CHAPTER HISTORY

Eta Iota Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. was chartered April 10, 1942 under the direction of the late Dr. F. Rivers Barnwell, District Representative with 18 members present.  The chapter had been represented at all National and District meetings.
 

The Chapter sponsored YMCA basketball teams; gave Christmas parties and donated clothes to the underprivileged children; held an annual picnic and sweetheart dance; paid YMCA memberships for underprivileged boys and girls; supported and donated to the YMCA, YWCA, Urban League and NAACP (lifetime membership since 1963); hosted food and blood drives; and gave to the United Negro College Fund.  On 4 occasions, the Chapter was host to the Ninth District meeting and has hosted several national officers of the Fraternity.
 

Eta Iota Chapter was instrumental in starting undergraduate chapters at the University of Oklahoma (Pi Delta) and the University of Central Oklahoma (Sigma Kappa).
 

The chapter consists of doctors, lawyers, insurance professionals, educators, chemists, engineers and scientists.  The Chapter also boasts the first black pharmacist in Oklahoma, the first black PHD graduate from the University of Oklahoma, the youngest Ninth District Representative (Bro. Clarence Wilson, deceased), the first person to successfully sue the government for racial discrimination, the first black professor at the University of Oklahoma; the first black state poet; the first black to have a municipal park named in his honor; the first black Civil Engineer for the State of Oklahoma.  Eta Iota was also instrumental in getting the first post office to be located in an African American neighborhood in Oklahoma City.  Eta Iota Chapter also lost two brothers in the Alfred P. Murrah Building Bombing (Bro. Clarence Wilson and Bro. Larry Turner).

Through the vision, perseverance of the Brothers of the previous 45 years, Eta Iota Chapter purchased its Fraternity House in Northeast Oklahoma City.  The House has become well known throughout the Ninth District where many Brothers from across the country have enjoyed Eta Iota’s famous hospitality.