Latest news with #OldSouth
CTV News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
‘Community building community': Hundreds gather on the green in Wortley Village
Hundreds of people gathered on The Green in Wortley Village for the 43rd year on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Source: Brent Lale/CTV News London) For over four decades, Londoners have been gathering in Old South for a fun day of entertainment and activities. 'This is such an incredible event because Gathering on the Green, presented by OSCO (Old South Community Organization) has been going on for 43 years,' said Mario Circelli, OSCO board member. 'To marry it this year with the Forest City London Music Awards and London Music Week and powering some of the musical presentations on stage is just so fantastic.' 070625 Daniel Tennant of 4TR performs at the Gathering on the Green in Wortley Village on Saturday, June 7, 2025. The group finished second in the FCLMA High School Battle of the Bands this week. (Source: Brent Lale/CTV News London) The event is run by volunteers and supported by OSCO and local businesses. Gathering on the Green has donated more than $300,000 to projects and organizations in Old South. 'It's Wortley Village, it's Old South to a tee but I think what is really the key, it's the community building community,' said Circelli. 'We've got Old South and the larger context of the City of London helping out. The London Music Awards and the Digital Creative Arts Centre at BGC London is providing all of the audio production with our paid staff and our volunteers. So it's a whole bunch of folks coming together to build community in London.' Circelli credits the dedicated board of directors at OSCO for making this event come together annually. 'There's over 100 craft artisans, we're selling food and the entertainment, the dunk tank and activities for the kids, the day is fantastic.'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Report: Jefferson Griffin wore Confederate uniform at 2001 UNC fraternity event
North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin, who has now spent nearly five months challenging his narrow loss in the November election, wore Confederate military attire as part of a fraternity event in college, according to a report from The Associated Press. The report, which published Friday, revealed that Griffin, a Republican, also posed in front of a Confederate battle flag with the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity at UNC-Chapel Hill — a group which has raised controversy over the years for its embrace of the Confederacy. The News & Observer obtained a version of the photo uncovered by the AP. In a statement to the AP, Griffin, now 44, expressed remorse over his decision to wear the uniform during the fraternity's 2001 'Old South' ball. 'I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,' he said. 'At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation's broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.' Griffin also said that he supported a ban on using the Confederate flag at a Kappa Alpha convention in 2001. A representative for the fraternity, Jesse Lyons, said that 'upon personal recollection and review of official records' he could confirm this. 'We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization's history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future,' Lyons said in a statement to The N&O. 'These things are not mutually exclusive.' Lyons said that period dress has since been disallowed in fraternity matters. Paul Shumaker, an advisor for Griffin's campaign, accused his opponent, Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, of engaging in a 'personal smear campaign.' 'Judge Griffin has served the people of this state and our country with great honor and duty,' he said in a statement to The N&O. 'Sadly, the radical left fails to share that same sense of duty.' Riggs' campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment. The report comes as Griffin, alongside the North Carolina Republican Party, continues to push for over 65,000 ballots cast in the 2024 state Supreme Court election to be thrown out — potentially flipping the race in his favor. Using untested legal methods, Griffin has sought to reverse his 734-vote loss to Riggs. His challenges target voters for a variety of novel reasons, including the lack of a driver's license number or Social Security number in the state's registration database. A News & Observer analysis of Griffin's protests found that Black voters were twice as likely to have their votes challenged as white voters. Griffin's case, which has ping-ponged between state and federal courts, currently rests with the North Carolina Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel heard arguments last week. However, their decision is unlikely to be the end to the contentious case. Justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court, which currently has a 5 to 2 Republican majority, have said they expect the case will eventually reach the high court. Riggs has recused herself from the case, meaning only one Democrat would participate in the deliberation. Riggs' recusal also opens up the possibility of a 3-3 deadlock among the justices. Anita Earls, the other Democratic justice on the court, has implied she would rule against Griffin — as has a Republican on the court, Justice Richard Dietz. If one more justice joins them in rejecting Griffin's claims, the resulting deadlock would mean that the most recent decision of a lower court prevails. In this case, that would be the ruling from the state Court of Appeals. During arguments last week, judges on the appeals panel, which consisted of two Republicans and one Democrat, did not indicate when they would rule. Danielle Battaglia contributed to this report.
