Emmett Till's killers J.W. Since the beginning, every endeavor was directed toward establishing the Fraternity upon a strong foundation before embarking on plans of expansion. The Mississippi congressmans long struggle for civil rights is culminating with his role atop the January 6 committee. To help address these challenges Democrats introduced the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Once every year, the group meets in the District of Columbia tounderstand current legislation that affects members of our communities, and to develop talking points and plans of action for engaging elected representatives in the House, the Senate, and respective state assemblies, and local city halls. Today, the men of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. celebrate 110 years of Achievement in Every Field of Human The duty to uphold and abide by the Fraternitys standards of conduct and to use Ultimate Respect when confronting brothers who fail in their obligations to Pi Kappa Phi. Bennie Thompson is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Mississippis 2nd congressional district since 1993. It's part of our culture. The report provides examples of Twitter managers failing to act on employee warnings about heated rhetoric on the platform, including the phrase locked and loaded. Employees were told they could escalate any troubling content to superiors, but no experienced supervisor was on duty the morning of the certification of the Presidential election, the report said. Despite the growing hostility of Whites toward Blacks in Indiana, some Black students sought a college education at Indiana University, as it was a tuition-free university of the highest quality. Whitten sees no reason to commemorate Till's slaying. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. A spokeswoman for Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, didnt respond to a request for comment or confirm the authenticity H cuRRenT membeRs H Bennie Thompson 1948 united states representative democrat from mississippi 1993 Please see our Contributors and Sources page for data source details. As you mature, its so much more.. As we celebrate Black History Month, its important to acknowledge the remarkable legacy of the Divine Nine. Hes one of the few people in politics who has no ego. The fraternity declined to comment to NPR. Milam (left) and Roy Bryant sit with their wives, Juanita Milam (second from left) and Carolyn Bryant, in September 1955. Track and Field was the only sport which Blacks were able to demonstrate their athleticism. The committee was approved almost entirely along party lines, and its members were chosen by Pelosi. The administration maintained an attitude of indifference, as Blacks slowly matriculated and were likewise swiftly forgotten. and I shall do my share to make it so. But he has one of the strongest spines of anybody in Washington, and he understands that this kind of stuff cannot be given air. Twitter, Parler and Gab didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Thomas says it's about interpreting the Till story a different way. Bennie Thompson is the son of Will and Annie Lauris Thompson. His father, who died when Thompson was a teenager, was an auto mechanic, and his mother was a teacher. Bennie Thompsons salary is $174,000 per year, which is the salary for most members of the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service. In 2018, newly-elected Congressman A. DonaldMcEachin (Beta Kappa, 1980) developed and hosted the first ever Kappa League on Capitol Hill program. Just a few years before Thompson and Fitzgerald attended Tougaloo, nine students held a sit-in at a public library in Jackson in an effort to integrate the facility, a protest that catalyzed a wave of civil rights demonstrations in the state. A segregated pool was closed, and land was repurposed to build a new municipal building. Judge: Former California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes not defamed by Esquires Iowa farm story Bolton, Mississippi benniethompson.house.gov Born January 28 Joined October 2009 562 97.2K Followers Replies Media Pinned Tweet The expectation that you find your passion and excel. I am always looking for students who are a little different from everybody else, who are not afraid to speak their mind, Cingranelli says. Debbie Elliott/NPR The Founders sought one anothers company between classes and dropped by one anothers places of lodging to further discuss the means of formulating the fledgling fraternity in an effort to relieve the depressing isolation. I dont do a lot of talking, Thompson told me, because I like encouraging others to be engaged with whatever the process is. That focus on collaboration has served him well for the select committee, which includes two other committee chairs among its high-profile members: Lofgren, the leader of the House Administration Committee, and Representative Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He was very good at it. Bennie was always like a grown-up, said Oleta Fitzgerald, now the Southern regional director of Childrens Defense Fund, but once a classmate of Thompsons at Tougaloo College. Sometimes, the greatest gifts arrive