WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.070 But that was a big thing for our psyche as an organization, and I think it also was a big thing, although a lot of people probably won't admit it, 2 00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:25.517 but it was a good thing for the blacks, African Americans, at North Carolina State University because it showed that we could now do something that-. 3 00:00:25.517 --> 00:00:37.312 We all, although most people probably wouldn't admit it freely, but you kind of looked up to a lot of the white fraternities because they were able to all be together, they had-. 4 00:00:37.312 --> 00:00:47.088 The one thing about, I mentioned earlier, when you would go to the white fraternities when I came here the first time, part of the reason you did that was to go get a free meal. 5 00:00:47.088 --> 00:00:58.001 They didn't have a meal plan at NC State when I was here in 1973, so everybody cooked in their room or went to the student center, that type thing, so you were pretty much on your own. 6 00:00:58.001 --> 00:01:09.796 So if the fraternity offered you over and dinner was part of the bargain it's like, okay; I have no real intentions of joining these guys but I'm hungry. 7 00:01:09.796 --> 00:01:19.455 I will say everybody that year that was an Alpha was so proud. You could stick your chest out because of that, that we have our own fraternity house. 8 00:01:19.455 --> 00:01:35.894 In other words, one of the things that came with it is that, okay, being a fraternity - unlike the white fraternities. If the members of Delta Sigma Phi wanted to get together they met at their house. 9 00:01:35.894 --> 00:01:47.271 If they wanted to do something they met at their house. If they wanted to have a cookout, if they wanted to have a meeting or something, all of that was available. 10 00:01:47.271 --> 00:01:58.161 We always had to plan somewhere to meet and do those type things, so this gave us a place that we could be proud of 11 00:01:58.161 --> 00:02:14.832 and we could also meet and do those type things that we would always be a different place hopping around doing before. So it was a sense of pride but it had a practical application also.