We Have Been Here Before. We Can Build Again. A historic opportunity to carry AEPi’s civil-rights legacy forward through a new generation of Black-Jewish brotherhood

By Antar “Juda” Davidson

I recently represented Spill the Honey at Alpha Epsilon Pi’s International Convention in Phoenix. I arrived with two connected purposes: to introduce a Black-Jewish partnership model designed specifically for AEPi, and to reengage with the fraternity as an alumnus and first-time Chapter Advisor to the Upsilon Alpha chapter at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

AEPi gave me lifelong brotherhood and an early foundation in leadership. I have benefited from the fraternity personally and professionally, and I remain deeply proud to be an AEPi brother.

Spill the Honey became one of the places where I honed that leadership, learning how to translate history, culture and moral conviction into programs, partnerships and opportunities for young people.

Bringing AEPi House Sessions + Bars & Bridges back to the fraternity is deeply personal. It is my way of giving back to the brotherhood that helped shape me by bringing home something I have spent years learning how to build and passing that investment forward to the next generation.

Brotherhood does not end at graduation. It becomes a responsibility to carry forward what we received.

On the final night of Convention, those purposes came together.

At the banquet, I spoke with the mother of an AEPi staff member about the fraternity’s beginnings. More than a century ago, Jewish students facing antisemitism and exclusion banded together to build AEPi. Today, more than a century later, we are again banding together to confront antisemitism.

She paused as we considered the irony.

I said, “It means we have been here before. We lasted another hundred years. We can do it again.”

Later that night, I learned more about two chapters of AEPi’s civil-rights history.

Michael “Mickey” Schwerner pledged AEPi at Michigan State and remained involved after transferring to Cornell. During Freedom Summer, he worked in Mississippi alongside James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. The three men were murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan in June 1964.

AEPi’s account of Schwerner’s life asks what one brother’s example requires of those who come after him.

The second story began with a telephone ringing inside the AEPi house at Vanderbilt University.

In 1960, AEPi pledge Dale Schwartz answered a call from a Black student at Fisk University seeking support for a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Nashville. Schwartz and several brothers showed up.

There, Black students peacefully seeking service were met with violence. The AEPi brothers were also attacked. Schwartz required hospital treatment, and Vanderbilt later threatened to expel the brothers for supposedly inciting a riot.

They challenged the university.

It backed down.

Decades later, Schwartz and Congressman John Lewis discovered that they had been present at the same lunch counter. Lewis told him that he never forgot the Jewish students who stood with Black demonstrators when few others would.

The relationship began because someone made a call and someone else answered.

That history is more than a proud chapter in AEPi’s past. It reveals a tradition of brotherhood becoming public responsibility.

Today, AEPi has a historic opportunity to continue that legacy by building sustained relationships with Black fraternities before the next crisis forces us into the same room.

Shared Legacies: The African American-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance gives us the historical and moral foundation for that work. John Lewis was an early champion of the film and appears in it, offering the testimony of someone who lived the alliance it preserves.

Created by Spill the Honey founder and executive producer Dr. Shari Rogers, the film has become the center of an educational platform helping new generations understand what Black and Jewish partnership built and what it requires of us now. Under the leadership of Executive Director Rabbi Dr. Judy Schindler and the broader Spill the Honey team, communities across the country have been invited to carry its lessons forward.

That mission took a new educational form under former Representative Brenda Lawrence, a mentee of John Lewis and now Spill the Honey’s Executive Director Emerita.

A Shine A Light microgrant helped seed a music-centered response to antisemitism and division. Palm Beach revealed the educational opportunity when Brenda and I brought Shared Legacies excerpts, civic conversation and live performance to two high schools and Palm Beach State College.

Detroit then proved the creative model in a school setting. At Cass Technical High School, Brenda joined me, artist Fat Ray and school leaders as students transformed civil-rights history and speeches into original music.

From there, the method traveled to additional cities and matured into Bars & Bridges.

Shared Legacies preserves the history.

Spill the Honey translates it.