in the most innocuous packaging. In 2012, Jeffries won his seat in Congress. All Rights Reserved. "The people in Tallahatchie County are to a great degree tired of Emmett Till," says former county prosecutor John Whitten. You would be hard-pressed to find somebody whos a member of a Black Greek letter organization who talks about it in the past tense.. Some of these members include: Ralph Abernathy, Wilt Chamberlin, Montell Jordan, Benjamin Jealous, Oscar Robertson, Cedric the Entertainer, Arthur Ashe, Mike Tomlin, Gayle Sayers, Adrian Fenty, Robert S. Abbott, Bennie Thompson, Donald Byrd, Johnnie Cochran, Ed Gardner, Smokie Norful, John Singleton, Tom Bradley, Bob Johnson, John Conyers, Alcee Hastings, Lerone Bennett, Jr., Kwame Jackson, Bill Russell, Tavis Smiley, Marvin Sapp, and Colin Kaepernick to name a few. Its a real joy working with him, said Katko, who is retiring at the end of the year. If nobody would stir that damn pile of stuff up, it wouldn't stink.". The city halls are no longer places our black folks fear to come, Thompson told The New York Times in a 1979 article. There, he partnered with current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, then a state senator, to author a law preventing police from keeping the names and addresses of New Yorkers they stopped, frisked, and releasedmany of them Black and Latino. You know, I cast votes based on what the issues are at that time, Thompson told CNN last July, explaining his vote against certifying Bushs election. Congressman Thompson has been a long supporter of Agriculture. Bennie Thompson (second from left) at the National Conference of Black Mayors in 1974. As members of the Favorite Healthcare Staffing family, if you are also a member of a Divine Nine fraternity or sorority, please post a picture of yourself representing your organization. In 2006, he was elected to the New York State Assembly. He calls commemorative sites like signs and monuments the new lunch counters. She says the repeated vandalism just adds more pain. Write to Mini Racker at mini.racker@time.com. Thats one of the guys Im really going to miss working with when I leave here. (Katko, who was one of just 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the events of January 6, was sure to clarify that his praise of Thompson pertained only to the Homeland Security Committee. WebBennie Thompson is a producer, known for 2020 Democratic National Convention (2020), Spies of Mississippi (2014) and Attack on Democracy the January 6th Hearings (2022). WebThe obligation to remain involved in Pi Kappa Phi after graduation and to work perpetually to build the ideal fraternity. All of a sudden, there was a part of the campus that just didnt know that we even existed, and then we were like the Beatles on campus, Cordero says. For $5, you can watch a short film in which local residents describe what they remember from 1955, and walk through a hallway of exhibits, including a replica of Bryant's Grocery. Thompsons supporters delineate a clear path from Thompsons upbringing, education, and career as a Black man in Mississippi, a state riven by the domestic terrorism of white supremacists in the decades between Reconstruction and the civil rights movement. the highest possible standards of scholarship; Who safeguard the reputation of their chapter Whitten's father was one of the defense lawyers. You know when you are in college, and there are just some people that seem like grown-ups, more than the other students? In Congress, Thompson focused much of his work on racial equity. To combat the repeated attacks by vandals, he has helped the Memorial Commission create a smartphone app called the Emmett Till Memory Project a virtual tour including pictures, documents, and maps. It was Carter's vision to leverage to size and breadth of the fraternity to mobilize legislators, regulators, and activists, and, at the same time, bolster the influence of the Congressional Black Caucus. Two of these men, Elder Watson Diggs and Byron Kenneth Armstrong, had previously attended Howard University and had come into contact with men belonging to the only national Black Greek-Letter Fraternity currently in existence. For many of them, joining Kappa Alpha Psi represented a lifetime commitment to leadership and social change. Politics | It is the beautiful realization of a vision shared commonly by the late Revered Founders that enabled them to sow the seed of a fraternal tree whose fruit is available to, and now enjoyed by college men everywhere, regardless of their color, religion or national origin. Fox ratings plunge for Tucker Carlsons old time slot Representative John Katko, the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, said he and Thompson have a terrific partnership, stemming from an understanding of the bipartisan importance of the committees purview. of the chapter and the national organization; Who bring credit to the fraternity by striving to attain Im proud of our work together and honored to be his friend.. Careful consideration was given to ensure the organization established a firm foundation the first year before efforts to expand were attempted. Copyright 2022 Bennie Thompson for Congress. The body of Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was visiting relatives, was found in the Tallahatchie River near Money, Miss., on Aug. 31, 1955. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson called on the hundreds who marched during the annual King Day at the Dome to continue to fight against injustice. Let me tell you, stepping is not easy, especially when you have to learn to twirl canes, Cordero says. According to Brown, Black Greek life in the U.S. arose from exclusion and racism in higher education. Who are bound together in a common loyalty One of those men, 21-year-old Bennie Thompson, had run for office because he wanted change for the towns Black residents: improved housing and infrastructure, fire and police protection, recreation for young people. Kappa Alpha Nu became the first incorporated Black Fraternity in the United States once granted a charter by the Indiana Secretary of State on May 15, 1911. The state of Indiana became a stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan. Recent reporting by The Washington Post and CBS News revealed a gap in Trumps phone logs on January 6, 2021, of seven hours and 37 minutes. Rep. Sanford Bishop of Georgia is a Kappa too, as is Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who served as chairman of the groundbreaking Jan. 6 committee. The center is supporting efforts by Thompson and the Till Memorial Commission to have Bryant's Grocery and other sites associated with Till's lynching protected as part of the National Park Service. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. I call him a quiet giant. Hes someone who can walk in the room without saying things, but he makes you feel secure and comfortable, said Representative Joyce Beatty, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. In a previous Web version of this story, we incorrectly said the Mississippi Delta is in the northeast part of the state. Thompsons unpretentious persona may have allowed him to largely escape the wrath of the committees critics. When Thompson and Flowers faced off in 2020, Thompson ended up winning by more than 30%. More than 30 years before he was elected to lead 211 of his fellow Democrats in Washington, Hakeem Jeffries was tapped to lead a dozen young men in upstate New York. Over time, white students came to watch, too. He had joined the fraternity just a year earlier in search of community in his new home, nearly 200 miles and a world away from his Brooklyn upbringing. Taking careful attention to detail and to ensure the fraternity was rooted in authenticity, these Founder Diggs took courses in Greek heraldry and mythology and applied their combined knowledge to the development of these articles. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Congressman Thompson is and has been a consistent supporter of our armed fighting forces and veterans, making sure that these 22.6 million heroes get the services they deserve. Guy Levis Grant, Edward Giles Irvin, and Sgt. The story begins in Money, Miss., at Bryant's Grocery, where Till allegedly flirted with a white woman. All rights reserved. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Throughout my public service career in Congress, I have always put service above self and principles above politics. Subscribe to Stathead Football: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Pro Football Reference Database. Or write about sports? The panels investigators interviewed technology industry executives and law enforcement and intelligence officials, along with Trump aides and Republican election officials. Congress launches inquiry into states disinvestment in Jackson water, Jan. 6 panel votes unanimously to subpoena Trump to testify, Capitol Police investigate letter with concerning language found near Jan. 6 committee Chair Bennie Thompsons office, Congress launches inquiry into states disinvestment in, Jan. 6 panel votes unanimously to subpoena, Capitol Police investigate letter with concerning language. Picking an underclassman like Jeffries to run the chapter fit with the Kappa Alpha Psi mantra of training for leadership, Cordero adds, by letting the youngest brothers in the chapter run the chapter while the older ones can provide mentorship.. But telling his story in the Mississippi Delta remains fraught. And so in this moment, as he chairs the January 6 [committee], the importance of holding people accountable for the insurrectionist acts on our nations Capitolif we dont hold people accountable, he clearly understands it only opens the door for more acts of domestic terrorism.. The University of Mississippi fraternity brothers who posed with guns at the bullet-pocked marker were suspended by the Kappa Alpha Order, an organization that "Basically African Americans didn't have an opportunity to tell any of the story back in 1955 when it did happen," he says, because of fear of reprisals in Jim Crow-era Mississippi. Committee members including Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff pushed back and said such a decision had not been made yet. Their experiences at Howard gave rise to the chief motivating spirits which sowed of the seed for a fraternity at Indiana University and crystallized the