going back to our future, which is our children, dictates that we must begin to impact our children at an earlier age. The ability to read well and to communicate with others is paramount in our efforts to advance and excel in life. The third grade is where students begin to learn most of their lessons from reading. Thus it is one of the markers as to whether one will succeed or fail to achieve in life. The “School to Prison” syndrome begins with test scores gleaned from third grade reading tests. The term “school-to-prison pipeline” is a phrase that is used by scholars, education reform activists and organizations to describe what they view as a widespread pattern in the United States of pushing students, especially those who are already at a disadvantage, out of school and into the American criminal justice system. The resulting miseducation and mass incarceration are said to create a vicious circle for individuals and communities.”
Furthermore, Cabule stated that the school-to-prison pipeline operates at all levels of United States government (federal, state, county, city and school district) both directly as a result of zero tolerance policies, and indirectly due to exclusion from the school system.
Our chapter’s involvement with this initiative is our adoption of the Shabazz Public School Academy, hosting their annual “Real Men Read,” challenge, and mentoring students from this school. The program began in 2011 and has expanded every year.
In addition to reading to the students, they also want to provide the young men with the image that that there are educated, well dressed men that care about them. Many of the youth at the school do not have regular contact with professional men of color.
Cabule stated, “They rarely see Black men wearing a suit and tie going to work. We want them to understand that to have a successful professional career, they must be able to read and speak well. We must show our youth that there are other options for them besides being an athlete or rapper, and that there is value in education”.
NOTE: Tuesday, March 24th and Wednesday, March 25th, 2015, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Kappa Delta Lambda Chapter (Lansing Alumni) and Shabazz Public School Academy will host the “REAL MEN READ!” challenge. This event is part of the fraternity’s effort to assist the students and staff of Shabazz Academy, which it has adopted. The primary goal of this challenge is to encourage men of the Greater Lansing Area to come to the Academy and to spend time reading to Kindergarten through Sixth Grade students. Slots are available in 15 minute increments from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm on the above mentioned days. Guest readers can bring a book of their choosing or select one from those provided. The fraternity wants to emphasize to children the importance of literacy in their future career choices and to also give them an opportunity to see positive male role models. For information or to schedule a time, contact the front office staff at 517-267-8474.
This was printed in the March 22, 2015 – April 4, 2015 edition.
