2002 - 2003
The BMF renaissance continued under the presidency of the Honorable Alonzo C. Sherman in 2002-2003. Focusing on brotherhood and institution-building, Alonzo not only brought back the paintball trip he established the previous year, expanding it to include the Hispanic student group Fuerza, but he also organized BMF’s first-ever international trip—to Montreal, Quebec for the Concordia Caribbean Students Conference. A direct response to growing complaints that BMF did not fully represent the entirety of the African diaspora, the Canada trip proved to be an amazing opportunity for BMF to recruit new members and grow closer as brothers in the organization. The momentum derived from this trip propelled the organization toward a banner year, with participation and attendance noticeably up.

Alonzo and Vice-President Jason Young ’04 enlisted the aid of black-owned event management firm Nexx Graphics to assist with this year’s Celebration of Black Women, which honored actress Phylicia Rashad, of The Cosby Show fame. The event, held at the Boston Park Plaza, garnered widespread media attention and BMF broke all expectations for attendance and fundraising, even securing the first presenting sponsor in the history of CBW, Africana.com. This was also the first black community event to do significant alumni outreach since the compilation of the black alumni mailing list. Most who attended the event were extremely impressed and delighted by the message.

For others, however, came to symbolize the growing pains that BMF was going through as an organization and sparked a passionate community debate over the core values of BMF and whether we had outgrown our mission. This sentiment spilled over into discord between black community groups exacerbated by the controversy over inappropriate comments printed in the Black Students’ Association’s (BSA) Black Guide to Life at Harvard.

With the BSA embroiled in the swirl of controversy, the BMF became a more visible presence on campus, organizing a few high-profile discussions, including a talk on reparations by former Professor of Government and African and African American Studies Michael Dawson and one with former Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies Lawrence Bobo on affirmative action in the midst of the raging legal battle against the University of Michigan. BMF also first released the magazine REMIX this year, under the supervision of editor-in-chief the Honorable Issac Weiler. The magazine had a short run into the summer, but was discontinued for nearly a year due to budgetary constraints.

The weekly BMF meetings touched on a number of topics including black violence in the media, hip-hop, and more. BMF also made a move to focus more on business, hosting Prof. David Thomas from the Harvard Business School and CEO of Africana.com Kenn Turner. This was also the first year that the BMF hosted a meeting with representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency. The topic was, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the rhetoric from the Bush administration indicating an Iraq invasion was imminent, on Iraq, terrorism, and WMD.

This year also saw the establishment of two important traditions in the BMF. First, the BMF presence on pre-frosh weekend was taken up a notch with the second Get Yo’ Jollies party and a newly established black faculty reception which was attended by Professors Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Kimberly DaCosta, and Lawrence Bobo amongst others. Also, the BMF started its annual end-of-the-year Senior Roast, at which the Marvin C. Pittman ’02 Award is given to an outstanding senior who has contributed much to BMF but never held a board position, and graduating seniors are roasted by the underclassmen and each other. David Anderson ’03 won the award in its first year.

Brotherhood Chair Brandon Terry was elected to serve as president for 2003-2004, and Jason Young returned as Vice-President for his senior year. Other elected positions included Kwame Owusu-Kesse ’06 as Brotherhood Chair, Tracy “Ty” Moore as Social Chair, Gbenga Okunsanya ’05 as Treasurer, Andre Kydd ’04 as Secretary, and Mikal Floyd-Pruitt ’06 as Historian.