In his time on the team, Garrett never played with or against a single other Black athlete, but his legacy helped open doors for future students. He made his varsity debut in December of 1948, and played until his graduation in 1951. As a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Garrett found support from his fraternity brothers and community members, and successfully challenged the ban. While Garrett was a shoo-in for the freshman basketball squad, Black athletes were barred - unofficially - from Big Ten varsity teams. Bill Garrett, a Black basketball player, led his high school team to become state champions in 1947, and was admitted to Indiana University that fall. While teamwork between Black fraternities led to legal challenges of segregation in courtrooms, members were also fighting discrimination on the basketball court at Indiana University. Alpha Phi Alpha member Thurgood Marshall also litigated the case - the start of his rise in the civil rights movement. Kappa Alpha Psi member Donald Gaines Murray brought a lawsuit against the University of Maryland when he was denied entry to the Law School, and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity funded the lawsuit. In 1935, two of the Divine Nine demonstrated the power of joining forces: Kappa Alpha Psi and Alpha Phi Alpha, the fraternity founded at Cornell, worked together on a discrimination case. Van Dyne represented an African American student who was denied enrollment at the newly built Roosevelt Junior High School in Coffeyville, Kansas in a lawsuit. In 1924, Kappa Alpha Psi members Elisha Scott and R.M. As more Black students began to take on the fight to break down racial barriers to the courts, BGLO members were both plaintiffs and legal representatives in various cases. The service program provided mentorship and tutoring services to high school and college students. Kappa Alpha Psi inaugurated its first national program, Guide Right, in 1922. A second chapter was chartered in 1913 at the University of Illinois, and by 1921 there were more than 12 chapters, including groups in Iowa, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.Īs the fraternity grew, so did the outreach and activism of its members. But Kappa Alpha Psi was always a forward-looking group, with the goal of expanding to other schools. As a result, members struggled to find meeting spaces and to establish a fraternity house. These students paved a path forward that wasn’t easy, as they faced racial prejudice and discriminatory practices that excluded them from social gatherings and living in campus dorms.Įven after the organization was officially incorporated in the state of Indiana, the university refused to grant the fraternity a charter. And it wasn’t until the 1890s that Marcellus Neal would become the first African American graduate. Indiana University was founded in 1820, but the first African American student, Harvey Young, wouldn’t be admitted for another 60 years. Kappa Alpha Psi: A portrait of brotherhood Bobby Rush and basketball player Calvin Murphy
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