The Independent
28-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo
A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South. The emergence of the photographs comes at a delicate time for Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge who is seeking a spot on North Carolina's highest court. Griffin, 44, is facing mounting criticism – including from some Republicans – as he seeks to invalidate over 60,000 votes cast in last November's election, a still undecided contest in which he is trailing the Democratic incumbent by over 700 votes. The photographs, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are from when Griffin was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1999-2003 and a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the U.S., with tens of thousands of alumni. Griffin said he regretted donning the Confederate uniform, which was customary during the fraternity's annual 'Old South' ball. 'I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,' Griffin said in a statement. 'At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation's broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.' One of the pictures, taken during the 2001 ball, shows Griffin and roughly two-dozen other fraternity members clad in Confederate uniforms. Another photograph from the spring of 2000 shows Griffin and other Kappa Alpha brothers in front of a large Confederate flag. He served in 2002 as his chapter's president. Controversial fraternity Kappa Alpha has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy over the decades, often due to the racist or insensitive actions of some of its members. A number of politicians have been forced to apologize for having worn Confederate costumes at the fraternity's functions or for being photographed in front of a Confederate flag. Jesse Lyons, a spokesman for the fraternity's national office in Lexington, Virginia, said use of the rebel battle flag was prohibited in 2001 and displaying other Confederate symbols had been discouraged years before. The fraternity banned the wearing of the Confederate uniforms in 2010. It's unclear if the chapter at UNC banned the uniforms before the national organization did. 'We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization's history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future. These things are not mutually exclusive,' Lyons said. The fraternity claims Robert E. Lee as its 'spiritual founder' and long championed the Southern 'Lost Cause," a revisionist view of history that romanticizes the Confederacy and portrays the Civil War as a valiant struggle for 'states' rights' unrelated to the enslavement of Black people. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a 'klan,' a term that many viewed as an unsubtle wink to the Ku Klux Klan. The photographs featuring Griffin were taken at a time when many other Kappa Alpha chapters were reevaluating their celebration of the Confederacy. During Griffin's time in the fraternity, some in his chapter questioned the appropriateness of dressing up in Confederate uniforms for the ball. Griffin opposed abandoning the tradition, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The uniforms stayed. Griffin said he would 'not respond to unsubstantiated comments based on memories of 20-plus years past.' In high school Griffin also expressed an affinity for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who led southern forces during the Civil War. In a 1998 feature on high school 'scholars of the week' in the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper, Griffin said Lee was his No. 1 choice to include on an 'ideal guest list' for a party. Clinging to traditions The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865, not long after Lee surrendered to the Union Army, at a Virginia college where Lee served as president. At least one of the first members was a former rebel soldier who had served under Lee, who is revered by the fraternity as the ideal of gentlemanly Southern chivalry. For more than a century, Kappa Alpha threw 'Old South' parties. They were formal affairs where the Confederate battle flag was flown and fraternity brothers dressed in replica Confederate gray uniforms and their dates wore antebellum-style hoop skirts. Sometimes they would ride through campus on horseback. Some Kappa Alpha chapters, particularly in the South, clung to their traditions, including the wearing of blackface, even as they drew protests and public sentiment shifted. A Kappa Alpha 'Old South' parade at Alabama's Auburn University in 1992 drew supporters waving Confederate battle flags, as well as counter protesters who burned them. In 1995, a group of Kappa Alpha members at the University of Memphis hurled racial slurs while beating a Black student who caused a disturbance outside a frat party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported at the time. