Are Black Greek Lettered Organizations and service clubs in jeopardy at Florida's public universities?

Get the Point!

Over the past week or so, I have received a number of messages from concerned friends across America asking whether the proposed Florida House Bill 999 would go beyond banning certain academic topics, like Critical Race Theory, and certain goals, like diversity/equity/inclusion, by also banning minority Greek Lettered Organizations and clubs from state campuses?

While the language of the proposed Bill and recent repressive rhetoric from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis make it plain that the former are in jeopardy, the latter—the banning of organizations and clubs that focus on demographic minority populations—is rather murky.

Eric Blair, better known by his pen name “George Orwell” and his classic dystopian novel “1984,” very likely would call Gov. Ron DeSantis's “Freedom From Indoctrination” the latest form of “double-think”…

This lack of clarity, however, does not mitigate the risks that if Florida Republican "reformers" take an inch by restricting what is to be taught in its public schools, that the same may try to take a mile by eliminating extracurricular activities that have been minority centric (but racially diverse) for well over a century. 

While each of the “Divine 9” Black Greek Lettered Organizations was founded by Black men and women during the Jim Crow era to promote academic and professional achievement while uplifting the Black community, each has never discriminated on account of race, religion, or sexual orientation …

The simple truth is that conservatives, the "Dixiecrats" during the Jim Crow era that became (and remain) Republicans since the late 1960's, have always taken inches and miles in their attempts to preserve and protect the systemic aspects of white supremacy.

My thoughts on this matter are not hyperbolic; just this past week I had the opportunity to take Billy Norris, 18, the son of my Morehouse Brother and close friend Dr. Bill Norris, on a tour of Florida A&M University—his top choice for college. During the tour, I took him to Coleman Library and it's side entrance, one that once housed the Florida A&M University (FAMU) College of Law from 1951-1968. 

The original FAMU College of Law in Tallahassee…

Now, if you're wondering, "wait, Hobbs, doesn't FAMU have a College of Law located in Orlando," you would be correct; the "new" FAMU College of Law opened in 2002 and has thrived as a predominantly Black (but totally diverse) center of academic expression for over two decades. 

But the new FAMU College of Law came into existence because of the bitter end of the old 😡. You see, what was then known as the Florida Board of Control, the central governing entity of Florida's public colleges and universities during the Jim Crow era, closed the original FAMU College of Law in 1968 because of its desire to fund a new law school at predominantly white Florida State University.

The new FAMU College of Law opened in Orlando in the fall of 2002—38 years after the original law school was closed due to systemic racism ….

In fact, when the original FAMU Law was opened in 1951, it was created because that same Board of Control, one staffed by conservative Dixiecrat appointees, devised a scheme to provide a "separate but equal" option to prevent Black students, like the late Virgil Hawkins, from entering the University of Florida College of Law. At the time, UF Law was the only public law school in the state and in one of its infamous Virgil Hawkins decisions, Florida Supreme Court Justice Glenn Terrell, striking a blow for repressive conservatives, wrote, “I might venture to point out…that segregation is not a new philosophy generated by the states that practice it. It is and always has been the unvarying law of the animal kingdom, the dove and the quail, the turkey and the turkey buzzard, it matters not where they are found, are segregated…”

Yes, Justice Terrell's chilling and blissfully ignorant words are but another example of those “critical” facts about systemic racism that Critical Race Theory critics don't want taught in American schools.

During its 17 years of operation, the original FAMU College of Law produced a number of graduates who became a "Who's Who" in politics and law, including former Federal judge and Congressman Alcee Hastings, State Rep. Gwen Sawyer Cherry, and Florida Secretary of State Jesse McCrary, to name a few. 

The Honorable Alcee Hastings (above), who died in 2021, was a graduate of the FAMU College of Law and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi…

But conservatives, claiming that Tallahassee was not big enough to house two law schools, shut down FAMU's and to add insult to injury, packed up volumes of books stamped "FAMU Law" and moved them to Florida State—where many remain to this very day!

The current Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee…

I raise these memories because there is nothing new under the sun, and the acts of Mr. DeSantis and friends are simply recrudescences of racism past; I would be remiss if I didn't note that during the same time that the original FAMU Law was closed in 1968, that for the next decade, conservative Dixiecrats and Republicans argued that FAMU in its entirety should be merged into Florida State University—arguments that were vigorously fought by FAMU Presidents B.L. Perry and Walter L. Smith until the merger cries tapered off into occasional whispers. 

Since 1946, the “Incomparable” Florida A&M University Marching 100 has been one of the most recognized American brands worldwide…

But such remains the primary concern of the Hobbservation Point, that if modern Florida conservatives find no value in the accurate teaching of American history and scoff at the noble purposes of diversity, what's to stop them from not just limiting minority club and Black Greek Lettered Organization activities, but to attack the mission and long term viability of FAMU, the state's sole public HBCU that has been ranked the #1 public HBCU by U.S. News & World Report for three years and counting?

Ol' Hobbs with fellow members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated during American Honda's Campus All-Star Challenge (quiz bowl) tournament circa 2019. Since 1990, Florida A&M University has won eight national championships—the most in program history. Despite these and countless other achievements, Public HBCU's and BGLO's remain under constant attacks from conservative critics…

Of equal (if not greater) importance is the fact that in their repressive acts, Gov. DeSantis and crew are placing Florida's universities at accreditation risk with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Specifically, House Bill 999 arguably runs contrary to the following two SACS requirements:

1. "Effective governing boards adhere to the laws and regulations that underpin the institution’s legitimacy while championing its right to operate without unreasonable intrusions by governmental and nongovernmental agencies and entities. This applies to any governing board, whether public, private not-for-profit or private for-profit. The board protects and preserves the institution’s independence from outside pressures.”

2. "The essential role of institutions of higher education is the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge. Academic freedom respects the dignity and rights of others while fostering intellectual freedom of faculty to teach, research and publish. Responsible academic freedom enriches the contributions of higher education to society.”

It doesn't take a legal expert to realize that HB 999, one that purports to ban "courses based on unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content,” limits the freedom of professors to teach, and students to learn, subject matter that "offends" the political ideologies of conservatives who instead of presenting multiple perspectives on any number of topics, would prefer to stifle free speech, free thought, and the pursuit of freedom and equality in Florida. It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to note that if SACS accreditation is pulled, that the work that the University of Florida and Florida State University have put in to rise to #5 and #19, respectively, in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of all public schools could be in vain as financial aid and federal grants dry up “like a raisin in the sun,” to quote the great Lorraine Hansberry.

To conclude, I do find it very encouraging that concerned citizens are raising their voices in opposition to HB 999 and similar legislation across the nation. While those of us on the ground here in Florida will continue to push back on the Capitol grounds, the Legislative halls, and in Federal court, I ask that allies continue to share information on social media, tag @RonDesantis and hashtag Critical Race Theory as often as you can, and keep up the pressure on the arbiters of what has truly become Jim Crow 2.0.