Omega Psi Phi and KUAF: B.A.D. Student Leadership

B.A.D was a Registered Student Organization led by Black students at the University of Arkansas—Fayetteville campus. Started in the late 1960s, it had an accompanying student newspaper called The BAD Times (University of Arkansas Libraries). Not only did it give many Black students a voice, but B.A.D also empowered them to create safe spaces for themselves. Some of these spaces were the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Black Awareness Week, and KUAF’s R&B station.

Many members of BAD were also members of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity at U of A. This fraternity—the first Black fraternity on the U of A campus—was started by B.A.D students with the help of the late Dr. Gordon Morgan, UA’s first Black faculty member and an Omega himself (news.uark.edu). The charter line of the Gamma Eta chapter of Omega Psi Phi debuted in 1974, and the following line held a step show in 1975 at the Student Union (Williams). They pledged in the McIlroy house (now University Press), but the charter line “launched the pledging of [its] first members” in Memorial Hall in 1974 (Williams).

The establishment of the Gamma Eta chapter of Omega Psi Phi was just the first introduction of Black Greek life on the UA campus. Black Greek life was one of many ways B.A.D students had fun just being students on campus without always having to deal with racial inequities. Many B.A.D students were activists, but as students, they needed their own spaces to relax, too, without having to explain everything they did.

Black Awareness Week was a way for Black B.A.D students to preserve their culture on campus. During this one week in February, “motivational speakers, such as Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm, would come in and talk about Black History…or talk about some current issues that the Black community was facing on a national, local, or state level” (Williams). Black Awareness Week was modeled after Black History Week, which was created by the historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926. Dr. Woodson, like Dr. Williams, was also a member of Omega Psi Phi. Once Black History Week became Black History Month in the late 1970s on college campuses across the U.S., it launched at U of A as well.

B.A.D students also joined extracurriculars. One of these extracurriculars was KUAF, a UA-student-led radio station that started in 1973 (kuaf.com). One member of KUAF was the late Morris Sylvester. He was also an Omega as well as a member of B.A.D and ASG. He was one of four B.A.D students who deejayed R&B and soul music in KUAF, and in the radio booth, he was known as “Sweet Moss the Boss” (BAD Times ‘73). When interviewed for the April 1973 issue of BAD Times, he said that he “really d[u]g rapping over the air to the Brothers and Sisters here on this campus, for it gives them something that they can relate to” (BAD Times ‘73).

Another member of both Omega Psi Phi and B.A.D was Dr. Lonnie R. Williams, who is now Special Assistant to the Chancellor & Interim Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Community Engagement at Arkansas State Universitiy in Jonesboro, AR. In 1974, he was a member of the charter line of the Gamma Eta chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. The following year, he “was the Dean of pledges for the first line to be made after 1974’s charter line” (Williams). He graduated from UA with a “bachelor’s in finance in banking in December 1977,” both a master’s and “educational specialists’ in higher education administration, and a doctorate in adult education” (Robinson, Williams, 209).” While he was a student at UA, he also had other extracurriculars. He “was a member of the marching band for 2 years” and “of the Jazz Band for 5 years” while “having a work-study job on campus” (Williams). 

Today, Black students remain 4.5% of the campus population, so they continue to need ways of establishing community, preserving culture, and having a voice, like B.A.D students (and as mentioned in #BlackAtUARK) (oir.uark.edu). Regarding making it through their years at UA, Dr. Williams has warm words of wisdom for Black students today: “Don’t let the other issues sidetrack you from getting your degree. But also, stand up for your rights and do not alienate others from the outside who can become your colleagues in the effort to make a change” (Williams).

Terrell Page is a current sophomore Honors Fellow, majoring in English Education and minoring in Spanish. He studies minority representation in children's cartoons, but he is currently working on a thesis that teaches high school English using video games.

“About.” KUAF.com, https://www.kuaf.com/about#stream/0 

“BAD Times Collection: A Digital Collection of the Black Americans for Democracy Newspapers.” Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, October 2015. https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/digital/collection/BADTimes 

Dr. Lonnie R. Williams. Personal Interview. 10 Nov 2020.

“Fall 2020 11th Day Enrollment Report.” University of Arkansas Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. 28 Oct 2020, https://oir.uark.edu/students/enrollment-reports/2020-fall-summary.pdf 

“Remembering a Trailblazer, Mentor and University Professor: Gordon Morgan.” University of Arkansas News, Dec. 20, 2019, https://news.uark.edu/articles/51865/remembering-a-trailblazer-mentor-and-university-professor-gordon-morgan 

Robinson II, Charles F., and Williams, Lonnie R. Remembrances in Black: Personal Perspectives of the African-American Experience at the University of Arkansas (1940s-2000s). Dec 2010.