A Historical Narrative for the 86^th Grand Conclave

Chicago & Omega

A Century of Brotherhood and Purpose

By Bro. Jerome L. Nesbary, D.D.P.R. and Past District Historian

A large group of Omega men in overcoats and hats, seated and standing for a panoramic portrait beneath the carved stone facade of the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago — Fifteenth Grand Conclave delegates (1926) assembled before the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago — generations of Omega men have gathered in this city to reaffirm the principles established by the Founders.

“The address gave new impetus to the delegates.”
— The Oracle, describing Founder Bishop Edgar Amos Love's address, “The Purpose of Omega,” delivered during the Fifteenth Grand Conclave in Chicago

Where Purpose Met Place

Every city leaves an imprint upon the organizations it hosts. Few, however, become woven into the very fabric of an institution's history. Chicago is one of those rare places for Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

For more than a century, Chicago has represented far more than a destination for the Brotherhood. It has served as a crossroads where scholarship met opportunity, where visionary leadership met civic partnership, and where generations of Omega men gathered to reaffirm the principles established by the Founders on November 17, 1911.

Long before Chicago welcomed its first Grand Conclave, the city had already become part of Omega's story. Founders Dr. Ernest Everett Just and Professor Frank Coleman each pursued advanced study at the University of Chicago, reinforcing the fraternity's enduring commitment to scholarship and intellectual excellence. Their academic pursuits reflected the vision first conceived by Dr. Oscar J. Cooper and later articulated so powerfully by Bishop Edgar Amos Love.

During the first half of the twentieth century, Chicago stood among America's foremost centers of Black education, commerce, journalism, and civic leadership. It was only fitting that Omega Psi Phi would repeatedly gather here to conduct its business, strengthen its Brotherhood, and shape its future.

Stephen Flemister's painted portrait of Dr. Ernest Everett Just at work beside a brass microscope, displayed in a gilded frame on a gallery wall — Stephen Flemister's portrait of Founder Dr. Ernest Everett Just, on view at the University of Chicago — where Just and Founder Professor Frank Coleman each pursued advanced study. The painting was commissioned by University of Chicago graduate students and hangs in Erman Hall, near the lecture room dedicated as the E. E. Just Room in 2018.

The Fifteenth Grand Conclave

Chicago Calls

Sepia studio portrait of Dr. Charles V. Dudley, a young man in a three-piece suit and light-colored tie, gazing directly at the camera — Dr. Charles V. Dudley, Grand Marshal of the Fifteenth Grand Conclave, Chicago, 1926.

Before delegates arrived, The Oracle described the Fifteenth Grand Conclave as “a momentous occasion for Omega Psi Phi.” Under Grand Marshal Dr. Charles V. Dudley, Chicago welcomed Brothers from across America with a week of fellowship, receptions, dinners, and social events.

The defining moment came when Founder Bishop Edgar Amos Love delivered “The Purpose of Omega.” Although the complete address has not survived, The Oracle later recorded that it “gave new impetus to the delegates,” forever linking Chicago with one of the fraternity's defining moments.

Historical Context

1926: the year Negro History Week got its name

Omega's arrival in Chicago coincided with a milestone the Fraternity had helped set in motion. At the Ninth Grand Conclave in 1920, Bro. Dr. Carter G. Woodson challenged Omega to devote itself to the study and dissemination of Black life and history. The Fraternity answered with a national campaign that began in 1924 as Negro History and Literature Week and was afterward known as Negro Achievement Week.

In 1926 — the same year the Brotherhood first convened in Chicago — the observance took the name Negro History Week, the forerunner of Black History Month. Woodson had founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History eleven years earlier at Chicago's Wabash Avenue YMCA, a few miles from where the delegates now gathered.

The Twenty-Seventh Grand Conclave

Chicago Welcomes

Black-and-white studio portrait of Attorney Benjamin F. Wilson in a pinstriped suit and patterned tie — Attorney Benjamin F. Wilson, Grand Marshal of the Twenty-Seventh Grand Conclave, Chicago, 1938.

