Lonnie!

World War II was raging in 1941-42. I met Lonnie at an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity meeting in Columbus, OH. We were both in graduate school at Ohio State and working part-time at the local YMCA. Right away I knew Lonnie was a quick thinker. High spirited and being from St. Louis, he had been around the block a couple of times; so to speak. He feared no man and would fight for what he believed in.

Lonnie was very much a “race man,” he was for the progress of his people. Here’s an example.

After a football game between Ohio State and University of Michigan, we were discussing the game and Lonnie rushed up and said this: “Did you see the black guy with the Ohio State marching band?” (Ohio State was known to have one of the best marching bands in the country at that time.) After that statement, someone in the group said, “We didn’t see any black person with the marketing band.” (If it were true, this would be the first negro to be a

part of that great band.) Lonnie, in true form, said, “I believe he is the first black student to be a part of tha

t great band.” And it occurred to me that since I had not seen him I told Lonnie. I said, “By the way, what instrument was he playing? Lonnie said, “Brother Lee that guy wasn’t playing any instrument he was just marching; but that black boy was marching like hell!” I said to Lonnie, “In any marching group, everybody marches exactly the same, was everybody marching like hell?” He glared at me and said, “Brother Lee, I don’t know what those other guys were doing, but like I said, that brother was marching like hell!”

That was the type of enthusiasm that Lonnie had when it came to racial progress of his people.

One day I asked Lonnie to be a substitute referee at an important basketball game, the Axis vs. Allies. It was a tough game and the spirit was high. The Axis at one point didn’t like a call that Lonnie made against them. The captain of the team rushed up to Lonnie with his team following. With anger in his eyes and his fists half closed he confronted Lonnie on the call he had made. The crowd was silent.

I’m thinking, “Here we go, but not in the YMCA.” The leader was glaring eye to eye at Lonnie, who slowly took the whistle from around his neck and handed it to me. I’m thinking, “Here we go.” Lonnie glared at him and together they glared at each other for maybe 15 or 20 seconds. What seemed like 15 or more minutes. Not a word was said and Lonnie stood facing the team’s leader eye ball to eye ball with his chin up and ready for battle.

The leader had his team slowly back down and the game was on again. As I said before, Lonnie was from St. Louis, DOWNTOWN, St. Louis, if you know what I mean. We had a great time together, until we were both drafted into the military, Lonnie in the Army and I in the Navy. During and after the war, I lost track of Lonnie.

About 25 years later I attended the Alpha Phi Alpha National Convention in Philadelphia. I sat in on one of the business meetings with a small group of new brothers listening to the neophytes challenge the fraternity precepts. The leader of that meeting in a very forceful way looked into

the eyes of the neophytes and shouted with his fists in the air. “I would die before I would allow this to even come before this organization.” The neophyte brothers starred at him and he starred at them, what seemed almost 10 minutes. Slowly, without a word they backed down and sat in their seats.

The leader of the meeting had been president of two colleges, was a national figure and spokesman for his people in the US and now resided as 22nd General President of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Dr. Lionel H. Newsom…my man from DOWNTOWN St. Louis, brother Lonnie.