11 minute read
Education
Opal Lee, Grandmother of Juneteenth, Visits Excel Academy Public School for Girls
Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Juneteenth, a holiday long celebrated in Black communities across the country, became a federal holiday last year after Opal Lee and several others wrote elected officials, collected more than a million signatures, and planned a 1,400 mile walk from Fort Worth, Texas to the nation’s capital.
Lee recently returned to the District to teach a group of young people at Excel Academy Public School for Girls about Juneteenth. During her visit on Wednesday, Dec. 7, she read from a Juneetenth children’s book and expressed her desire for, what she described as, true freedom.
Even with Juneteenth’s newfound prominence, Lee stressed that the United States has yet to fully realize the principles outlined in its founding documents. She said all hands must be on deck to fulfill that goal.
“Freedom, real freedom, is everyone’s responsibility. We have too many homeless people and too many people who don’t have jobs and healthcare,” said Lee, 93.
“I’ll keep talking and walking and hoping that people will understand. We must be vigilant. We can’t get complacent and let another person come into the presidency who is bound on having a dictatorship.”
On June 17, 2021, Lee counted among several people who surrounded President Joe Biden (D) as he signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Holiday Act into law. Days later, federal government offices closed and people across the nation enjoyed their day off on what has long been a commemoration of freedom for African Americans in Texas.
On June 19, 1865, 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, the gamut, and include not only celebrations. One year during the late 1930s, a mob of white people in Fort Worth, Texas burned down Lee’s family home on Juneteenth. On Wednesday, she said that memory remained etched in her mind.
For Excel Academy Principal Shaunte Daniel, the rawness of Lee’s experiences helped students make more sense of the Juneteenth holiday and other historical events. She said Lee’s visit accentuated the instruction and made it even more relatable to the young people.
“We can make those connections to texts that students have read and [class]work they have done that aligns with what Ms. Lee has done,” Daniel said.
“Our students are equipped with context from their city so they feel connected to activism. Our respon-
Texas and told more than 250,000 enslaved Africans that they had been freed.
Years earlier, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation secured freedom for enslaved Africans in states under Union control. As a Confederate stronghold in a remote area, Texas maintained chattel slavery for at least two more years. However, General Order No. 3, delivered by General Gordon Granger, abolished the institution.
On June 19, 1866, Galveston, Texas hosted the first Juneteenth celebration, initially called Jubilee Day. In the decades to follow, Black people throughout Texas and other parts of the United States continued to commemorate Juneteenth with church services, parades and other celebratory gatherings.
Lee’s memories of Juneteenth run
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5 Opal Lee, known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, reading to students at Excel Academy. (Marckell Williams/ The Washington Informer)
sibility is to educate and empower students so they can believe in themselves.”
Since before its transition from public charter to public school, Excel Academy has attracted parents, teachers and community members committed to shaping the minds of elementary and middle school-aged girls.
The goal, as explained by teachers and administrators in the past, centers on maintaining a level of rigor that prepares them for high school and beyond.
Daniel said Lee’s visit represents a continuation of that work. On Wednesday, Daniel and a group of students greeted Lee in Excel Academy’s lobby and gave her flowers. They later escorted her throughout the building and listened as she dropped gems of knowledge.
Kia Koerts, an eighth grader in her fourth year at Excel Academy, said she felt inspired by Lee. The budding influencer said she wants to live her life to the fullest and channel her leadership skills to affect change.
“This visit encouraged me to work harder and use opportunities to excel and get what I want in life,” Kia said.
“Ms. Lee taught me to keep going and pushing for what I want. She pushed to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Next Juneteenth, I plan to have fun with my friends, blow fireworks and have a good time.” WI @SamPKCollins
Celebrating Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Austin R. Cooper, Jr. Managing Editor Our House Newsletter
Meta Description: Post the Fraternity’s 116th Founders Day, Our House Managing Editor and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Austin R. Cooper reflects on the groundbreaking organization.
SEVEN MEN OF VISION
One-hundred-sixteen years ago, seven students founded Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. on the campus of Cornell University.
The seven young men of vision were: Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Vertner Woodson, Robert Harold Ogle and George Biddle Kelley. Each of the seven recognized the need for a strong bond of brotherhood among African descendants in the United States.
Alpha Phi Alpha is the first intercollegiate Greek-letter Fraternity established for Black men.
ALPHA IN MY BLOOD
My introduction to the fraternity was through my father, the late Brother Austin R. Cooper, Sr.
An Episcopal priest, my father was very active in the community of Cleveland, Ohio, where I spent my formative years.
His brother and my uncle, the late Brother Clement Theodore Cooper, was also an Alpha, here in Washington, D.C.
My father pledged at the Gamma Psi Chapter of Saint Augustine’s University, Raleigh, North Carolina. My uncle “crossed the burning sands” at the Nu Chapter at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
So, you see, Alpha Phi Alpha is quite literally in my blood. And as my father used to tell me and others, “Oh, Austin has a choice of fraternities, but just one.” However, choosing a fraternity was truly a no-brainer.
Other childhood idols included numerous distinguished members at the time, including, but not limited to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke, U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell, scholar, singer and activist Paul Robeson, author and humanitarian W.E.B. DuBois, former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, and music legend Duke Ellington.