Grand Marshal Benjamin F. Wilson coordinated the Twenty-Seventh Grand Conclave as Chicago once again welcomed the Brotherhood. Mayor Edward J. Kelly officially greeted the delegates, assuring them that “a most hearty welcome awaits them in our city” and describing it as a privilege for Chicago to serve as host. The city's embrace reflected Omega's growing national stature and enduring influence.

“I shall mention one of the affairs which I consider the crowning point in the history of Omega: As I sat in the International House on the University of Chicago campus, where luncheon was served, my mind went back to the very incipiency of our organization, when, had we attempted to visualize such a meeting for Omega, we would have been considered fit subjects to be detained indefinitely under strict guard.”

— Founder Dr. Oscar J. Cooper, “My Impressions of the Chicago Conclave,” The Oracle, March 1939

Newspaper page headlined 'Omegas Gather to Plan December Convention', with photographs of the supreme council and planning committees at a banquet at the Hotel Grand in Chicago — From the archives: the press reports the supreme council and planning committees convening at Chicago's Hotel Grand to lay plans for the December 1938 Conclave. The Grand stood on South Parkway in Bronzeville and was listed that same year in the *Negro Motorist Green Book*. Seated among them is Grand Basileus Albert W. Dent of New Orleans, then superintendent of Flint-Goodridge Hospital and later, for twenty-eight years, president of Dillard University.

Page from The Oracle headlined 'Chicago's Mayor Bids Us Welcome', reproducing Mayor Edward J. Kelly's November 1938 letter of greeting alongside his photograph — “Chicago's Mayor Bids Us Welcome” — *The Oracle* reproduces Mayor Edward J. Kelly's official letter of greeting to the fraternity, November 1938.

Historical Context

The voices at the University of Chicago luncheon

The Chicago hosts combined business and fellowship in a luncheon session at the International House on the University of Chicago campus. The principal speakers were two Omega men of national consequence: Bro. Roy Wilkins, editor of The Crisis and assistant secretary of the N.A.A.C.P., and Bro. William Stuart Nelson, president of Dillard University. Wilkins pressed the delegates, the Associated Negro Press reported, on the importance of Black Americans insisting upon the exercise of absolute democratic principles.

They challenged the Fraternity, Cooper wrote, on “whether we have grown and are meeting our own needs, the needs of the community and nation” — an exchange he believed would “mean a renaissance in the history of Omega.”

Historical Context

Where they met, and what they did

The Associated Negro Press reported the Conclave's sessions at the Wabash Avenue branch of the YMCA on Chicago's South Side — the same building where Carter G. Woodson had founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 and launched the observance that became Black History Month. The week's fellowship spread across Bronzeville: a ball at the Savoy, a closed dinner dance at the Grand Terrace.

It was a working Conclave. Sitting as a constitutional convention, the body received and adopted a revised Constitution and By-Laws prepared by a committee chaired by Bro. Z. Alexander Looby of Nashville — the attorney who would later defend the sit-in students of 1960 and see his home dynamited for it. The delegates established a scholarship commission, on the recommendation of a committee headed by Dr. W. Montague Cobb of Howard, to fund awards for those showing promise of unusual contribution in the fine arts, the sciences, and letters. They approved a program to help chapters secure fraternity houses. And they lauded the N.A.A.C.P.'s fight to equalize educational facilities in the states where inequalities existed, voting the Fraternity a five-hundred-dollar life membership as a token of its commitment.

A note on the count: the Fraternity numbered this gathering the Twenty-Seventh Annual Conclave in 1938, as Mayor Kelly's letter and The Oracle both attest. Later official rosters renumber the same Conclave the Twenty-Sixth. This page follows the period record.

The Thirty-Sixth Annual Grand Conclave

Chicago Hosts

Black-and-white studio portrait of Dr. Simmons C. Hamilton in a suit and dark tie, smiling slightly — Dr. Simmons C. Hamilton, Grand Marshal of the 1949 Grand Conclave, Chicago.

Grand Marshal Dr. Simmons C. Hamilton invited Brothers to “Chicago, the City Beautiful,” encouraging them to enjoy the hospitality of Chicago while participating in a carefully planned Grand Conclave. The Chicago Defender predicted an “Omega Christmas” as Mayor Martin H. Kennelly, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Congressman William L. Dawson, Grand Basileus Dr. Harry T. Penn, and three surviving Founders gathered for one of the fraternity's most memorable assemblies.

