Burning Spear Society
Encyclopedia
Burning Spear is a leadership honorary society at The Florida State University, created in 1993 and originally named the Charlie Ward for Heisman Coalition.
Burning Spear is fully integrated and has a strong history of inclusion of persons of different gender and race. Burning Spear was rated the Best New Campus Organization for the 1993–94 school year in the State of Florida by the Florida Leader Magazine.
Burning Spear serves as the host of the Clock & Seal annual homecoming banquet at FSU. Former keynote speakers of Clock & Seal include:
Burning Spear also sponsors the Seminole Spirit Drum, which beats nonstop outside of Doak Campbell Stadium for 72 hours prior to a football game against a major rival.
Burning Spear has claimed existence for only eighteen years, but there are dissenting opinions that say the society has operated in one form or another for a much longer time. Their control of campus and state politics has been compared to The Machine
at the University of Alabama
and the Skull and Bones
society of Yale University
.
There are a large number of Burning Spear alumni from Florida State now in the legislature, including Governor Charlie Crist
, Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp
, and former Senate President Jim King
. The organization is also said to control a political action committee
that gives campaign contributions to candidates that attended Florida State.
Student membership consists of the most elite of student government and fraternal/sorority leaders on campus and never exceeds twenty members.
Burning Spear holds clandestine meetings in various places on campus and at the off campus Burning Spear Mansion. They are said to have ritual meetings in the underground passageway connecting Landis Hall and Robert Manning Strozier Library, but there are no confirmed reports as of now.
Secret marks and symbols appear in historically relevant areas of campus on dates that hold significance to Burning Spear. Such dates are said to include: Student Government election day when a Burning Spear member is running for high office, Burning Spear's Clock & Seal, SGA Inauguration and dates that new members are tapped and initiated.
Burning Spear is also reputed to have secretly worked with fraternities and sororities to control strategic positions in student government and other key student organizations.
History
Burning Spear was founded on July 14, 1993 by three student leaders who recognized an opportunity to unite students, faculty, alumni, and community members who all shared a desire to make Florida State University one of the world's leading institutions of higher education. The founders believed that leadership and character of exceptional quality should be recognized, and that all Seminoles should meet and work together on a basis of mutual interests, ideals, and love of their alma mater. By August 1993, sixteen diverse student leaders joined together to charter this new organization, and within one year's time seven additional students would be initiated into membership.Burning Spear is fully integrated and has a strong history of inclusion of persons of different gender and race. Burning Spear was rated the Best New Campus Organization for the 1993–94 school year in the State of Florida by the Florida Leader Magazine.
Events
- Florida Trend publisher Lynda Keever
- Florida Supreme CourtFlorida Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of the State of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges: the Chief Justice and six Justices who are appointed by the Governor to 6-year terms and remain in office if retained in a general election near the end of each...
Justice Raoul Cantero - Former Florida SenateFlorida SenateThe Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Senate is composed of 40 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 470,032....
President John Thrasher - United States Senator Bill NelsonBill NelsonClarence William "Bill" Nelson is the senior United States Senator from the state of Florida and a member of the Democratic Party. He is a former U.S. Representative and former Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida...
- Governor Charlie CristCharlie CristCharles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General...
- Seminole Boosters Director Charlie Barnes
- NFL All-Pro Derrick BrooksDerrick BrooksDerrick Dewan Brooks is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Buccaneers 28th overall in the 1995 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida State....
- Representative Ray SansomRay SansomRay Sansom was a member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing portions of Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties from 2002 to February 21, 2010....
- NFL All-Pro Marvin Jones
- Head Football Coach Jimbo Fischer
Burning Spear also sponsors the Seminole Spirit Drum, which beats nonstop outside of Doak Campbell Stadium for 72 hours prior to a football game against a major rival.
Controversies
The Machine
The Machine, the former Alpha Rho chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon at the University of Alabama, is a coalition of traditionally white fraternities and sororities which formed a secret society with some degree of influence over campus and Alabama state politics...
at the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
and the Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
society of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
There are a large number of Burning Spear alumni from Florida State now in the legislature, including Governor Charlie Crist
Charlie Crist
Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General...
, Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp
Jeff Kottkamp
Jeffrey "Jeff" Kottkamp is an American politician from Florida, and served as the state's 17th Lieutenant Governor, from 2007 to 2011....
, and former Senate President Jim King
James E. King
James E. "Jim" King was an American businessman and politician. A Republican, he was a member of Florida House of Representatives from 1986 through 1999, and subsequently represented the 8th District of the Florida Senate from 1999 until his death...
. The organization is also said to control a political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
that gives campaign contributions to candidates that attended Florida State.
Student membership consists of the most elite of student government and fraternal/sorority leaders on campus and never exceeds twenty members.
Burning Spear holds clandestine meetings in various places on campus and at the off campus Burning Spear Mansion. They are said to have ritual meetings in the underground passageway connecting Landis Hall and Robert Manning Strozier Library, but there are no confirmed reports as of now.
Secret marks and symbols appear in historically relevant areas of campus on dates that hold significance to Burning Spear. Such dates are said to include: Student Government election day when a Burning Spear member is running for high office, Burning Spear's Clock & Seal, SGA Inauguration and dates that new members are tapped and initiated.
Burning Spear is also reputed to have secretly worked with fraternities and sororities to control strategic positions in student government and other key student organizations.