Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha
ΑΦΑ
The official crest of Alpha Phi Alpha. The official crest of Alpha Phi Alpha.
Founded	December 4, 1906 Cornell University
Type	Service
Scope	International
Motto	First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All
Colors	Black and Old Gold
Symbol	Sphinx, Ape, Pharaoh
Flower	Yellow Rose
Chapters	700+
Cardinal Principles	Manly Deeds, Scholarship, and Love for All Mankind
Headquarters	2313 St. Paul Street Baltimore, Maryland USA
Website	Alpha Phi Alpha website

Alpha Phi Alpha (ΑΦΑ) Fraternity is generally recognized as the first intercollegiate Greek letter fraternity established by African Americans. Founded on December 4, 1906 on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, the fraternity has initiated over 125,000 men into the organization. Since 1945, the fraternity has been open to men of all races. The fraternity archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and Alpha has declared 2006 the beginning of its "Centennial Era" to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Founders Henry A. Callis, Charles H. Chapman, Eugene K. Jones, George B. Kelley, Nathaniel A. Murray, Robert H. Ogle and Vertner W. Tandy are collectively known as the Seven Jewels and they swiftly expanded the fraternity after a second chapter was chartered at Howard University in 1907. Beginning in 1908, the Howard chapter would become the prototype for the five National Pan-Hellenic Council members, a predominantly African-American fraternal council. Today there are over 700 Alpha chapters in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the West Indies. The Alphas have encountered problems similar to other fraternities, including a two-year suspension for a 2001 hazing episode at Ohio State University.

The national organization has established a number of community programs and combined its resources with other organizations on philanthropic projects. Some fraternity initiatives include the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. The memorial, which Congress authorized in 1996 with Public Law 104-333, has been beset by delays, a languid pace of donations, and a request from the King Family in 2001 for licensing fees to use King's name and likeness in marketing campaigns. Other Alpha sponsored programs are the "Go To High School, Go To College" and "Voteless People Is a Hopeless People" programs. The fraternity jointly leads programming initiatives with March of Dimes, Head Start, Boy Scouts of America and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Members of Alpha Phi Alpha include former Jamaican Prime Minister and Rhodes Scholar Norman Manley, Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, Jr., former U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, olympian Jesse Owens, Justice Thurgood Marshall, Atlanta, Georgia Mayors Andrew Young and Maynard Jackson, and numerous other American leaders are among the men who have adopted the fraternity’s principles--manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind.

History

Founding

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First meeting place of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Ithaca, New York.

At the start of the 20th century, black students at American universities were often excluded from the personal and close associations the predominately white student population enjoyed in fraternal organizations. During the 1905-06 school year at Cornell University, Alpha Phi Alpha was organized with the stated desire of providing a mechanism to build those associations and provide mutual support among African American students. At the outset, there was disagreement about the group's purpose. Some desired to organize a social and literary club where all persons could participate. Others in the group supported a traditional fraternal organization. The overwhelming sentiment was dissatisfaction with lack of access to a literary society and members proposed to enlarge the functions of the group. The fraternal supporters were in the minority and the society thereafter organized with the intention of providing literary, study, social and support group for all minority students who encountered social and academic racial prejudice.

Cornell Univesity, Site of the Founding of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

At the first meetings during the school year 1906-07, members formed the nucleus of the organization's internal structure for the yet unnamed "society." On October 23, 1906, Callis and Jones, acquainted with the Greek language, proposed that the organization be known by the Greek letters, Alpha Phi Alpha, and Ogle proposed the colors to be old gold and black. The fraternity was still in process of formation and the divisive issue of whether the terms "club" or "fraternity" be used was debated within the group.

By December 4, 1906, the member's views changed and the decison was made to become a fraternity. The prior designations of "club," "organization," and "society" were removed. The founding members of the first collegiate Greek letter organization for Negro males, with the Great Sphinx of Giza as their symbol were Henry A. Callis, Charles H. Chapman, Eugene K. Jones, George B. Kelley, Nathaniel A. Murray, Robert H. Ogle and Vertner W. Tandy.

Consolidation and expansion

The 1907 ΑΦA Constitution and By-Laws

The first General Convention of Alpha Phi Alpha, 1908.