Wide group photograph of the Chicago delegation in suits arranged in rows on outdoor steps, Dr. Simmons C. Hamilton at front center — The Chicago delegation, 1949 — Grand Marshal Dr. Simmons C. Hamilton at front center.

Historical Context

Chicago men, come full circle

Dr. Simmons C. Hamilton's claim on this Conclave ran deep: he was among the first men ever initiated into Sigma Omega, the Chicago graduate chapter that had helped host the Conclaves of 1926 and 1938. Nearly three decades later he sat on the Supreme Council as Grand Marshal, summoning the Fraternity back to his city.

Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, by then president of Morehouse College and the man Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would call his spiritual mentor, was himself an Omega man and a charter member of that same Sigma Omega chapter. Presiding was Grand Basileus Dr. Harry T. Penn of Roanoke, a dentist who the previous year had become the first African American appointed to a school board in the South.

That three Founders came is no accident of scheduling. It was the promise Founder Cooper had announced in this same city in 1938 — that one of them would always be present — still being kept. Dr. Ernest Everett Just, who had taken his doctorate a few miles away at the University of Chicago, had died in 1941.

Painted portrait of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, seated in a dark suit with a red tie, hands resting before him — Dr. Benjamin E. Mays — Omega man, charter member of Chicago's Sigma Omega chapter, and president of Morehouse College.Portrait by Robert Templeton, 1969. Photograph by Tim Templeton, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Official panoramic photograph of the 36th Grand Conclave: roughly two hundred and fifty Omega men in overcoats and hats arrayed in rows on the steps of a columned building, with the inscription 'Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, 36th Grand Conclave — Chicago, Illinois, December 28-30, 1949' lettered across the lower left — The official photograph of the Thirty-Sixth Grand Conclave, lettered in the corner with the Fraternity's own record of it: *Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, 36th Grand Conclave — Chicago, Illinois, December 28–30, 1949*.

A Century of Brotherhood, Purpose, and Welcome

Every Grand Conclave leaves its mark upon Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., but few cities have become as closely identified with the fraternity's history as Chicago.

1926
Here, in 1926, the Brotherhood rediscovered its purpose.
1938
Here, in 1938, Chicago officially welcomed a growing national fraternity.
1949
Here, in 1949, Chicago demonstrated extraordinary hospitality and leadership while celebrating an "Omega Christmas."

Though separated by decades, these gatherings were united by a common purpose. Each reflected the enduring partnership between a great American city and a fraternity committed to Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance, and Uplift.

Today, Chicago's place in Omega history is secure — not simply because it hosted Grand Conclaves, but because it became the setting where Founders inspired delegates, civic leaders welcomed the fraternity, and generations of Brothers strengthened the bonds of Friendship that remain essential to the soul.

For nearly a century, Chicago has stood as one of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.'s most enduring stages — a city where history was made, purpose was renewed, leadership was celebrated, and the bonds of Brotherhood were strengthened for generations to come.

Historical Sources

The Oracle (1926, 1938, and 1949 editions)
Chicago Defender archives
Official Founder biographies, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
Historical research compiled for the 86th Grand Conclave

The narrative on this page is the work of Bro. Jerome L. Nesbary. The passages marked Historical Context were compiled separately from published archives, chiefly The Oracle of March 1939 (Founder Cooper's account of the Chicago Conclave) and of September and December 1949 (Grand Marshal Hamilton's call and the official Conclave program); the Associated Negro Press report of the Chicago Conclave carried in the Atlanta Daily World of January 4, 1939; and chapter and district histories of Iota, Sigma Omega, and the Tenth District, together with records of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and University of Chicago accounts of Dr. Ernest Everett Just.

Corrections and additional documentation are welcome. The host committee would be glad to hear from Brothers and families holding Conclave papers, programs, or photographs from 1926, 1938, or 1949.

In 2028, the story continues.

The 86^th Grand Conclave returns the Brotherhood to Chicago.

Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.® is a registered trademark.