Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Leadership and Achievement
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (ΑΦΑ) stands as the oldest intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for Black college students. Founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, it began as a literary society in December 1905 before evolving into a fraternity. In honor of their 117th Founders Day, we acknowledge some of the impactful Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity members who have positively contributed to Black history and culture.
The fraternity's symbol is the Great Sphinx of Giza, an icon from Ancient Egypt. Alpha Phi Alpha opened chapters at other colleges, universities, and cities, and named them with Greek letters. Chapters were chartered at Howard University and Virginia Union University in 1907. In 1908, the fraternity chartered its first international chapter at the University of Toronto. No chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha is designated Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet that traditionally signifies "the end".
With over 290,000 members, Alpha Phi Alpha has been open to men of all races since 1945. Currently, there are more than 730 active chapters in the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia. For more than 100 years, Alpha Phi Alpha and its members have had a voice and influence on politics and current affairs. The fraternity has been led by 36 general presidents.
Alpha Phi Alpha is a social organization with a service organization mission. It provided leadership and service during the Great Depression, World Wars, and Civil Rights Movement. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha's leaders recognized the need to correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African Americans and the world community. Alpha Phi Alpha has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community’s fight for civil rights through leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Edward Brooke, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, William Gray, Paul Robeson, and many others.
Founding and Early Years
At the start of the 20th century, African-American students at American universities were often excluded from fraternal organizations enjoyed by the predominantly white student population at non-black colleges. Charles Cardoza Poindexter organized a group of students for literary discussion and social functions at Cornell University. The group initially consisted of 15 students and included women.
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Robert Ogle had seen an article in the Chicago Defender magazine about a Negro fraternity at Ohio State University called Pi Gamma Omicron, which the university did not know. Pi Gamma Omicron inspired Ogle to try to transform the literary society into a fraternity. There was disagreement about the group's purpose: some wanted a social and literary club where everyone could participate; others wanted a traditional fraternal organization. Poindexter felt the group should serve the cultural and social needs of the black community and not be an elite secret society. The society decided to work to provide a literary, study, social, and support group for all minority students who encountered social and academic racial prejudice.
On October 23, 1906, George Kelley proposed that the organization be officially known by the Greek letters Alpha Phi Alpha, and Robert Ogle proposed the colors black and old gold. A vote again confirmed the name Alpha Phi Alpha with the colors of old gold and black. The initiation of new members Eugene Kinckle Jones, Lemuel Graves, and Gordon Jones took place on October 30, 1906, at a Masonic Hall. Two founding members learned about fraternity rituals from other fraternal organizations: Henry A. Callis worked in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity House, and Kelly worked at Beta Theta Pi fraternity house.
In December 1906, the decision on a name was made: "fraternity". The earlier terms "club", "organization", and "society" were permanently removed. Before the December 4, 1906, meeting, Poindexter had submitted his letter of resignation from the Alpha Phi Alpha club/society, as he took a new job in Hampton University in Virginia. Despite Poindexter's role in the formation of Alpha Phi Alpha, it was agreed that his name would not be linked to the early formation of the fraternity by its founders. Murray was emphatic in his belief that Poindexter should not be considered to be a founder despite his role. As Charles Wesley stated in the fraternity's history book, "C.C. Poindexter deserves special mention. Without his serious and eager leadership, the fraternal organization would probably have advanced more slowly. Mrs. Annie C Singleton played a pivotal part in helping the organization in its early years.
Founders Eugene Kinckle Jones and Nathaniel Allison Murray chartered the second, third, and fourth chapters at Howard University, Virginia Union University, and the University of Toronto, respectively, in December 1907 and January 1908. The first general convention was assembled in December 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., producing the first ritual and the election of the first General President of Alpha Phi Alpha, Moses A. Morrison. The fraternity established its first alumni chapter, Alpha Lambda, in 1911 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Key Initiatives and Programs
Alpha Phi Alpha addresses social issues such as apartheid, AIDS, urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues of interest to people of color. National programs and initiatives of the fraternity include:
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- A Voteless People Is a Hopeless People: The fraternity began to participate in voting rights issues, coining the well-known phrase "A Voteless People is a Hopeless People" as part of its effort to register black voters. This term was coined by the Alpha Omicron Chapter located at Johnson C. Smith University in 1936.
- My Brother's Keeper: This program focuses on mentoring and developing young men.
- Go To High School, Go To College: Encourages academic excellence and higher education.
- Project Alpha: Addresses issues of teen pregnancy and responsible sexual behavior.
- World Policy Council: A think tank that addresses social and political issues affecting people of color.
Alpha Phi Alpha's Impact on Civil Rights
Alpha Phi Alpha supported legal battles against segregation. Some of its members who were trial lawyers argued many of the nation's major court cases involving civil rights and civil liberties. The case styled Murray v. Pearson (1935) was initiated by the fraternity and successfully argued by Alpha men Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston to challenge biases at the university, which had no laws requiring segregation in its colleges. The fraternity assisted in a similar case that involved fraternity brother Lloyd Gaines. In Gaines v. Canada, the most important segregation case since Plessy v. Ferguson.
