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Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Historically Black Greek Letter Organizations' Custom Of Post-Graduation Stepping & Strolling - All BGLOs Active On Campus

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is the ninth post in a pancocojams series that showcases selected YouTube videos which document the post graduation custom among historically Black Greek lettered organizations of celebrating a member's or members' university graduation by spontaneously stepping or strolling or participating in a unity sing.

This pancocojams showcases two videos of post-graduation unity steps or strolls that are performed by all members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, i.e the "Divine Nine") that are active at those particular university.

Click the "post graduation BGLO stepping and strolling" tag below for other pancocojams posts in this series.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Best wishes to all those whose graduations are documented in this post and thanks to all those who are featured in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S COMMENT
This pancocojams series documents the seemingly spontaneous customs among members of historically Black Greek letter organization (BGLO) of celebrating their own university graduation and/or other members' university graduation immediately after the graduation ceremony by performing group strolls or group steps while singing certain organization songs and chants.

From the YouTube videos that I've found to date (August 2017), it also appears that instead of stepping or strolling, or as a prelude to those performance activities, sometimes members of historically Black Greek letter organizations also celebrate their graduation and other members' graduations by singing an organization hymn or hymns while standing in a unity circle. People forming the circle stand with linked arms (in the same manner of the "We Shall Overcome"), either with or without swaying back and forth that is done while singing that civil rights song. The songs that are sung during the unity circle may be classified as "organization hymns".

The songs and chants that are sung during these BGLO post-graduation activities appear to be usually ones that express the members' love for their organization, and their appreciation for and devotion to that organization, rather than those songs and chants that put down (diss) other BGLO fraternities or sororities or those songs/chants that focus on sexual topics. From watching YouTube videos of these BGLO post-graduation celebrations, it appears that the circle songs are more solemn than the strolling and stepping songs or chants. The video publishers of these BGLO graduation song videos often refer to these songs as "hymns".

From the videos that I've found to date, these BGLO post-graduation customs most often occur in the Southern region of the United States, which makes sense since that is the region where most historically Black colleges and universities are located. I've found more videos of this custom from FAMU (Florida A & M University) than any other university, which could suggests that these BGLO post-graduation customs might have originated at that university. However, there may be other explanations for the large number of YouTube videos from that university. And there are YouTube videos of these customs from other regions of the United States.

The YouTube videos that I have found document that these historically Black Greek letter organizations' post-graduation activities suggests that they usually spontaneously occur outdoors immediately after the graduation ceremony. However, there are some videos of stepping indoors in the auditorium at the end of the graduation ceremony, or stepping in the auditorium hallways after the graduation ceremony.

I don't know when these BGLO post-graduation customs began. My guess is that the standing in place circle singing began first. This guess is based in part on a comment from one of the showcased Kappa Alpha Psi' videos that includes the comment "Celebrating graduation with my boys the traditional way". And based on the history that I've read about historically Black Greek letter organizations, my guess is that the post-graduation custom of BGLO strolling started after the unity circle singing, and then the custom of stepping came later.

The earliest YouTube videos that I have which document these customs are from 2009 -a video of Alpha Kappa Alpha strolling at FAMU and a video of Iota Phi Theta doing their Centaur Walk step at BCU, Bethune Cookman University[?].

As these videos document, members of historically Black Greek letter organizations who are graduating from a university usually wear a kente cloth stole in the colors of their organization and with their organization's Greek letters. Graduating BGLO members may also wear a kente cloth stole with the red, black, green, and gold color combinations that may be the most familiar kente cloth combination among African Americans. A number of African Americans associate Ghana's and The Ivory Coast's traditional kente cloth and those particular color combinations with African cultural pride if not afrocentricity.

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1: The Grad Stroll #FAMU



Benjamin Evans Published on May 2, 2012

No better place to graduate than Florida A & M University. Watch all the love from organizations, fraternities, sororities and families after graduation.

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Example #2: UA Graduation 2012: The Last Greek Stepshow



XLNB Published on May 10, 2012

At the end of every semester students graduate from every university looking towards the next step in their lives. Members of Greek fraternities and sororities, before saying their final farewells to the campus, set out a final march to signify the end of an era at their respective school.

At the University of Alabama this final step has become an iconic gesture on the steps of Coleman Coliseum. It's only fitting it's captured for posterity.

Shot By Xavier Burgin and Kevyn Bryant
quethelights.com
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