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was no exception to the turmoil. Under pressure from student group's, the school's Kappa Alpha chapter in 1985 canceled its annual 'Sharecropper's Ball," which some attended in blackface. Fraternity members said blackface was worn because the event needed both Black and white attendees, but promised to discontinue the practice, according to a news story in the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper. The Kappa Alpha chapter at North Carolina's Wake Forest University stopped allowing members to wear Confederate uniform and display the Confederate flag in 1987. But other chapters held on longer. The national headquarters finally forbade confederate uniforms in 2010 after a wave of public blowback after Kappa Alpha members at the University of Alabama wore them during a parade that paused in front of the home of a black sorority. Public officials face criticism over ties to fraternity Griffin is not the first public official to draw unwanted attention for their college-age embrace of symbols drawn from the darker chapters of the South's past. Virginia's then-governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, came under intense criticism in 2019 over a racist photo that appeared on his yearbook page of his medical school. The incident led reporters to scour the college histories of other Southern leaders, forcing a number of politicians to publicly address their time as Kappa Alpha brothers. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, then the state's Republican lieutenant governor, dodged questions in 2019 about photos showing him wearing a Confederate uniform while he was a Kappa Alpha member at Millsaps College in the early 1990s. While Reeves was enrolled there in October 1994, other members of the fraternity were disciplined for wearing afro wigs and Confederate battle flags and shouting racial slurs at black students, the AP reported at the time. Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to comment after yearbooks listed him as the leader of the fraternity's chapter at the University of South Carolina in 1969, along with photos of members wearing Confederate uniforms and posing with a rebel flag. And Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, expressed regret for participating in 'Old South' parties as a student at Auburn University in the 1970s. —- Contact AP's global investigative team at Investigative@ or
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South. The emergence of the photographs comes at a delicate time for Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge who is seeking a spot on North Carolina's highest court. Griffin, 44, is facing mounting criticism – including from some Republicans – as he seeks to invalidate over 60,000 votes cast in last November's election, a still undecided contest in which he is trailing the Democratic incumbent by over 700 votes. The photographs, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are from when Griffin was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1999-2003 and a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the U.S., with tens of thousands of alumni. Griffin said he regretted donning the Confederate uniform, which was customary during the fraternity's annual 'Old South' ball. 'I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,' Griffin said in a statement. 'At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation's broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.' One of the pictures, taken during the 2001 ball, shows Griffin and roughly two-dozen other fraternity members clad in Confederate uniforms. Another photograph from the spring of 2000 shows Griffin and other Kappa Alpha brothers in front of a large Confederate flag. He served in 2002 as his chapter's president. Controversial fraternity Kappa Alpha has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy over the decades, often due to the racist or insensitive actions of some of its members. A number of politicians have been forced to apologize for having worn Confederate costumes at the fraternity's functions or for being photographed in front of a Confederate flag. Jesse Lyons, a spokesman for the fraternity's national office in Lexington, Virginia, said use of the rebel battle flag was prohibited in 2001 and displaying other Confederate symbols had been discouraged years before. The fraternity banned the wearing of the Confederate uniforms in 2010. It's unclear if the chapter at UNC banned the uniforms before the national organization did. 'We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization's history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future. These things are not mutually exclusive,' Lyons said. The fraternity claims Robert E. Lee as its 'spiritual founder' and long championed the Southern 'Lost Cause," a revisionist view of history that romanticizes the Confederacy and portrays the Civil War as a valiant struggle for 'states' rights' unrelated to the enslavement of Black people. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a 'klan,' a term that many viewed as an unsubtle wink to the Ku Klux Klan. The photographs featuring Griffin were taken at a time when many other Kappa Alpha chapters were reevaluating their celebration of the Confederacy. During Griffin's time in the fraternity, some in his chapter questioned the appropriateness of dressing up in Confederate uniforms for the ball. Griffin opposed abandoning the tradition, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The uniforms stayed. Griffin said he would 'not respond to unsubstantiated comments based on memories of 20-plus years past.' In high school Griffin also expressed an affinity for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who led southern forces during the Civil War. In a 1998 feature on high school 'scholars of the week' in the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper, Griffin said Lee was his No. 