Bars & Bridges activates it.

The question now is how to carry that proven educational and cultural method into AEPi chapter life.

The model I introduced at Convention is called AEPi House Sessions + Bars & Bridges. It combines the history and moral foundation of Shared Legacies with curated, chapter-hosted cultural experiences, student leadership, alumni mentorship and continued creative work.

The event is the on-ramp. The relationships, leadership pathways and opportunities that follow are the product.

AEPi chapters already know how to convene students and create energy. House Sessions builds on that strength by connecting it to leadership, campus relationships and local artist development.

Curated local artists, including rappers, DJs, producers and spoken-word artists, create the cultural entry point. AEPi brothers serve as hosts, producers, facilitators and campus connectors. The experience then opens into creative collaboration, mentorship and continued projects through Bars & Bridges.

The model preserves the cultural draw while creating a thoughtful handoff from experience to opportunity.

For AEPi, the result would be more than a strong event. It would develop brothers as leaders while strengthening alumni engagement, recruitment and relationships across campus.

Local artists would receive paid opportunities, mentorship and exposure. Alumni could contribute as employers, funders and professional connectors. Chapters could deepen their relationships with Hillel, arts programs, student affairs and community institutions.

Black fraternity partners would be invited from the beginning as co-designers and co-conveners, not added at the end as symbolic participants.

AEPi brings Jewish brotherhood, chapters, alumni reach and campus relationships. Black fraternities bring deep traditions of civic service, cultural leadership, professional achievement and intergenerational responsibility.

Their histories are not identical. That is precisely why the partnership has meaning.

The goal is not sameness. It is shared contribution.

Together, the chapters could create a space where history becomes relationship, relationship becomes shared work, and shared work becomes a foundation for continued leadership.

The next step is one disciplined, curated and campus-compliant pilot at an anchor chapter, built with national guidance and local ownership.

The pilot would bring together an AEPi chapter, a Black fraternity partner, Hillel, local artists, alumni mentors and a campus sponsor. It would allow us to see who participates, what they create, which relationships continue and whether the chapter develops the capacity to carry the work forward.

Only then should we decide whether the model has earned the right to expand to additional campuses.

Convention revealed that AEPi’s civil-rights history and Spill the Honey’s educational mission are not separate stories. AEPi’s history creates the mandate.

Shared Legacies preserves the memory. Spill the Honey has developed an educational and cultural method for helping new generations activate that memory.

AEPi House Sessions gives that method an AEPi-specific form. Black fraternity partners help build what comes next. As a Black and Jewish AEPi brother, Chapter Advisor and Spill the Honey strategist, I recognize an opportunity to help architect that connection.

I do not view that position as a claim for recognition. I view it as a responsibility.

I do not want merely to be described as a bridge. I want to help construct one strong enough for institutions and generations to cross.

More than a century ago, Jewish students banded together to confront antisemitism and exclusion. A generation of AEPi brothers later carried the strength of that brotherhood into the struggle for civil rights.

John Lewis helped preserve that legacy through Shared Legacies. Brenda Lawrence helped translate it into educational action. Spill the Honey has continued developing the method. AEPi House Sessions + Bars & Bridges can now give a new generation of AEPi and Black fraternity brothers a structure through which to know one another, create together and lead together.

AEPi brothers once answered a call from John Lewis’s generation. Our opportunity is to build the relationship before the next call comes.

We have been here before. Now we can build again, together and with intention.

Bring AEPi House Sessions to Your Campus

AEPi chapters, alumni leaders, Hillels, Black fraternity leaders and campus partners are invited to book a 60-minute design session with Spill the Honey to explore an AEPi House Sessions + Bars & Bridges pilot.

During that conversation, we will identify a potential anchor chapter, Black fraternity co-conveners, campus and Hillel partners, local artists, alumni mentors and the support required to build a responsible 90-day pilot.

To explore bringing this program to your campus or community, contact Spill the Honey at info@spillthehoney.com and request an AEPi House Sessions design session.