A Howard spring would not be complete without activity on The Yard, and this April the Divine 9 Greek organizations drew crowds with their probates.
During the first week of April, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. revealed their newest initiates and celebrated legacy, some of which began at Howard.
These are four of the nine organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, more commonly known as the Divine 9. These Greek collegiate organizations have historically impacted the Black community as a whole striving to build and uplift the Black community amid times of rampant discrimination through community service.
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“As a mother, I am beyond proud of my son carrying this legacy. To watch him complete this process in the midst of basketball finals, knowing his mother is battling breast cancer, having a double mastectomy, and 34 treatments of radiation, watching his father being the hospital for almost a month and eventually succumbing to the disease of cancer at the age of 56, and still stay committed to the cause. I watched him be there for his two sisters and 80-year-old paternal grandmother; I’m beyond proud, I’m impressed. I admire and look up to my son. Without a shadow of a doubt that the spirit of his Father – Cecil Anthony Harris – is forever present,” Bettina Pennon, mother of new Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity member Bryce Harris, said.
“I don’t know if I have the words to describe the feeling of your son following your footsteps but more importantly, seeing the value of the fraternity that I saw as well some 30 years ago. It’s amazing, I’m overjoyed, feel blessed, and excited at the same time. I was telling my wife the night before the probate, I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve,” Mr. McEwen, who pledged to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. in 1989, said reflecting on his son’s probate.
