A photo of Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers, including Glenn Funk in 1982
Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk came to the Scene offices Tuesday afternoon with a handwritten statement and a copy of a photo.
The photo, from a 1982 Wake Forest University yearbook, shows dozens of Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers, including Funk, standing around a large Confederate flag. In his statement, Funk acknowledges the photo as well as his participation in "divisive and hurtful behavior" while he was a member of the fraternity.
Funk's disclosure comes in the wake of political upheaval in Virginia kicked off by a photo in Gov. Ralph Northam's 1984 medical school yearbook page that shows one man wearing blackface and another wearing Ku Klux Klan robes. In the wake of the Northam scandal, USA Today scoured yearbooks from the 1970s and 1980s, finding hundreds of racist photos. Among them: One of Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee wearing a Confederate army uniform while a student — and member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity — at Auburn University. In his statement, Funk (who is a Democrat, although he serves in a nonpartisan position) said the reports about Lee's membership in Kappa Alpha, and the photo, made him "feel compelled" to make his own disclosure.
Funk's statement in full:
Last week I read media reports that Governor Bill Lee was a KA at Auburn in the late 1970s and early 1980s.Given the attention given to this fact, I feel compelled to disclose that when I was in college at Wake Forest in 37 years ago, I was also a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity.
I went back and looked through my college annuals. In 1982 my picture appeared in a group photo in the yearbook with the Confederate flag prominently displayed.
I was wrong to participate in divisive and hurtful behavior. I apologize for the hurt caused then and now.
Funk declined to speak further on the record about his time as a KA.
The fraternity has been under particular scrutiny in recent weeks because it cites leading Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as its "spiritual founder." Its chapters at a number of universities famously celebrated "Old South Week" for years, but the fraternity banned members from wearing Confederate uniforms to parties in 2010, and has since banned the use of the term "Old South" altogether.
