Willis L. Lonzer, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. general president, announced that the organization’s 2025 convention is moving from Orlando, Florida. Photo courtesy of Alpha Phi Alpha
by Alvin A. Reid | The St. Louis American
First of all, servants of all, we shall transcend all.
That is the motto of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., of which I am a member. In standing true to those words, the nation’s first Black fraternity became the first major Black organization to withdraw a national convention from the state of Florida.
Hopefully, it will not be the last to act against Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education by moving conferences and conventions elsewhere.
“In this environment of manufactured division and attacks on the Black community, Alpha Phi Alpha refuses to direct a projected $4.6 million convention economic impact to a place hostile to the communities we serve,” General President Willis L. Lonzer said in statement announcing the organization’s 2025 99th General Convention and 119th Anniversary Celebration are being moved from Orlando.
Florida recently released K-12 African American Social Studies curriculum that requires instructors for grades six through eight to highlight how slaves “developed skills” that could be used for their “personal benefit.”
Alpha Phi Alpha is doing its part to transcend the backward thinking in Florida, and I’m proud of this action.
Guess where the NFL Pro Bowl Games will be held following the upcoming season, Orlando, Florida. In a league governed by ultra-conservative (borderline racist) owners including Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, I doubt the NFL would decide to move on from Florida in February 2024.
It has the money to pull up stakes and move its Pro Bowl weekend elsewhere (like Hawaii or Los Angeles), but Commissioner Roger Goodell is a highly paid puppet. Jones and other owners pull his strings and craft the words which leave his wooden mouth.
Goodell does not have the personal courage of Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred, who put principle over potential backlash when he moved the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta because of Georgia’s continued assault on Black voting rights.
The Pro Bowl Games will go on in Orlando, but they should proceed without any Black player participating. This stand would put Florida on Front Street and demonstrate that Black players are aware of what is happening in America.
If named to the Pro Bowl, there is no contractual obligation for any player to attend. Many of them find reasons to skip the weekend, including indifference, feigned injury, or family obligations.
Black players should not even fib. They should remind the world of the atrocities of slavery by not going to Florida the first weekend in February.
NFL players, Black or white, can’t boycott regular season or playoff games in Florida because of their respective contracts. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers aren’t going to relocate regardless of Florida’s pillaging of Black history.
However, what if a few elite football and basketball prospects announced they would not play collegiately at a school in Florida?
What if some star Black collegiate players announced they are entering the transfer portal and leaving Florida because of the state’s bizarre slavery education standards?
How long would it be before the big-money boosters of the Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Miami Hurricanes, and a myriad of other schools let DeSantis know that the slavery edicts must be dropped?
Most Black athletes in high school and college don’t realize the power they hold through their ability. They could help change a Florida educational policy, and in doing so help make a positive change in America.
This article originally appeared in the St. Louis American.
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