Fraternity Members Invited to Republican Convention. Some Decline.

Posted on July 17, 2024

Some UNC fraternity members, thrust into the national spotlight after a photo of them holding up the American flag during a campus pro-Palestinian protest went viral, were invited to speak at this week’s Republican National Convention this week, but some declined the invitation. .

The group is among what the Trump campaign has called “Everyday American Convention Speakers” chosen to address the convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, according to an official press release from the campaign.

“A group of students and fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill patriotically protected an American flag that had been disturbed by demonstrators during an anti-Israel protest on their campus,” the campaign press release stated. “The students gained national attention as videos of the protest showed them standing strong to protect the American flag, even as protestors antagonized them.”

The release did not specify which fraternities were invited.

UNC chapter leaders for Pi Kappa Phi announced in an email their fraternity would not speak at the convention, according to The News & Observer. Republican leaders decided to move forward with plans for the convention despite an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life on July 13 during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. It is not clear why members of the fraternity declined to speak at the convention.

Whether speaking at the convention would be in violation of the fraternity’s bylaws “is a question best directed to the organization itself,” according to a Media Relations spokeswoman. Efforts to reach the president of UNC’s Interfraternity Council were unsuccessful. Ion Outterbridge, UNC’s director of fraternity and sorority life, told the Review, “The University has no partnership” with the Republican Convention.

On April 30, protesters tried for a second time to replace the American flag in the center of Polk Place with a Palestinian flag. A group of fraternity brothers, later identified as members of Pi Kappa Phi, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Gamma Delta and Zeta Beta Tau, held the flag up to keep it from touching the ground. (See “Group Raises Half a Million Dollars for Fraternity Party,” July-August 2024 Review.)

The next day, a GoFundMe account was created for what is now being called “Flagstock 2024,” a party to celebrate the members who organizers describe as American heroes.

“These boys, … no, men, of the UNC frats, gave the best to America and now they deserve the best,” the pitch read. “Help us raise funds to throw these frats the party they deserve, a party worth of the boat-shoed Broleteriat [sic] who did their country proud.”

More than $515,000 was raised, money organizers have said will go towards an invite-only event to be held Sept. 2 and John Rich of the country music duo Big & Rich said in a post on X he will perform during the party.

An update to the GoFundMe account in June said funds not used for the party will be donated to charities. Back the Blue NC, Wounded Warrior Project, Children of Fallen Patriots and Zeta Beta Tau Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism were named as possible benefactors.