Alpha men were at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. In Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr. led the people in the Montgomery bus boycott as a minister and later as head of the SCLC. Birmingham saw Arthur Shores organize for civil rights in Lucy v. Adams. Thurgood Marshall managed the landmark US Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Court decided against segregation in public schools. In 1961, Whitney Young became the executive director of the National Urban League. In 1963, the NUL hosted the planning meetings of civil rights leaders for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
In 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Alpha Phi Alpha proposed erecting a permanent memorial to King in Washington, D.C. The efforts of the fraternity gained momentum in 1986 after King's birthday was designated a national holiday. Alpha Phi Alpha was directly responsible for the conception, funding, and construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
Notable Members
Members of this fraternity include many historical civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., NAACP founder W. E. B. Du Bois, John Mack, Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, Rev. C.T. Vivian, and Dick Gregory. Other members include political activist Cornel West, musicians Duke Ellington, Donny Hathaway, and Lionel Richie, NBA player Walt Frazier, NFL player Charles Haley, Jamaican Prime Minister Norman Manley, Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, Justice Thurgood Marshall, businessman Robert F. Smith, Maryland’s first Black governor Wes Moore, Actor Hill Harper, US actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Ambassador Andrew Young, Roland Martin, Actor Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Omari Hardwick.
Buildings, monuments, stadiums, arenas, courthouses, and schools have been named after Alpha men, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Thurgood Marshall Public Policy Building at the University of Maryland; the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans; the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge; the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium; the Paul Robeson Plaza at Rutgers University; the Jack Trice Stadium; the John H. Johnson School of Communication at Howard University; the Oscar W. Ritchie Pan-African Cultural Arts Center at Kent State University; the Arvarh E. Strickland General Classroom Building at the University of Missouri-Columbia; the G. Larry James Stadium at Stockton University; the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts; the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County; the John Hope Franklin Memorial Plaza in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Stephan P. Mickle Sr. Courthouse in Gainesville, Florida; the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building; the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago; the A. Maceo Smith Federal Building in Dallas; the Robert F. Smith STEM Academy in Denver, Colorado.
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Here's a more detailed look at some notable Alpha men:
- Martin Luther King Jr.: 1962 Nobel Peace Prize; civil rights activist; co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). One of the world’s best known advocates of non-violent social change strategies Martin Luther King, Jr., drew his ideas from many different cultural traditions. Born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929, King’s roots were in the African-American Baptist church. On December 5, 1955, five days after Montgomery civil rights activist Rosa Parks (Alpha Kappa Alpha) refused to obey the city’s rules mandating segregation on buses, black residents launched a bus boycott and elected King as president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association. King gained national prominence as a result of his exceptional oratorical skills and personal courage. King’s renown grew as he became Time magazine’s Man of the Year and, in December 1964, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while seeking to assist a garbage workers’ strike in Memphis.
- W. E. B. Du Bois: Writer and Civil Rights Leader. Started The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in 1910. Alpha Phi Alpha has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community’s fight for civil rights through leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois.
- Thurgood Marshall: First African American justice of US Supreme Court; attorney in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education. Brother Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), was the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served as an associate justice from 1967 until his retirement in 1991. As a justice, Brother Marshall took liberal positions on a wide variety of issues, including capital punishment, free speech, school desegregation, and affirmative action. From 1940 to 1961, he was director and chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall is perhaps best known for arguing, before the Supreme Court, Brown v. Board of Education.
- Paul Robeson: World famous scholar, athlete, actor, singer and civil rights activist. In the annals of Alpha’s history, no one man has exemplified the spirit of an Alphaman more than Brother Paul Robeson. Born in 1898, he was a world famous scholar, athlete, actor, singer and civil rights activist. Entering Rutgers University on an academic scholarship, Brother Robeson excelled in athletics and earned a combined 12 letters in track, football, baseball and basketball. During his senior year, he earned All-American honors in football and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors as well as the distinction of being named a Rhodes Scholar. In 1923, he received his law degree from Columbia University, where he was discovered acting in a school play. Brother Robeson went on to star in numerous productions including Porgy and Bess and Othello, where his outstanding voice was well received. Traveling the world, Robeson spoke several languages including Chinese, Russian, Gaelic and Spanish. In 1945, he was awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his outstanding achievements in the theater and on the concert stage.
- Jesse Owens: Track Star, 1936 Olympic Summer Games, Berlin, Germany. James Cleveland Owens was born in Danville, Alabama in 1913. After his family moved to Ohio, he became known as “Jesse”, derived from his initials “J.C.”. Brother Owens competed as a runner while at Ohio State University, setting two world records. At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Adolf Hitler put on a massive propaganda campaign claiming that Aryan supremacy would win the games for the Nordic countries. Brother Owens, a Black man, won gold medals in four events, beating several world records and embarrassing the Nazis.
- Duke Ellington: Born in 1899, Edward Kennedy Ellington created thousands of musical works, led his famous orchestra for an unmatched stretch of fifty years, and earned his nickname, Duke, by setting the standard for sophistication and elegance. Always a modernist, he made countless contributions to the jazz art form, and his music continues to be rediscovered and re-interpreted by every new generation of artists. Today, more than 20 years after Brother Ellington’s death in 1974, musicians and scholars are still uncovering new riches in the trove of materials that he left behind.