The fraternity's constitution was adopted on December 14, 1907 and limited membership to "Negro male" students. The constitution also provided that the General Convention of the Fraternity would be created following the establishment of the fourth chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. The Secretary of the State of New York accepted the incorporation of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. on January 29, 1908. The Fraternity was again incorporated on April 3, 1914 within the District of Columbia. The purpose and object of the fraternity within these articles of incorporation was declared to be "educational and for the mutual uplift of its members."

Soon after the Cornell organization formed, members opened Alpha Phi Alpha chapters at other colleges and universities, many within historically black schools. In 1908, the fraternity became international when it chartered a chapter at the University of Toronto (although shortly thereafter the chapter became defunct). The first general convention assembled in 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.

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The Sphinx Magazine, 2000.

In 1914, The Sphinx® began publication as the fraternity's official journal and was named after the Egyptian landmark. Still published, the Sphinx is America's second oldest African American pubication. Only the NAACP's The Crisis, started by fraternity member W.E.B. DuBois in 1910 predates the Alpha publication.

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.

History: 1919 - 1950

The Fraternity's national programs date back to 1919 with the "Go-to-High-School, Go-to-College" campaign to promote academic achievement within the African-American community being the first initiative. Alpha Phi Alpha would later participate in the voting rights debate and coined the well-known phrase A Voteless People is a Hopeless People as part of its effort to register black voters. The slogan remains in Alpha Phi Alpha's continuing voter registration campaign.

During the Great Depression, Alpha Phi Alpha and its members continued to implement programs which it deemed affected the black community. The New Negro Alliance (NNA) was founded in 1933 by fraternity brother Belford Lawson, Jr. in Washington D.C. to combat white-run business in black neighborhoods that would not hire black employees. The NNA instituted a then-radical Don't Buy Where You Can't Work campaign, and organized or threatened boycotts against white-owned business. In response, some businesses arranged for an injunction to stop the picketing. NNA lawyers, including Lawson and Thurgood Marshall, fought back — all the way to the United States Supreme Court in New Negro Alliance v Sanitary Grocery Store. This became a landmark case in the struggle by African Americans against discriminatory hiring practices, and Don't Buy Where You Can't Work groups multiplied throughout the nation. The NNA estimated that by 1940, the group had secured 5,106 jobs for blacks because businesses could not afford to lose sales during the depression.

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Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

The Committee on Public Policy was established at the 1933 general convention and took positions on issues many in the black community deemed important. The first investigation of the committee was of the national government's New Deal agencies. The committee's agenda was to determine the status of the black population, both as to treatment of agencies' employees and in the quality of services rendered to American blacks.

At the 1936 Summer Olympics, three fraternity brothers represented the United States: Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe and Dave Albritton. Alpha Phi Alpha was continuing to expand and once again became an international organization as in 1938 it extended its roster of chapters to London, England.

After the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Alpha men served in almost every branch of the armed forces and civilian defense programs during World War II. The type 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. The Training Camp at Fort Des Moines was the result of the fraternity's advocacy in convincing the government to create an officers’ training camp for black troops. Thirty-two Alpha men were granted commissions (four were made captains and ninety percent were first lieutenants). The leadership of the fraternity encouraged Alpha men to buy war bonds, and the membership responded with their purchases.

The 1940s were significant years for the fraternity as it sought to end racial discrimination in its own ranks and secure rights for its membership after the nation's entry into World War II. The use of the word "Negro" in the membership clause of the constitution which referred to "any Negro male student" would be changed to read "any male student." This was the first official action by a black fraternity to allow the admission to men of all races. The fraternity has been interracial since 1945.

History: 1950 - 1969

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Alpha Phi Alpha participates during the 1963 March on Washington.

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George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James Nabrit, congratulating each other, following U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring segregation unconstitutional

The American civil rights movement coincided with Alpha Phi Alpha's 50th anniversary. The fraternity's first "pilgrimage" to Cornell was held in 1956 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee and drew about 1,000 members who traveled by chartered train from Buffalo to Ithaca. Darryl R. Matthews Sr., general president of Alpha Phi Alpha in 2005, defined the centennial pilgrimmage in a letter to members as; A pilgrimage is a personal, spiritual, historic and significant journey, which one takes to a place and for a purpose that has profound meaning to that individual. Fraternity brother Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the keynote speech at the 50th anniversary banquet, chronicled in the documentary, Alpha Phi Alpha Men: A Century of Leadership. There were three living Jewels present for the occassion, Kelly, Callis and Murray.