idea of establishing an independent Greek-letter organization. WebRate This Fraternity. WebOne of the 5 Objectives of the Fraternity is: To promote the spiritual, social, intellectual and moral welfare of members. Many aspects of the Fraternitys rites are engrained in Christianity ideals and contain excerpts from the Bible. If I have two roads, a paved road with potholes in a white neighborhood and an unpaved one in a black neighborhood, my priority is the unpaved road, Thompson said in a 1985 profile written by Joe Klein for Esquire. The expectation that you live both your personal values, as well as those espoused in the Fraternitys Ritual of Initiation. Weems says. Born in a state with a unique history of racial inequality, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson draws inspiration from the legacies of Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry and Henry Kirksey. The Bolton, Mississippi native considers it an honor to walk the path Mississippi civil rights icons paved decades ago. These men of vision decided Kappa Alpha Nu would be more than another social organization. Jeffries was only a college sophomore at Binghamton University when he was elected president of the schools fledgling chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi. Let us see you in your colorful paraphernalia. His net worth is estimated to be around $1.6 million US dollars. The company found its own response to the incitement of violence troubling, according to the report, but no substantive work was done to improve the situation in 2021, including in other high-profile elections such as in Brazil last year. hide caption. obtained and posted by the Washington Post, Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (April 20-27), More land sliding at Casa Romantica; residents evacuated, trains halted through San Clemente, Then and Now: Photos of Casa Romantica show damage caused by landside, Orange County Artist of the Year winners announced, The DMV says permission to drive is based on ability, but older drivers are scrutinized more, OC Marine who volunteered in Ukraine, survived rocket attack: I would do it again, Fire at Barnes & Noble in Orange disrupts book-signing event, Joe Bidens re-election bid is off to a bad start, Henry Winkler advises find a passion and stick with it, no matter the stage of life, A look at Orange Countys baseball teams and the CIF-SS playoffs, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. full responsibility as citizens; I believe that my chapter can become an ideal chapter, Based on the evidence we have in our possession, I feel very confident with inviting her to the committee, and if she refuses, issuing a subpoena, Thompson told reporters on Monday, after the committee voted to recommend that the full House hold former Trump aides Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro in contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to subpoenas. "Whites and blacks came to our meetings and [said] 'Why are you all bringing this up? He is a member of the Democratic Party. But it also gave me the way forward of how you work toward institutional change in a community, Thompson said. He lives in Sumner, Miss., where the two men who killed Till were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury, only to confess to the killing when they sold their story to Look Magazine months later. and activities of their college; Who prepare themselves diligently to shoulder their If the history of Emmett Till was swept under the rug before, one driving force in commemorating it now is tourism and the potential to bring new money to the Mississippi Delta a largely agricultural landscape in the northwest part of the state that struggles to attract new industry. Trump ups competition with DeSantis in planning trip to Iowa Morse says that for decades, there has been a reluctance to draw attention to the building. Alpha and Omega, the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet correlate to Christ and the Founders relationship and connection to the church. Find out more. It was 1969, one year after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., and in Bolton, Mississippi, white Southerners ugly backlash to the gains of the civil rights movement was a powerful force. hide caption. He plans to donate a long-term lease to better protect the site. February 10,1963 Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Favorite Healthcare Staffing. hide caption. The committee may also have to wade into controversial waters and call Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomass wife, Virginia, to testify, based on reports that she lobbied the White House chief of staff to pursue efforts to overturn the election. The House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection focused in televised hearings and in its final report on the role Trump and his efforts to overturn the presidential election. The charter members were Elder Watson Diggs, Byron K. Armstrong, John M. Lee, Henry T. Asher, Marcus P. Blakemore, Guy L. Grant, Paul W. Caine, George W. Edmonds, Ezra D. Alexander and Edward G. Irvin. The school provided a safe space for Freedom Riders and hosted meetings led