1 choice to include on an 'ideal guest list' for a party. Clinging to traditions The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865, not long after Lee surrendered to the Union Army, at a Virginia college where Lee served as president. At least one of the first members was a former rebel soldier who had served under Lee, who is revered by the fraternity as the ideal of gentlemanly Southern chivalry. For more than a century, Kappa Alpha threw 'Old South' parties. They were formal affairs where the Confederate battle flag was flown and fraternity brothers dressed in replica Confederate gray uniforms and their dates wore antebellum-style hoop skirts. Sometimes they would ride through campus on horseback. Some Kappa Alpha chapters, particularly in the South, clung to their traditions, including the wearing of blackface, even as they drew protests and public sentiment shifted. A Kappa Alpha 'Old South' parade at Alabama's Auburn University in 1992 drew supporters waving Confederate battle flags, as well as counter protesters who burned them. In 1995, a group of Kappa Alpha members at the University of Memphis hurled racial slurs while beating a Black student who caused a disturbance outside a frat party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported at the time. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was no exception to the turmoil. Under pressure from student group's, the school's Kappa Alpha chapter in 1985 canceled its annual 'Sharecropper's Ball," which some attended in blackface. Fraternity members said blackface was worn because the event needed both Black and white attendees, but promised to discontinue the practice, according to a news story in the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper. The Kappa Alpha chapter at North Carolina's Wake Forest University stopped allowing members to wear Confederate uniform and display the Confederate flag in 1987. But other chapters held on longer. The national headquarters finally forbade confederate uniforms in 2010 after a wave of public blowback after Kappa Alpha members at the University of Alabama wore them during a parade that paused in front of the home of a black sorority. Public officials face criticism over ties to fraternity Griffin is not the first public official to draw unwanted attention for their college-age embrace of symbols drawn from the darker chapters of the South's past. Virginia's then-governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, came under intense criticism in 2019 over a racist photo that appeared on his yearbook page of his medical school. The incident led reporters to scour the college histories of other Southern leaders, forcing a number of politicians to publicly address their time as Kappa Alpha brothers. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, then the state's Republican lieutenant governor, dodged questions in 2019 about photos showing him wearing a Confederate uniform while he was a Kappa Alpha member at Millsaps College in the early 1990s. While Reeves was enrolled there in October 1994, other members of the fraternity were disciplined for wearing afro wigs and Confederate battle flags and shouting racial slurs at black students, the AP reported at the time. Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to comment after yearbooks listed him as the leader of the fraternity's chapter at the University of South Carolina in 1969, along with photos of members wearing Confederate uniforms and posing with a rebel flag. And Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, expressed regret for participating in 'Old South' parties as a student at Auburn University in the 1970s. —- Contact AP's global investigative team at Investigative@ or
Associated Press
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo
By and MICHAEL BIESECKER WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South. The emergence of the photographs comes at a delicate time for Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge who is seeking a spot on North Carolina's highest court. Griffin, 44, is facing mounting criticism – including from some Republicans – as he seeks to invalidate over 60,000 votes cast in last November's election, a still undecided contest in which he is trailing the Democratic incumbent by over 700 votes. The photographs, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are from when Griffin was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1999-2003 and a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the U.S., with tens of thousands of alumni. Griffin said he regretted donning the Confederate uniform, which was customary during the fraternity's annual 'Old South' ball. 'I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,' Griffin said in a statement. 'At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation's broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.' One of the pictures, taken during the 2001 ball, shows Griffin and roughly two-dozen other fraternity members clad in Confederate uniforms. Another photograph from the spring of 2000 shows Griffin and other Kappa Alpha brothers in front of a large Confederate flag. He served in 2002 as his chapter's president. Controversial fraternity Kappa Alpha has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy over the decades, often due to the racist or insensitive actions of some of its members. A number of politicians have been forced to apologize for having worn Confederate costumes at the fraternity's functions or for being photographed in front of a Confederate flag. Jesse Lyons, a spokesman for the fraternity's national office in Lexington, Virginia, said use of the rebel battle flag was prohibited in 2001 and displaying other Confederate symbols had been discouraged years before. The fraternity banned the wearing of the Confederate uniforms in 2010. It's unclear if the chapter at UNC banned the uniforms before the national organization did. 