Alpha men were pioneers and at the forefront of the civil rights struggle. In Montgomery, Dr. King led the people in the Montgomery Bus Boycott as a minister, and later as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Birmingham saw Arthur Shores organize for civil rights while Thurgood Marshall was engaging in the fight for desegregation and integration in the landmark case of the United States Supreme Court, Brown v. Board of Education. Marshall employed mentor and fratenity brother Charles Hamilton Houston's plan to use the de facto inequality of "separate but equal" education in the United States to attack and defeat the Jim Crow laws. In 1961 Whitney Young became the executive director of the National Urban League (NUL) and 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 fraternity brother 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 became a national holiday and led to the creation of The Washington D. C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc to collect funds of $100 million for construction.

History: 1970 - present

Beginning in the 1970s, new goals were being introduced to address current environment. The older social programs and policies were still supported, however; the fraternity turned its attention to new social needs. This included the campaign to eliminate the ghetto-goal with the completion of three urban housing developments through Alpha Phi Alpha leadership in St. Louis, Missouri— the Alpha Gardens, Alpha Towne and Alpha Village.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is most famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington.

In 1981, the fraternity celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in Dallas, Texas, featuring a presentation of the New Thrust Program consisting of the Million Dollar Fund Drive that contributed funds to the NAACP, the National Urban League, and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

In 1996, the United States Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to permit Alpha Phi Alpha to establish a memorial on Department of Interior lands in the District of Columbia. While the project has created a good deal of controversy with regard to the Alpha's commitment to pay a fee to the King family, the memorial will be the first to honor an African American in the National Mall and the second non-President to be commemorated in such a way. The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial is scheduled for completion in 2008 and will be located on a 4-acre site that borders the Tidal Basin and within the sightline of the Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service will maintain the site.

Alpha Phi Alpha provides for charitable endeavors through the Fraternity's Education and Building Foundations, providing academic scholarships and shelter to underprivileged families. The Fraternity also has made commitments to train leaders with a national mentoring programs.

Alpha Phi Alpha asserts "the Fraternity has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African Americans and people of color around the world", and it has established an Alpha Phi Alpha Archives at Howard University in Washington, D.C. to preserve the history of the organization.

Chapters

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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity shield depicting—seven stars, torch, dove, fasces, pyramids and Sphinx

The first chapter established at Cornell University is named Alpha chapter. The second, Beta, established at Howard University in 1907 made Alpha Phi Alpha the first black fraternity to charter a chapter on a historically black school. The fraternity established Alpha Lambda its first graduate alumni chapter in 1911 in Louisville, Kentucky.

The fraternity's international scope was established early. In 1908 it chartered undergraduate chapter Delta at University of Toronto; shortly thereafter, the chapter became defunct. Its seat was transferred to what is now Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas in 1939. In 1938 the fraternity chartered Beta Psi college chapter in London, England. The Theta Theta Lambda alumni chapter was chartered 1963 at Frankfurt, Germany. Other chapters have been chartered in Monrovia, Liberia, the Caribbean and South Korea.

Omega chapter was distinguished to contain the names of deceased fraternity members. Frederick Douglass became an honorary member of the fraternity's Omega chapter in 1921, enjoying the distinction of being the only member initiated posthumously.

Pledging

"These cruel beatings which, in many instances, have left men marked and scarred for life is driving men way from Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Many men are outside the thinking of this".

ΑΦA General President 'Belford Lawson, 1934.

The pledge period is the time that a potential new member of the fraternity engages in before being duly initiated as a brother. This period is the time the pledge learns of the organization's history, principles, tenancity of brotherhood.

In the selection of candidates for membership, certain chapters had not escaped challenges of racial stereotyping and allegations of colorism. In a biography of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the authors recounted how the fraternity used a "brown paper bag test" and would not consider students whose skin color was darker than the bag. Former General President Belford Lawson, Jr. lamented this attitude and condemned initiation practices of snobbery and exclusivity, and said "Jesus Christ could not make Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity today; they would blackball Him because He was not hot enough".

