Boule leadership meets with white house officials !

[MShakur]

Boulé Leadership Meets with White House Officials

Front Row Seated (left to right): Khephra Burns, Huel D. Perkins, Robert L. Harris, Charles C. Teamer and Peyton Williams.
Second Row Standing (left to right): Donald Floyd, Perrin Clark, Berky Nelson, H. Ron White, James Carter III, James O. Cole, White House official Paul Montiero, Rodney J. Reed, John H. Norton, White House Official Michael Blake, Dennis W. Archer, James E. Payne, Virgil Smith, Alvin Ragland, Ernie Green and Charles Johnson.
In an unprecedented move, an official delegation of Sigma Pi Phi met with White House officials on September 10. As a result of the work of the Fraternity’s Public Policy and Social Action committees, an invitation from the White House was sent to Grand Sire Archon Robert L. Harris inviting the Fraternity to engage in a dialogue with White House officials on key national public policy issues impacting African Americans and the nation. Under the leadership of Archon Dennis W. Archer, chairman of the Public Policy Committee, the Fraternity highlighted its public policy endeavors, including its recently completed comprehensive public policy statement titled “Health Care for All Americans: A Civil Right,” which was delivered to White House officials by the delegation of twenty Archons, including Grand Sire Archon Harris, Grand Sire Archon-Elect Rodney J. Reed, Grand Grammateus Peyton Williams, Grand Grapter Khephra Burns and Past Grand Sire Archons Huel D. Perkins and Charles C. Teamer. Also presented to the White House officials was the Fraternity’s public policy position on Young Black Males, which is the foundation of the social action programs of many of our member boulés throughout the Fraternity.
Commenting on this historic visit, Grand Sire Archon Harris noted the Boulé has taken a significant step toward achieving its vision of being “the preeminent fraternity for African American men of achievement” by becoming “better informed about, and taking appropriate action on, major public policy issues of concern to the community, and by supporting or providing social action programs that benefit disadvantaged African Americans.” A major part of Archon Harris’s tenure has focused on the importance of public policy in shaping the quality of life for African Americans. “This meeting with White House officials speaks to the wisdom of our Fraternity’s vision and its strategic plan,” he noted.
Other Archons in the delegation were Dennis Archer, Congressman Bobby Scott, James O. Cole, John H. Norton, James Carter III, Perrin Clark, James Payne, Al Ragland, Charles S. Johnson, III, William Jones, Ernie Green, Berky Nelson, Donald Floyd, and H. Ron White.








Boulé Leadership Meets with White House Officials | Sigma Pi Phi

---------- Post added at 09:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 PM ----------

LETS REMEMBER "BOULE" IS A GREEK WORD MEANING "ADVISORS TO THE KING"!

THIS MEETING IS HARDLY UNPRECEDENTED, A SIMILAR MEETING AT A TIME OF WAR OF MOSTLY BOULE MEMBERS IN THE EDITORS CONFERENCE TOOK PLACE IN WWI IN 1918 AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

BLACK PEOPLE WERE BECOMING MORE MILITANT AGAINST LYNCHINGS AND SO WROTE AGAINST JOINING THE WAR EFFORT.

WHITES SAID WE WERE UN-PATRIOTIC. SO THEY HAD A CONFERENCE WITH BLACK EDITORS :


"Black public outcry against lynching, bordering on what some
authorities considered to be "unpatriotic" expression in a time of war,
was a domestic "nuisance" which might well hinder prosecution of
U.S. war aims overseas. Though generally supportive of the use of black
troops to further the defined interests of the country abroad, the AfroAmerican
press was nevertheless quite given to providing front-page
coverage to these almost daily atrocities committed against black
Americans. With support from what appears to have been only a handful
of colleagues in the Military Intelligence Branch, Springarn understood
full well that any unilateral attempt to suppress publication of
such stories, while at the same time allowing lynch mobs of white Americans
to continue a favored pastime, would, at the very least, lead to
further disaffection within the Afro-American national community.
Consequently, Major Springarn, aided by Emmett Scott, evolved a
plan to appease the most prominent and powerful molders and shapers
of "black public opinion." On 5 June Scott and Springarn drafted 'a
letter to George Creel, chairman of the federal Committee on Public
Information, requesting that the Committee sponsor, "at an early date,"
a conference of approximately twenty Afro-American editors and
about "a dozen or so other influential leaders among the Negro
people...." 13 That three-day conference was convened in Washington,
D.C. on 19 June. The thirty-one persons in attendance included John
H. Murphy of the Baltimore Afro-American; Robert L. Vann, Pittsburgh
Courier; Fred R. Moore, New York Age; Benjamin J. Davis,
Atlanta Independent; Robert R. Moton of Tuskegee Institute; Archibald
H. Grimke, president of the Washington branch NAACP; P. B. S.
Pinchback, former governor of Louisiana; Kelly Miller, Howard
University dean; Robert S. Abbott of the Chicago Defender; and
W. E. B. DuBois. 14 When the conference opened Wednesday morning,
19 June, the overall atmosphere seemed calculated to play upon the
bourgeois sensibilities of black leaders in attendance. "To enliven the
occasion for the visitors," reported the New York Evening Post,


A galaxy of "prestigious" speakers was invited to address the conference:
Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War; George Creel, Chairman of
the Committee on Pl;lblic Information; Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant
Secretary of the Navy; Edward N. Hurley, Chairman of the U.S.
Shipping Board; as well as Major Springarn and his brother, Capt.
Arthur S. Springarn of the Medical Reserve Corps. Critical to any
discussion of the "controversial" treatment of Afro-American troops
overseas were the testimonies of Gen. Paul Vignal, Military Attache
of the French Embassy; and Majors Edouard Requin and L. P. Montal
of the French High Commission, who also attended. Emmett Scott
presided at all of the sessions. 16 "The general plan which Mr. Scott and
I had in mind," wrote Springarn to a superior the day following the
conference,
involved a general discussion on the part of all the conferees, so
as to permit each man to "let off steam" as much as he desired,
and then to guide the discussion in the right direction so that
unanimous action might be possible before the conference closed.

Second, there had been agreement as well that information
concerning the nature and outcome of the conference would be
handled solely through the office of Emmett Scott"
(WHO OF COURSE WAS ALSO HEAD OF THE BOULE)

WORTH READING, ITS A REALLY DEEP ARTICLE OF WHAT THE BOULE FUNCTION IS WITH GOVERNMENT.

ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10 17&context=cibs

---------- Post added at 09:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 PM ----------

http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/vi...7&context=cibs