JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The General President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated recently announced the organization is withdrawing its 2025 convention from Orlando, Florida.
Dr. Willis Lonzer III, the president, says moving their event is a business move, but also a form of economic protest. Lonzer says he blamed the move on Gov. Ron DeSantis' "harmful, racist, and insensitive policies against the Black community." The decision to move to a different city, came shortly after the state changed its academic standards for teaching Black history.
The recent approved Florida curriculum on slavery was scrutinized and criticized nationwide. It includes teaching students on how people who were enslaved, benefited from slavery.
"We know very clearly that individuals who came over from Africa had a culture, had history," Lonzer said. "They were able to employ skills that made them prosperous in their own native land. And the suggestion that someone came to the United States and was engaged in chattel slavery to benefit from it, is just very much a stretch and it's an absurd suggestion."
Lonzer says Florida is the fraternity's largest district. However, he says the organization refuses to direct nearly $5 million to a state that is hostile toward Black communities. Recently, a number of organizations have pulled their business out of Florida. For example, the National Society of Black Engineers left Orlando and The Associate of Collegiate Schools of Planning withdrew from Miami and are heading to Chicago.
First Coast News reached out to Visit Jacksonville to see if any organizations have recently pulled their business from the First Coast in the last three to six months. As of Thursday, they said no organization has left the First Coast.
"Those who spend dollars have economic power, and those who want to be respected, choose to place their dollars in individual businesses or locales, that they are going to feel comfortable and welcome," Lonzer said.
First Coast News has reached out to Gov. DeSantis' office for comment. His press secretary responded in short, "this is a stunt."
Lonzer says DeSantis would need to change his policies if the fraternity wishes to keep its business in Florida.
"Unless we see those changes, we won't see at least from the worldwide or general organization of Alpha Phi Alpha, coming there to conduct business in any way we can, even for those on the district or state level," Lonzer said.
When asked where the 2025 convention will take place, Lonzer stated they're keeping that information under wraps for now.