There are periods in the history of the fraternity where hazing was involved in certain pledge lines. The fraternity has never officially condoned hazing, but has been aware of problems with "rushing" and "initiations" dated as far back as the 1934 General Convention when the fraternity founders communicated their concern with physical violence in initiation ceremonies. At the 1940 General Convention, a pledge manual was discussed that would contain a brief general history, the list of chapters and locations, the achievements of Alpha men, outstanding Alpha men, and pledge procedures.

"Let there be no complaints about brutality. The emphasis should be upon history and purposes of the Fraternity rather than upon physical punishment".

ΑΦA General President Rayford Logan, The Sphinx, February 1946

In 2001, the chapter at Ohio State University was suspended for two years by both the university and the national Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity for hazing and other violations. The incident involved two prospective members injured seriously enough to require medical care.

Many hazing incidents have resulted in civil actions; that and the objections of parents and students prompted Alpha Phi Alpha to implement its current policy abolishing pledging as a means of obtaining membership. The fraternity's official policy is that hazing is against the purposes and goals of the Fraternity and has been discontinued as a condition or manner of initiation into the membership of Alpha Phi Alpha. It is no longer legal within the organization for members to establish a pledge line or to require aspirants to the organization to submit to hazing. All membership intake activities for the fraternity are conducted by the National Intake Office and must occur in the presence of a National Intake Officer.

Membership

See also: category:Alpha Phi Alpha brothers

Template:Alpha Men First Accomplishments As Alpha Phi Alpha expanded to over 125,000 members, the ranks of its membership include a plethora of prominent and accomplished activists, educators, politicians, businessmen, philanthropists entertainers and athletes. Although interracial, the organization remains pedominately African America in composition. Alpha claims 60% of black doctors, 75% of black lawyers, 65% of black dentists, and close to 90% of black college presidents in the United States, with brothers in over 700 college and graduate chapters in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. The fraternity's membership roster includes activist Dick Gregory, Harvard Professor Cornel West, Congressman Charles B. Rangel, former HUD secretary Samuel Pierce, entrepreneur John Johnson, athlete Mike Powell and musician Donny Hathaway.

Alpha Phi Alpha member Hubert H. Humphrey

The fraternity provides classifications for honorary and exalted honorary membership; one of the highest honors that Alpha Phi Alpha can bestow upon a person who has not obtained membership through the traditional plege program. Honorary members include white Vice President Hubert Humphrey, jazz musician Duke Ellington, and activist W.E.B. DuBois.

Alpha men were instrumental in the founding and leadership of the NAACP (DuBois), NUL (Eugene Jones), People's National Party (PNP) Norman Manley, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) (Jesse E. Moorland), United Negro College Fund (UNCF) (Frederick D. Patterson), and the SCLC (Martin Luther King, Jr. and Wyatt Walker)

From the ranks of the fraternity have come a number of pioneers in various fields. Honorary member Kelly Miller was the first African-American to be admitted to Johns Hopkins University. Todd Duncan was the first actor to play "Porgy" in Porgy and Bess. During the Washington run of Porgy and Bess in 1936, the cast—as led by Todd Duncan—protested the audience's segregation. Duncan stated that he "would never play in a theater which barred him from purchasing tickets to certain seats because of his race." Eventually management would give into the demands and allow for the first integrated performance at National Theatre.

Charles Houston, a Harvard Law School graduate and a law professor at Howard University, first began a campaign in the 1930s to challenge racial discrimination in the federal courts. Houston's campaign to fight Jim Crow Laws began with Plessy v. Ferguson and culminated in a unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Spingarn Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded posthumously by President Jimmy Carter. The Presidential Medal of Freedom has also been awarded to members William Coleman and Edward Brooke. The Spingarn Medal, awarded annually by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by a Black American, has been awarded to brothers John Hope Franklin, Rayford Logan and numerous fraternity members. The Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the highest civilian award of the United States Congress was awarded to Jesse Owens and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Prime Minister Norman Manley was a Rhodes Scholar (1914), awarded annually by the Oxford based Rhodes Trust on the basis of academic achievement and character. Andrew Zawacki, a white man, is a second Rhodes Scholar recipient.