by Medgar Evers, the president of the Mississippi NAACP. Other Kappa Alpha Psi alumni include famed NBA center Wilt Chamberlain, civil rights activist and quarterback Colin Kaepernick, lawyer Johnnie Cochran, and New York Times columnist Charles Blow, as well as Mandela Barnes, the former Wisconsin lieutenant governor who nearly flipped a U.S. Senate seat last year. It can demonstrate to young people, Thompson said, that somebody who was not born on the right side of town, somebody who didnt go to the best schools, somebody who basically by all indications is lucky to be alive, that properly encouraged can make it.. Thompsons chairmanship of the select committee is not just a capstone of the career of a respected congressman and chair of the Homeland Security Committee, but of his lifes work of subverting systems while still acting within them, using his relative power to methodically scrub the grout of racism and corruption from their halls. Congressman Thompson has diligently fought to reverse discrimination in the higher education system of Mississippi as an original plaintiff in the Ayers Desegregation Case. The system, and the people who had long defined it, did not want to change. Debbie Elliott/NPR We present them here for purely educational purposes. This environment made day-to-day life for Blacks an arduous task and attempts to successfully achieve in school, nearly impossible. Last July, he was tasked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to lead a select committee to investigate the attempted insurrection and storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. inNew Orleans,LA, Weighted Career AV (100-95-): 15 (6677th overall since 1960), PFR HOF Monitor: 8.20 (981st among DB, average HOF DB is 98.02). Bennie Thompson was born in New Orleans, LA. He is well-known among his colleagues, but not necessarily a nationally recognized figure. He has been married his college sweetheart, London Johnson of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, since 1968. Thompson and wife have a daughter, BendaLonne Thompson. Bennie Thompson and his wife London Johnson have a daughter, BendaLonne; granddaughter, Jeanna; and grandson, Thomas Gordon. Bennie Thompson is the son of Will and Annie Lauris Thompson. That it has to be addressed head-on, or it can quickly take us back to where we were in Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s., Representative Jamie Raskin, a member of the January 6 committee, also drew a line from Thompsons experiences confronting racist institutions in the Deep South to his leadership of the committee. I believe that the ideal chapter is made up of men. Politics | Thompson is married to London Johnson of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and has a daughter, BendaLonne, a granddaughter, Jeanna, and a grandson, Thomas. All Rights Reserved. A replica of Bryant's Grocery is part of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center Museum in Glendora, Miss. The name of Fraternity and the image it portrayed was of paramount importance. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity (Gamma Rho Tougaloo College) and a lifetime member of the Asbury United Methodist Church in Bolton. Proudly serving #MS02 in Congress. This button displays the currently selected search type. And Bennie Thompson has life experience dealing with all of these things, Raskin said. Equality doesnt mean spending the same amount of money on blacks as whites. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Vigilante lynchings of Blacks were commonplace. David Cingranelli, a political science professor who became one of Jeffries favorite teachers, remembers that the future Congressman never hid his opinions, despite being one of the few Black students in his course. Meta spokesman Andy Stone declined to comment on the draft report and referred questions about Trumps reinstatement to the companys previous public statements, which pledged consequences for future violations if Trumps accounts are reinstated. It remains the only Greek letter organization with its Alpha Chapter on Indiana Universitys campus. The Kappa Alpha Psi Legislative Conference, as it was originally named, was established by Congressman John Conyers (Gamma Eta, 1951) in 2002. Just make sure that you do it the right way.. The Greek Letter was chosen in place of N and the Fraternity acquired a distinctive Greek letter symbol and Kappa Alpha Psi thereby became an indistinguishable Greek-letter Fraternity. which transcends any personal selfishness; Who realize that membership means personal responsibility Plans for violence were telegraphed on both far-right forums and mainstream platforms, which pushed Jan. 6 as a critical day in the Stop the Steal movement, the report said. He served in that capacity for six years. In tiny Glendora, an old cotton gin has been converted to the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center Museum. Debbie Elliott/NPR And he was that kind of guy.. Join our linker program. "We're not today who we were back then," Sturdivant says. Pi Kappa Phis esoteric values are taught to each member through our Ritual of Initiation.
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