The nation's oldest intercollegiate Black fraternity said Wednesday it will move its 2025 convention from Florida, calling the state "hostile" to the Black community, joining a growing chorus of similar organizations refusing to do business there.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will relocate its 99th General Convention from Orlando "due to Governor Ron DeSantis’ harmful, racist, and insensitive policies against `the Black community," according to a press release.
The nearly week-long event was expected to generate an estimated $4.6 million for the state, the fraternity said. The announcement comes after other mostly Black-led groups have said they either will not hold national gatherings in Florida or have issues with the actions of DeSantis, who is also a 2024 Republican presidential candidate.
Alpha Phi Alpha General President Willis L. Lonzer, III said Wednesday that the organization refuses to spend its dollars in an "environment of manufactured division and attacks" on Blacks in the state.
"Although we are moving our convention from Florida, Alpha Phi Alpha will continue to support the strong advocacy of Alpha Brothers and other advocates fighting against the continued assault on our communities in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis," Lonzer said.
Alpha Phi Alpha was founded in 1906 at Cornell University in Ithica, New York. The fraternity, which has included historical figures like civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., Adam Clayton Powell and Thurgood Marshall, joins other national Black organizations that have either pulled their conventions out of Florida or denounced the DeSantis administration's policies, including the recent approval of the state's African American history standards.
The new curriculum sparked a fierce backlash from educators, political leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, and advocacy groups who said the standards leave out Florida’s role in slavery and the oppression of African Americans, victim blaming Black communities and using outdated language.
DeSantis, who is trailing in his run to be the GOP nominee for president, has defended the new curriculum and has also tried to distance himself from it at the same time.
After Harris traveled to Jacksonville last week to speak against the new curriculum, calling it "an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it" as well as other recent Florida education laws, DeSantis accused the vice president and other Democrats of lying to cover for "their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children."
When asked about skills for enslaved people during a press conference Saturday, DeSantis first said he had nothing to do with writing the curriculum but believed it was "rooted in whatever was factual."
Black fraternity denounces DeSantis112-year-old Black fraternal organization Kappa Alpha Psi at convention denounces Ron DeSantis for 'racist policies'
Also last week, another Black fraternal organization, Kappa Alpha Psi, announced in a press release they were joining a "broad coalition of organizations in solidarity against insensitive, discriminatory, and racist policies being promoted in the State of Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies."
The announcement came on the same day the Florida Board of Education approved the new African American history standards.
Kappa Alpha Psi is the second-oldest existing Black Greek-letter organization and one of the National Pan-Hellenic Council or the “Divine Nine.” The fraternity was founded in 1911 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, during a time of intense racial discrimination when Black students were a tiny minority on campus, and the state was a stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan.
Earlier this month, the National Society of Black Engineers announced its 2024 convention would no longer be held in Orlando next spring after participants voiced their concerns about the state's political climate and safety.
“The very basis of our work is equity,” said NSBE CEO Janeen Uzzell. “NSBE was formed almost 50 years ago in response to the sparsity of Black people enrolling and succeeding in engineering education programs. So, we stand firm in our decision to relocate, because, inherently, any efforts that seek to regress diversity, equity and inclusion directly impact us and are unaligned with the mission of NSBE.”
And in May, the NAACP issued a travel advisory against Florida, warning that Florida was "openly hostile" to Black Americans, following multiple other travel advisories from LGBTQ+ and immigration groups.
"Before traveling to Florida," the advisory reads, "please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
'Factual?' 'Lies?'What to know about Florida schools' new Black history standards
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