'We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization's history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future. These things are not mutually exclusive,' Lyons said. The fraternity claims Robert E. Lee as its 'spiritual founder' and long championed the Southern 'Lost Cause,' a revisionist view of history that romanticizes the Confederacy and portrays the Civil War as a valiant struggle for 'states' rights' unrelated to the enslavement of Black people. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a 'klan,' a term that many viewed as an unsubtle wink to the Ku Klux Klan. The photographs featuring Griffin were taken at a time when many other Kappa Alpha chapters were reevaluating their celebration of the Confederacy. During Griffin's time in the fraternity, some in his chapter questioned the appropriateness of dressing up in Confederate uniforms for the ball. Griffin opposed abandoning the tradition, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The uniforms stayed. Griffin said he would 'not respond to unsubstantiated comments based on memories of 20-plus years past.' In high school Griffin also expressed an affinity for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who led southern forces during the Civil War. In a 1998 feature on high school 'scholars of the week' in the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper, Griffin said Lee was his No. 1 choice to include on an 'ideal guest list' for a party. Clinging to traditions The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865, not long after Lee surrendered to the Union Army, at a Virginia college where Lee served as president. At least one of the first members was a former rebel soldier who had served under Lee, who is revered by the fraternity as the ideal of gentlemanly Southern chivalry. For more than a century, Kappa Alpha threw 'Old South' parties. They were formal affairs where the Confederate battle flag was flown and fraternity brothers dressed in replica Confederate gray uniforms and their dates wore antebellum-style hoop skirts. Sometimes they would ride through campus on horseback. Some Kappa Alpha chapters, particularly in the South, clung to their traditions, including the wearing of blackface, even as they drew protests and public sentiment shifted. A Kappa Alpha 'Old South' parade at Alabama's Auburn University in 1992 drew supporters waving Confederate battle flags, as well as counter protesters who burned them. In 1995, a group of Kappa Alpha members at the University of Memphis hurled racial slurs while beating a Black student who caused a disturbance outside a frat party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported at the time. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was no exception to the turmoil. Under pressure from student group's, the school's Kappa Alpha chapter in 1985 canceled its annual 'Sharecropper's Ball,' which some attended in blackface. Fraternity members said blackface was worn because the event needed both Black and white attendees, but promised to discontinue the practice, according to a news story in the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper. The Kappa Alpha chapter at North Carolina's Wake Forest University stopped allowing members to wear Confederate uniform and display the Confederate flag in 1987. But other chapters held on longer. The national headquarters finally forbade confederate uniforms in 2010 after a wave of public blowback after Kappa Alpha members at the University of Alabama wore them during a parade that paused in front of the home of a black sorority. Public officials face criticism over ties to fraternity Griffin is not the first public official to draw unwanted attention for their college-age embrace of symbols drawn from the darker chapters of the South's past. Virginia's then-governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, came under intense criticism in 2019 over a racist photo that appeared on his yearbook page of his medical school. The incident led reporters to scour the college histories of other Southern leaders, forcing a number of politicians to publicly address their time as Kappa Alpha brothers. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, then the state's Republican lieutenant governor, dodged questions in 2019 about photos showing him wearing a Confederate uniform while he was a Kappa Alpha member at Millsaps College in the early 1990s. While Reeves was enrolled there in October 1994, other members of the fraternity were disciplined for wearing afro wigs and Confederate battle flags and shouting racial slurs at black students, the AP reported at the time. Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to comment after yearbooks listed him as the leader of the fraternity's chapter at the University of South Carolina in 1969, along with photos of members wearing Confederate uniforms and posing with a rebel flag.
