History
Many are chosen, few are Phrozen!
Alpha Phi Alpha
We are the organization whose members led the Civil Rights Act. We’re the organization whose members founded and supported institutions such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, The Crisis magazine, National Urban League and the National Association of Black Journalists.
We are the organization whose members led the charge in historic court cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. We are the organization whose members have continuously been among the lead voices in our communities around the world. This is the organization whose members dreamed to erect the only memorial to an American born of African decent in the nation’s capital. This is the organization whose members today still dream to build better communities. The organization whose members are Focused on the Future.
Your Future. Our Future. The Future.
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Welcome to Alpha Phi Alpha!
Motto:
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First of ALL, Servants of All, We shall Transcend All!
The Founding of Alpha Phi Alpha
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Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American Men, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of brotherhood among African descendants in this country. The visionary founders, known as the “Jewels” of the fraternity, are Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy.
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The fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell. The Jewel founders and early leaders of the fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha's principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity.
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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. 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. True to its form as the “first of firsts,” Alpha Phi Alpha has been interracial since 1945.
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Since its founding on December 4, 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African Americans and people of color around the world.