A number of buildings and monuments have been named after Alpha men such as the Eddie Robinson Stadium, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and the W.E.B. DuBois library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The United States Postal Service has honored fraternity members W.E.B. Dubois, Duke Ellington, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Paul Robeson and Jesse Owens with a commemorative stamp in their popular Black Heritage Stamp series.

Egyptian influences

The Great Sphinx of Giza with Pyramid of Khafre in the background.

"I have stood beside the Sphinx in Egypt in Africa in July on my third visit there, and I brought greetings to this silent historical figure in the name of Alpha Phi Alpha and I crossed the continent to Ethiopa".

ΑΦA Historian & General President Charles H. Wesley, August 1973

Alpha Phi Alpha utilizes motifs from Ancient Egypt and uses images and songs depicting the Sphinx, pharaohs, and other Egyptian artifacts to represent the organization. This is in contrast to other fraternities that traditionally echo themes from the golden age of Ancient Greece. The pyramid is also another common symbol and is another African image of Alpha Phi Alpha and is utilized as a symbol of foundation, sacred geometry and more. Pharaoh often appears and is a title used to refer to the Egyptian god-kings. Fraternity members organize travel to Egypt to walk across the sands to the Sphinx and the Pyramids.

The Heremakhet and Alpha's constant reference to Ethiopia in hymns and poems are further examples of Alpha's mission to imbue itself with an African cultural heritage. Fraternity brother Charles H. Wesley wrote, "To the Alpha Phi Alpha brotherhood African history and civilization, the Sphinx, and Ethiopian tradition bring new meanings and these are interpreted with new significance to others."

National programs

ΑΦA National Programs
Mentoring	World and National Affairs
Education	Continuing the Legacy
Project Alpha	Leadership Training Institute
Alpha Academy	Go To High School, Go To College
Alpha Head Start Academy	A Voteless People is a Hopeless People
Alpha and the NAACP	Commission on Business
Cooperative Programs and	Economic Development

The Alpha's national office is located in Baltimore, Maryland. Darryl R. Matthews, Sr. holds the elective office of General President and Willard C. Hall, Jr. is the Executive Director appointed by the General Convention. The national office is tasked with overall fraternity supervision and program management.

National programs are projects adopted by the General Convention and mandated for implementation in all chapters. The fraternity combines its efforts in conjunction with other philanthropic organizations such as Head Start, Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Project Alpha with the March of Dimes, NAACP, Habitat for Humanity, and Fortune 500 companies. The Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation is a project of Alpha Phi Alpha to construct fraternity member Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.

Go-To-High School, Go-To-College

Established in 1922, the Go-To-High School, Go-To-College is intended to afford Alpha men with the opportunity to provide young participants with role models. The program concentrates on the importance of completing secondary and collegiate education as a path to advancement and to provide information and strategies to facilitate success.

Voter Education/Registration Program

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"A Voteless People is a Hopeless People" campaign poster

"A Voteless People is a Hopeless People" was initiated as a National Program of Alpha during the 1930s when many African-Americans had the right to vote but were prevented from voting because of poll taxes, threats of reprisal, and lack of education about the voting process. Voter education and registration has since remained a dominant focus in the fraternity's planning. In the 1990s the focus has shifted to promotion of political awareness and empowerment, delivered most often through use of town meetings and candidate forums.

Project Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha and the March of Dimes began a collaborative program called Project Alpha in 1980. The project consists of a series of workshops and informational sessions conducted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brothers to provide young men with current and accurate information about teen pregnancy prevention. Alpha Phi Alpha also participates in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica and raised over $95,000 in 2004.

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial

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Location for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall.

The campaign to erect a permanent memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the fraternity. In 1998, Congress authorized and President Bill Clinton confirmed the fraternity's request to establish a foundation to manage the memorial's fundraising, design and construction. The fraternity laid a marble and bronze plaque to dedicate the memorial site on December 4, 2000. In 2001, Dr. King's family stood in the path of Alpha Phi Alpha's campaign to erect the memorial, because the family wanted the fraternity to pay a fee for the right to use King's image. The fraternity, beset with languid donations, has stated the last thing it needs is to have to pay a onerous license fee to the King family. "If nobody's going to make money off of it, why should anyone get a fee?" The Washington Post quoted Joseph Lowery, past president of the King-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The groundbreaking is scheduled to coincide with the centenary of the fratetnity. The fraternity's goal is to dedicate the Memorial in 2008 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of King's death.

