Chapter History
The New Jersey Graduate
Chapter of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship was chartered
in the City of Newark, New Jersey on August 3,1974 by a small
group of Fellowmen from Kean University (formally Newark State
College), Rutgers University, Bloomfield College, and various
other College and Universities throughout the country. These
Fellowmen decided that it was important for them to continue
to "Groove" after leaving the halls of higher education. For
many years, the New Jersey Graduate Chapter has hailed some
thirty plus Fellowmen and has remained the most active graduate
chapter in Groove Phi Groove's history.
The New Jersey Graduate Chapter has provided
the nation of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship, Inc.
with a National President, John East, 2nd National Vice
President, Kenneth D. Cooper, National Treasurer, Frank
V. Daniels, National Communications Director, and an Editor
of the Sword & Spear (national newspaper), Randy James.
Over the years, the members of the New Jersey Graduate chapter
have participated and partnered with a number of community
based organizations; such as the Newark Emergency Services,
10,000 Mentors, Red Cross, Saint Ann's Soup Kitchen, Adopt
a Highway, Toys for Tots, feed the Children Fund, and the
Fellowman Willie J. Brown Scholarship Fund. The New Jersey
Groovers have also carried the "Torch" for the original
"Groovin In the Summertime" BBQ since its inception in the
summer of 1973.
Together with the sisters of Swing Phi
Swing Social Fellowship, Inc. we have successfully created
a unique partnership that not only helped us to dedicate
ourselves to our community, but has also served as an example
for all Brothers and Sisters
"The Struggle continues, but together
we can accomplish anything"
National History
Groove Phi Groove, Social Fellowship Incorporated
was founded on October 12, 1962 by fourteen, young African
American men who attended Morgan State College which is
now known as Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. Keeping
in step with the reawakening of what has been termed, Black
Consciousness,
these men incorporated the prominent cultural and nationalistic
ideologies and creeds of the Black Power Movement into an
organization that endeavors to continue the process of uplifting
the "Black Man" and perpetuating the "Black Race". Contrary
to popular suppositions of the Fellowship's emergence as
an antagonistic organization to the established Black fraternal
system or as another Black fraternity without Greek nomenclature,
the Fellowship was envisioned and is manifested as a valid
alternative to what was viewed as and may still be perceived
as an increasingly anticommunal, haughty, and self serving
facade of a collegiate, Black, fraternal system.
In name, Groove Phi Groove, Social Fellowship
Incorporated was and is meant to evoke an identification
and sentiment towards the eternal rhythm and cadence which
is apprehended within and among all of those members of
the community who readily identify with those ancestors
who survived the Middle Passage and their subsequent enslavement.
Given the state of affairs within the United States during
the Black Power Movement as well as the resulting events
of the present, the name, Groove, symbolizes the harmony
created and nurtured in fellowship with one's brother and
fellow man. Subsequently, the nomenclature of the Fellowship
represents a conscious change and aversion to the historicity
and perpetuation of Black, collegiate, fraternal organizations
that came into being as a result of the rejection of integration
from whites, the rightfully, so called Greek fraternal members
as well as the perceived, selective, cliquish requirements
of those established Black Greek organizations. In addition,
the terminology which comprises the name of the Fellowship
embodies a denial of the term, Black Greek. In some respects,
this term was seen and continues to be interpreted, even
at the most minute level, as being synonymous with the pejorative
implications of the term, Negro, and it creates the disrespectful,
ideological paradox of an African American referring to
him or her herself as being Greek within the context of
the African American experience in the United States.
The founders attributed the
significance of the letters and colors of Groove Phi
Groove, Social Fellowship Incorporated to themes that delineate
the African AmericanÕs economic, political, and social paradigm.
That is, the colors, black and white, which may connote
many notions, have the principal importance to the Fellowship
by symbolizing the idea of balance between interacting and
opposing life-forces. The letter, G, is meant to elucidate
a metaphysical acknowledgment and belief in a higher power
that is infinite, omniscient, and omnipresent. Therefore,
the symbolic G that is innate to the resulting term, Groove,
is balanced across the "golden" number, Phi, of the Kemetic
tradition which denotes the reproductive and nation building
powers that are invested in the male life-force.
The Fellowship is social and incorporated
for two main reasons. The social aspect is in reference
to GrooveÕs ability and responsibility to address and attempt
to resolve the needs of not only its immediate members,
but also the needs and concerns of the surrounding community
with which Groove Phi Groove, Social Fellowship Incorporated
interacts. The Fellowship is incorporated as a result the
socioeconomic factors of the society within which Groove
finds itself.
Lastly, the organization encounters part
of itself as a reference point to Black, fraternal organizations.
However, the concept of fraternal, as applied to Groove,
is in the sense of a group of men endorsing a common bond
and relationship of brotherhood. Thus, Groove is not to
be construed as a fraternity according to the colloquial
and quaint interpretation that is most often associated
with conceptions of Black Greek, fraternal organizations.
Groove is not merely an alternative or social organization
out of name sake. The Fellowship is a viable institution
with a recent, thirty-four year history, 45,000 plus membership,
and expanding tradition that is full of trials and triumphs
that have only fortified the Fellowship and facilitated
a bold and truthful course towards the future. The pulsation
of Groove Phi Groove, Social Fellowship Incorporated will
only give way to a better and more pertinent manifestation
of the vibration that seeks to know itself through the realization
of the genuine, ideological and pragmatic aspirations and
concerns of the African American.
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