BECOMING AN ALPHA
When I arrived on the campus of Saint Augustine’s University in August 1979, I immediately noticed that the men of the Gamma Psi Chapter were focused on two things: education and scholarship. The Alphas were known as the campus scholars and Gamma Psi Brothers had some of the highest-grade point averages on campus.
They were involved in all campus activities, including student government. Gamma Psi was known for various community engagement efforts, such as voter-registration efforts leading up to the 1980 presidential campaign between former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
I completed the pledge process as a sophomore and December 5, 1980, remains one of the proudest days of my life as I officially became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha. My father was present that evening and pinned me.
Today, forty-two years later, the fraternity remains an important part of my life. I am a member of the Mu Lambda Chapter of Washington, D.C., of which my Uncle Theodore belonged for over fifty years.
As a member, I serve on the education committee, where one of our community engagement activities includes monthly mentorship meetings with young men at Ballou Senior High School in Southeast. These young men are our future and I am confident that such one-on-one interactions, which resumed last month after a two-plus year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will have a positive impact on their lives.
You see, when done properly, mentorship works both ways for the mentor and mentee. My Alpha Brothers and I are inspired by them just as much – and possibly more. We seek to strive to be reliable and long-term sources of inspiration, guidance, and support for these young men.
And at the end of the day, community service and human kind, around the world, remains a core mission of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., 116 years later. “First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All.” WI
5 Father and son and Alpha Brothers, the Rev. Austin R. Cooper, Sr. and Our House Managing Editor Austin R. Cooper Jr. (Courtesy Photo)
ELLINGTON from Page 1
on campus more than eight hours a day during the academic year, and throughout the summer months.
The rigor of a DESA education continued even throughout the pandemic. Since returning to in-person learning, Jonathan and his peers within the vocal department have showcased their highly-developed skills throughout the city.
Most recently, DESA’s show choir performed before French first lady Brigitte Macron during her visit to DESA earlier this month. Other gigs this academic year include performing at a Black educators’ conference and at Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s investiture ceremony.
Jonathan said those experiences spoke to the uniqueness of a DESA experience that he and his peers want to protect from District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). That’s why, in his latest foray as editor of DESA’s student-ran magazine “On the Bright Side,” Jonathan and members of his editorial staff have galvanized their peers around a movement to stop DCPS from taking total control of DESA.
As the District’s only performing arts high school with a dual curriculum, DESA maintains autonomy of its arts programming. For nearly half a century, that arrangement has allowed DESA to provide top-notch instruction in: dance, literary media and communications, museum studies, instrumental music, vocal music, theatre, technical design and production and visual arts.
However, members of the DESA community, including Jonathan, fear that a DCPS takeover would eradicate such programming.
“The professional program allows us to have this training that other students wouldn’t have,” Jonathan said.
As outlined in its mission statement, DESA aspires to nurture and inspire passion for the arts in young talented people who otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to develop their artistic skills.
“It’s amazing the things that [DESA founders] Peggy Cooper Cafritz and Mike Malone spoke about came true. You can’t get that anywhere else. We’re around people of our own ethnicity who want to learn about their craft. We get a lot of freedom of expression.” A LEGACY UNDER SIEGE?
For more than two decades, DCPS and DESA’s governing board, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project ( DESAP) have outlined the terms of their relationship in contracts that get renewed every five years.
In February, amid the latest round of negotiations, DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said that DCPS planned to assume total control of DESA. He made that comment in the aftermath of sexual assault allegations that sparked concerns about DESA’s oversight and accountability procedures.
Months prior, DESAP members came to the table eager to secure additional funding for DESA’s dual-curriculum arts programming.
At this point however, DCPS continues to insist that all DESA teachers be certified and have a DCPS contract. If both sides can’t come to an agreement about the new contract by the end of the calendar year, each will have to submit proposals of their own.
DESA community members familiar with the negotiations said DCPS’ total control of DESA would decimate the school’s art programming. They’ve pointed to Brookland Middle School and Hart Middle School as examples where DCPS has fallen short in maintaining arts instruction.
Furthermore, DESA community members described DCPS’ demands as an affront to a vision set forth by founders Cafritz and Mike Malone.
In 1974, Cafritz, a philanthropist and longtime D.C. school board member, and Malone, a veteran Broadway choreographer and director, morphed what had been Workshops for Careers in the Arts into DESA.
Their new school would find its home on the campus of the former Western High School, perched on a hill in Georgetown in Northwest.
Since its inception, DESA has served as the District’s only performing arts public school with a dual curriculum, intended as a means of preparing students for the rigors of the various arts professions. Out of DESA’s nearly 200 teachers, only 30 have DCPS contracts. The rest are working artists in their own right who impart their wealth of knowledge upon their students.
Prominent former DESA students include comedian Dave Chappelle, opera singer Denyce Graves, hiphop artist and multi-instrumentalist Christylez Bacon, singer Johnny Gill, actor Lamman Rucker, singer Ari Lennox and actress Samira Wiley.
Admission into DESA requires the completion of an application and an audition. Graduates, most of whom graduate within four years, also accumulate more credits than the traditional DCPS student. WI
