(PatriotWise.com) — Alpha Phi Alpha, the country’s largest black fraternity, announced in late July that it would be moving its 2025 general convention out of Orlando over the supposed “racist” policies of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, The Hill reported.
The fraternity announced its decision in a statement on July 26.
Among its complaints, Alpha Phi Alpha cited the false claims pushed by Vice President Kamala Harris about Florida’s African American History curriculum.
The fraternity’s general president, Willis Lonzer III, told The Hill that the rhetoric over the state’s education standards was central to its decision to move the 2025 convention.
Willis accused the Republican governor of “continuously” advocating for policies that harm blacks and “other marginalized communities.”
He blasted the state for passing laws “rejecting the teaching of race” and “the cultural diversity of our nation.”
Willis also cited the state ban on DEI initiatives in colleges. But Willis said the “final straw” was the black history curriculum teaching that slaves “developed skills that could later be a personal benefit to them,” which, despite being factually true, Willis described as “absolutely absurd.”
In response to the fraternity’s decision, Governor DeSantis’ office told The Hill, “This is a stunt.”
Lonzer told The Hill that he expects moving the fraternity’s convention will cost the Orlando area $4.6 million in lost revenue. He asserted that the group refuses to spend its money in a state where blacks and other “marginalized communities” are harmed “at the highest level of the government.”
Lonzer said the other nine historically black sororities and fraternities are “aligned” with Alpha Phi Alpha to ensure people are treated with respect.
In an interview last Monday with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Governor DeSantis blasted Vice President Harris and the corporate news media for attacking the state’s education standards and said he refused to “bend the knee” to their lies.
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