It appears public pressure and member push back has forced the Executive Board of Alpha Kappa Alpha to buckle under the pressure and reverse their stance on member protest over the injustice facing the African American community, police brutality and racial injustice in the judicial system.

The AKAs are the oldest and one of the most storied sorority organizations in the country, but they made headlines when their official statement asked members not to participate in protest wearing the colors, paraphilellia or letters of the organization.

Members were participating in the protest over the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and more.

Thanks to the public outrage and member push back, the organization has reversed their stance issuing this statement.

“We expect our members to be actively involved in solving the social justice issues raised by those cases.

We strongly support and encourage our members’ peaceful and lawful participation in these activities and as such, we issued guidelines for participation in these events.

We do not want to be distracted from our mission of fighting for justice and equality for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Dontre Hamilton, and the countless other young black men across the country victimized by a criminal justice system that places little value in their lives.

However, it appears the request to refrain from wearing the sorority’s letters has become a distraction and a distortion of the sorority’s position on these issues that is diverting attention and effort away from the broader fight to secure social justice and reform.

The statement continues, but here comes the contraction at the very end.

We are therefore relaxing our original position on the wearing of Alpha Kappa Alpha paraphernalia and attire.”

It seems the contrition was short and difficult to find until you read the last line of the statement. Nevertheless, the push back was real, concerted and it worked. The AKAs can now continue in the true spirit of their organization to fight for the rights of the African American community.

Now the question is….when will Delta Sigma Theta follow suit and allow members to represent in the long legacy of their founders and members fighting for justice in the African American community?

With their long and storied history of warrior women, we are positive they are putting the pressure on the Executive Board to reverse their stance because it only seems like the right thing to do. And as many of the women inside of the organization right now that I know personally, I can only imagine that is the sentiment going on internally. The question is when will their National President wake up to this truth.

You are on the clock, Delta. The black nation is watching….and waiting.