Description: The Wilberforce Alumni Chapter, including Joseph Lewis, a Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity advisor View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_MSS2011_B03F01_A
Subjects: African Americans; Lewis, Joseph; Wilberforce University; Alumni; Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Delta Zeta Chapter; Fraternities; Greek letter societies
Places: Wilberforce (Ohio)
 

Description: Judy Garland singing along with members of the Alpha Gamma Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at Ohio State University. In March 1938 Garland visited Columbus, Ohio and was initiated as the fraternity's sweetheart. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00788
Subjects: Greek letter societies--Ohio; Cultural Ohio--Popular Culture
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: This 6.5" by 9.5" (16.51 by 24.13 cm) photograph is the only known image of the "Black Cats," or the men of Beta Kappa Sigma at Wilberforce University. The "Black Cat Club" was a club with the purpose of fostering good times among the members. The members met at various places, usually an attic room of some member. While never officially incorporated or recognized by the university, it was a forerunner to fraternities that later established chapters at Wilberforce University. One of the men in the photograph is Charles Young, who later became an army officer, expert mapmaker, and musician. Charles Young is the second person from the left, in the second row from the front. Young (1864-1922), a Kentucky native raised in Ohio, graduated from Ripley Colored High School in 1880. He won appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1884 and in 1889 became the third African American graduate from the school. Young taught military science at Wilberforce University and later served in the Spanish American War as the major in command of the 9th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.). He had an exceptional military career, highlighted by his appointments to serve as military attache to Haiti and Liberia. He commanded troops in the "Punitive Expedition" in Mexico, and during the "Filipino Insurrection." He was also superintendent of Sequoia and General Grant national parks. At the outset of World War I, Young was the highest-ranking African American in the army. Rather than promote him, and place in a position of authority over white soldiers, the army involuntarily retired Young from active duty, ostensibly because of ill health. To prove his fitness for duty, he rode horseback from his home in Wilberforce, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. The army, nevertheless, did not promote him to colonel until after he retired from service. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1800_1765263_001
Subjects: African American Ohioans; Education; Young, Charles, 1864-1922; Greek letter societies
Places: Xenia (Ohio); Greene County (Ohio)
 

Description: Members of Lambda Boule and their wives at a special event, ca. 1980. Those pictured include M.G. Green, Julian Robinson, Grady Pettigrew, Arthur Clark, Ben Espy, Cy Butler, Bill Reynolds, J.D. White, Harold Thomas, Wilburn Weddington, Edward C. Cox and Daniel L. Mann, Jr. Lambda Boule is the Columbus, Ohio, chapter of Sigma Pi Phi, a fraternity of college- and university-educated professional men dedicated to providing local and national social action programs for the African American community. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06104
Subjects: Greek letter societies--Ohio; Multicultural Ohio--African American Ohioans; Societies and clubs
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Senator and Mrs. Ben Espy at a Lambda Boule special event, ca. 1980. A lawyer by training, Espy is a former Columbus city council member who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1991 against Greg Lashutka. He served as an Ohio state senator for the 15th district, representing Columbus, and was the Senate minority leader. Throughout his years of service to Columbus, Espy has focused on youth education, community redevelopment and job creation. Lambda Boule is the Columbus, Ohio, chapter of Sigma Pi Phi, a fraternity of college- and university-educated professional men dedicated to providing local and national social action programs for the African American community. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06105
Subjects: Greek letter societies--Ohio; Ohio History--State and Local Government; Societies and clubs
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Mr. and Mrs. Grady L. Pettigrew, Jr. at a Lambda Boule special event, ca. 1980. Lambda Boule is the Columbus, Ohio, chapter of Sigma Pi Phi, a fraternity of college- and university-educated professional men dedicated to providing local and national social action programs for the African American community. Pettigrew is a bankruptcy attorney and former bankruptcy judge in Columbus, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06106
Subjects: Greek letter societies--Ohio; Multicultural Ohio--African American Ohioans; Societies and clubs
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1930-1939, this photograph shows the Kappa Sigma fraternity house at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in Licking County. Construction was completed in 1842 and additions were added in 1875, 1930, and 1956-1979. It was the private residence of the Avery family, then Spelman, and the Downer families until 1903, when it became Denison University's Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity House. In 1930, it became the home of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity until it was converted back into a private residence in 1956. At the time this picture was taken, it was the Kappa Sigma Fraternity House. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F06_038_001
Subjects: Architecture; Universities and colleges; Denison University; Greek letter societies; Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta; Kappa Sigma Fraternity
Places: Granville (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)