- John H. Johnson: John H. Johnson Publishing’s business is black and white and read all over. In 1942, Johnson used his mother’s furniture as collateral to secure a $500 loan to start the publication Negro Digest, the forerunner to Ebony magazine. He parlayed his dream of publishing “a magazine of Negro content” into a “black gold mine.” Today, Johnson is chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing Co. in Chicago, the largest black owned publishing and cosmetics company in the world. In November 1995 the company expanded its operations with the launch of Ebony South Africa.
- Whitney M. Young Jr.: An educator, humanitarian, author and civil rights leader, Young dedicated his life to full participation of African-Americans in the nation’s economic and political systems. For more than two decades, he led the National Urban League in its effort to improve the economic status of African-Americans. Young accomplished this by working within the economic and political systems to achieve equal opportunities. In 1953, Young took a brief hiatus from the Urban League to become the Dean of Atlanta University’s Graduate School of Social Work. He served in that position until he was appointed National Urban League Executive Director in 1961.
- Wes Moore: Maryland’s first Black governor.
The Sphinx
In 1914, The Sphinx, named after the Egyptian landmark, began publication as the fraternity's journal. The Crisis and The Sphinx are respectively the first and second oldest continuously published black journals in the United States. The House of Alpha was first published in the December 1923 edition of The Sphinx Magazine. The poem would later be attributed to Bro. Sidney P. Brown and quickly became a staple within the fraternity. When speaking about the poem in 1981, Brown cited his experiences with Beta (Washington, D.C.), Theta (Chicago), Xi Lambda (Chicago Alumni), and Eta Lambda (Atlanta Alumni) as collective inspirations for the poem.
Alpha Phi Alpha Today
Alpha Phi Alpha today continues in the spirit of leadership the Fraternity has demonstrated since 1906. As underprivileged peoples around the world continue to struggle for their God-given rights of freedom, justice, equality and human dignity, the Fraternity continues to stand at the forefront of efforts to win those rights.
Loyalty to the Fraternity was repeatedly urged by brothers on the part of those who were among the initiated, and for every chapter with the vision of a fraternity house.
Alpha Phi Alpha chapters were established at other colleges and universities, many of them historically black institutions, soon after the founding at Cornell. The first alumni chapter was established in 1911. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha also recognized the need to help correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African Americans.
In 1940, true to its form as the "first of first", Alpha Phi Alpha sought to end racial discrimination within its membership. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the nation's entry into World War II, the fraternity fought to secure rights for its members within the ranks of officers in the armed forces. The types of warfare encountered evidenced the nexus between education and war, with illiteracy decreasing a soldier's usefulness to the Army that could only be addressed with the inclusion of a large number of college-educated men among the ranks of officers. Alpha men served in almost every branch of the military and civilian defense programs during World War II. The leadership of the fraternity encouraged Alpha men to buy war bonds, and the membership responded with their purchases. The fraternity's long tradition of military service has remained strong.
The general convention in 1952 was the venue for a significant historical action taken regarding the Seventh Jewel Founder. The decision "of placing Brother [Eugene] Jones in his true historical setting resulting from the leading role which he had played in the origin and development of the early years of the fraternity history" was made by a special committee consisting of Jewels Callis, Kelley and Murray, and fraternity historian Charles H. Wesley. James Morton was removed as a founder, yet continues to be listed as one of the first initiates. This convention created the Alpha Award of Merit and the Alpha Award of Honor for appreciation of the tireless efforts on behalf of African Americans, and was awarded to Thurgood Marshall and Eugene K. Jones.
In 1956, the fraternity made a "pilgrimage" to Cornell in celebration of its Golden Jubilee, which drew about 1,000 members who traveled by chartered train from Buffalo, New York, to Ithaca. Fraternity brother Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the keynote speech at the 50th-anniversary banquet, in which he spoke on the "Injustices of Segregation".
Beginning in the 1970s, new goals were being introduced to address the current environment. The older social programs and policies w… As a former Naval Officer, Financial Advisor, Insurance Agent, Realtor, Certified Life Coach, Marriage Counselor, Keynote Speaker & Social Entrepreneur, our founder created this platform with a "fiduciary" mindset to always do what's in our patron's best interests by providing you with high-quality products & services to help you be the best version of yourself. It is our belief, that "version" is as virtuous Kings & Queens who conduct themselves royally in body mind spirit & home. We serve an international community as a veteran & minority-owned transformation hub, podcast & holistic lifestyle brand built on the Seven Jewels. As such, we provide senior healthcare, coaching, marriage counseling, business consulting, keynote speaking, spiritual books, music, streetwear fashion, urban apparel, hip-hop clothing, fraternity & sorority greek gear, t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, bead bracelets, suits, footwear, handbags, tracksuits, watches, malas, prayer beads, accessories, gemstones, incense, body oils, soy candles, supplements & travel vacations. We sincerely appreciate your business! Be sure to bookmark us. Sites that link to us increase their own visibility & SEO.
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