The most remarkable leadership in the African American community in the 20th century has without question come from the ranks of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Since its founding on December 4, 1906, the Fraternity has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African Americans and people of color around the world.

Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity in the United States established for men of African descent, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood between African Americans. 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.

The Fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice— educationally and socially—at Cornell. At the beginning of the school year, 1905-1906, at Cornell University, Ithaca New York, several Black students saw the need to maintain more intimate contacts with one another than their classroom study permitted. These men often met during the Autumn of 1905 to discuss the possibilities of closer contacts with themselves. As Black students at a supremely white ivy-league institution, they found themselves cut off from the many opportunities for mutual helpfulness, which come to groups of students through personal acquaintance and close association. Confronted with the issues of race and negative societal factors, these young men boldly endeavored to find a way out of their difficulties. During those beginning days, the Jewel founders and early leaders of the Fraternity worked to lay a solid foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha’s principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character and the uplifting of humanity.

The constitution, adopted on December 14, 1907, provided that following the establishment of the fourth chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the general organization of the Fraternity would be set up. Soon after the founding at Cornell, Alpha Phi Alpha chapters were developed at other colleges and universities— many of them traditionally black schools.

On December 28, 1908, the Fraternity’s first general convention assembled at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The convention expressed the hope that “the influence of Alpha Phi Alpha would reach every (African American) college and university in the land, to bring together under one band and with one bond of fraternal love, all the worthy leading college men wherever found, to form, as it were, a link to join them together.”

The first general convention and subsequent conventions have continuously exhorted chapters and members to remember that “manly deeds, scholarship and love for all mankind” are the aims of the Fraternity.

Alpha Phi Alpha has long stood at the forefront of the African American community’s fight for civil rights and human dignity. From the Fraternity’s ranks have come outstanding civil rights 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, Julius Chambers, Maynard Jackson and many others.

Today, Alpha Phi Alpha continues its commitment to the African American community through the Fraternity’s Education and Building foundations which provide scholarships to outstanding students and shelter to underprivileged families. The Fraternity also has dedicated itself to training a new generation of leaders with national mentoring programs and partnerships designed to ensure the success of our children and youth.