National Pan-Hellenic Council

The fraternity is a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), composed of nine international black Greek-letter sororities and fraternities, and Alpha Phi Alpha is the only member founded at an Ivy League school. The council promotes interaction through forums, meetings and other mediums for the exchange of information and engages in cooperative programming and initiatives through various activities and functions.

Centennial celebration

"The chief significance of Alpha Phi Alpha lies in its purpose to stimulate, develop, and cement an intelligent, trained leadership in the unending fight for freedom, equality and fraternity. Our task is endless".

ΑΦA Founder & General President Henry Arthur Callis, May 1946

Alpha Phi Alpha has declared 2006 the beginning of its "Centennial Era" to celebrate its 100th anniversary. These preparations will culminate with the Centennial Convention, consisting of nationwide activities and events including the commissioning of intellectual and scholarly works, presentation of exhibits, lectures, artwork and musical expositions, and the production of film and video presentations scheduled for July 25 - 30, 2006 in Washington, D.C.. The Centennial Era is to be framed by the slogan First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All.

The 2006 Centennial Celebration Kickoff launched with another "pilgrimage" to Cornell University on November 19, 2005. That event brought over 700 fraternity members gathered for a day long program. Members journeyed across campus and unveiled a new centennial memorial to Alpha Phi Alpha. The memorial—a wall in the form of a "J" in recognition of the Jewels—features a bench and a plaque and is situated in front of the university's Barnes Hall.

Alpha Phi Alpha Men: A Century of Leadership, is a historical documentary on Alpha Phi Alpha's century of leadership and service. The film premiered February 2006 on PBS as part of the 2006 Black History Month theme, "Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Social and Civic Institutions."

The first black fraternity?

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The History of Alpha Phi Alpha.

There is some dispute as to whether Alpha Phi Alpha was the first black fraternity. Black-sponsored Greek letter organizations may have begun in 1903 on the Indiana University campus, but there were too few registrants to assure continuing organization. In that year a club was formed called Kappa Alpha Nu, but the club disappeared after a short time. There is no record of any similar organization at Indiana University until Kappa Alpha Nu was issued a charter in 1911.

Sigma Pi Phi, founded in 1904, has also claimed to be the first although many argue this is a misnomer. Sigma was founded as an organization for professionals and college graduates and not as an organization of black college students. Historian Charles H. Wesley, a member of both Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi, authored The History of Alpha Phi Alpha, A Development in College Life and The History of Sigma Pi Phi and asserts that Alpha Phi Alpha was the first Greek-letter organization among black college men.

Alpha Phi Alpha claims its historical position as the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity in the United States established for men of African descent, and the paragon for NPHC members. The history books of Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi and Phi Beta Sigma omit the fraternity's place and contribution to the college negro fraternal movement. Historian and Alpha archivist Herman Mason has stated, "As a historian who recognizes that laying a foundation for any period of history, I find their omission inexcusable and without merit."

Documentary films

• Alpha Phi Alpha Men: A Century of Leadership , 2006, Producer/Directors: Alamerica Bank/Rubicon Productions

References

• Mason, Herman "Skip" (1999). The Talented Tenth: The Founders and Presidents of Alpha. Four-G Publishers, Inc. ISBN 1885066635.
• Wesley, Charles H. (1981). The History of Alpha Phi Alpha, A Development in College Life. Foundation Publishers. ASIN: B000ESQ14W.
• Wesley, Charles H. (1950). The History of Alpha Phi Alpha: A Development in Negro College Life. Foundation Publishers.

External links

Alpha Phi Alpha

• Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity website

Outside websites

• Alpha Phi Alpha: A Centennial Celebration, Cornell University
• Alpha Phi Alpha Politicians
• Alpha Phi Alpha iconography
• 2006 Centennial (Celebration) Pilgrimage photos
• National Pan-Hellenic Council
• Public Law 104-333 Congressional authorization for Memorial to Dr. King
• Skip's Historical Moments