Eric Christopher Webb, DDiv., CPLC
Director of Communications
/Editor of The Sphinx
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
ewebb@apa1906.net
Cell: 443-635-5911
Friday, September 13, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Denouncing False and Harmful Allegations Against Haitian Migrants
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. strongly condemns the U.S. Republican Presidential nominee’s recent false and derogatory allegations that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
His false statements during the U.S. Presidential debate and prior continue to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and racist tropes about Haitians and other migrant communities that are intended to stoke fear, divisiveness, hatred, and possibly violence at their expense.
This is particularly offensive for us since our General President-elect Brother Lucien J. Metellus, Jr., and several Fraternity members living in the United States are of Haitian descent as well and we have a chapter, Tau Beta Lambda Chapter, seated in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the world’s first and leading intercollegiate Fraternity founded by African American men, has long stood at the forefront for the advancement and equal protection of African Americans and people of color in the public sector, and that is unwavering.
We stand in solidarity with our Haitian brothers and sisters who are seeking a better life in the United States. Members of Tau Beta Lambda living in the U.S. are committed to providing support and resources to Haitian migrants, including assistance with integration, language barriers, and access to essential services.
We call on all people of goodwill to reject such divisive rhetoric.
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About Alpha Phi Alpha
The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American men, was founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and is headquartered in Baltimore, MD. The Fraternity has long stood at the forefront of the African American community’s fight for civil rights through Alpha men such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; late former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell; late former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; legendary activist, actor and performer, Paul Robeson, former Ambassador Andrew Young; late former Senator Edward Brooke; scholar, Cornel West; Senator Raphael Warnock; Congressman Steven Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus; General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; six other members of the U.S. Congress, numerous state, and local lawmakers across the United States, as well as President of Liberia, His Excellency Joseph Boakai, Sr. The fraternity, through its more than 720 college and alumni chapters and general-organization members, serves communities in the United States, and other parts of North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.