IOTA PHI THETA: THE FOUNDING AND ASCENDANCY
The Fall of 1963 was a wonderful time to be young, Black, and a college student in America. For African-Americans, hope was not only alive, it was brighter than ever. It was students who filled the buses and took the freedom rides in the deep south. Sometimes they were jailed, injured and killed. But in 1963 the movement was in full swing.
At Morgan State College (within view of the memorial statue of Frederick Douglas) Albert Hicks, Lonnie Spruill Jr., Charles Briscoe, Charles Brown, Louis Hudnell, Charles Gregory, Elias Dorsey Jr., Michael Williams, Frank Coakley, John D. Slade. Barron Willis and Webster Lewis congregated on the steps of Hurt Gymnasium and conceived IOTA PHI THETA.
While forming a philosophy for IOTA, the founders were mindful of their responsibility to reflect the changing times. The organization was to be relevant, not just to be. It was to encourage brotherhood, not stamp out individuality. It was for leaders, not just for followers.
Although we agreed basically with each other we founders in many ways , were very different. We reacted to the changing times in different ways. But the goal we had in common was that our fraternity would bestow upon each brother, within the bounds of established rules of good governance, and non-offensive behavior, the freedom to define himself.
IOTA has become, not a dream, but a magnificent reality — a glimpse of the higher life, the broader possibilities of a new black man — of humanity, which is granted to the man who, amid the rush and roar of living, pauses to learn what living means.
–
John D. Slade
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