Overview
When Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper, Frank Coleman, and Ernest Everett Just founded the historically Black fraternity Omega Psi Phi on November 7, 1911, at Howard University, they could not have known how great of an impact their organization would have on American life. Over the 110 years that followed, its members led colleges and universities; served in prominent military roles; made innumerable contributions to education, civic society, science, and medicine; and at least one campaigned for the US presidency. This book offers a comprehensive, authoritative history of the fraternity, emphasizing its vital role through multiple eras of the Black freedom struggle. The authors address both the individual work of its membership, which has included such figures as Carter G. Woodson, Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, James L. Farmer Jr., Benjamin Elijah Mays, James Clyburn, Jesse Jackson, and Benjamin Crump, and the collective efforts of the fraternity's leadership to encourage its general membership to contribute to the struggle in concrete ways over the years. The result is a book that uniquely connects the 1910s with the present, showing the ongoing power of a Black fraternal organization to channel its members toward social reform.
Full Product Details
Author: Maurice J. Hobson ,
Eddie R. Cole ,
Jim C. Harper ,
Derrick P. Alridge
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9781469673196
ISBN 10: 1469673193
Pages: 376
Publication Date: 28 February 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
""A well-crafted piece of scholarship that can only be characterized as a tour de force. . . . This well-researched book cloaked in an eye-catching purple and gold dust jacket will stand the test of time and serve as the standard bearer for similar works about Black Greek-letter organizations. I highly recommend it without qualification and in the strongest possible terms.""--Judson L. Jeffries, Journal of African American Studies
Author Information
Maurice J. Hobson is associate professor of Africana studies and historian at Georgia State University. Eddie R. Cole is associate professor of higher education and organizational change at UCLA. Jim C. Harper is chair and professor of history at North Carolina Central University. Derrick P. Alridge is professor of education and an affiliate faculty member in the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia.
