Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Says ‘No Excuses’

“I saw all the crowds and thought, ‘What is going on here?’”

He was witnessing, as he soon learned, a defining moment in Los Angeles. The verdict had just landed in the trial of the officers who beat Rodney G. King senseless, and the rioting that followed would lead to dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. Fires flared, businesses were looted, and National Guard and Marine units were called in.

Lewis, a University of the Pacific graduate and member of the predominantly black Omega Psi Phi fraternity, lived in South L.A., and he understood the reaction to the verdict as well as how the long cycle of economic decline in the neighborhood fueled the anger. But to Lewis, who worked in the aerospace industry, the mayhem was a call for men like him to take more of a leadership role.

“I called some of the men of Omega Psi Phi and said: ‘You know what? This city’s in an uproar. Let’s try to get 100 young boys together and teach them about wellness and leadership, manhood and personal responsibility.’”

And so it began.

Lewis and his Omega Psi Phi brothers, Tau Tau chapter, recruited boys at churches, YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs. The first Youth Leadership Conference was held in 1993 at Southwest College, with 100 youngsters on hand to hear Psi Phi members talk about subjects from manners to morality. The men then mentored the youngsters through that year and beyond.

Eventually, the conference outgrew Southwest and then it outgrew Compton College, moving on to its current home at USC. And this Saturday marks the 20th anniversary. More than 600 youngsters between 8 and 18 have registered for an event where they’ll hear speeches, Lewis said, and attend workshops on “manhood, scholarship, perseverance and uplift.”

The men of Omega Psi Phi, dozens of them, will be wearing suits, as they always do at the conferences, taking their jobs as role models seriously.

Full story HERE.