Alpha Phi Alpha 

History of Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, on December 4, 1906, by a group of African-American men who channeled the ideological principles of leading Black intelligentsia and eventual members of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois in the core values, such as education, human rights, and manhood.  

Alpha Phi Alpha is the oldest active intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity, established for African-American men by seven college men who recognized the need for a stronger bond of Brotherhood during a period of racial prejudice, housing discrimination, and persistent issues among this student population. The founders, affectionately 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.

Soon after its founding at Cornell, the fraternity established chapters at various colleges and universities, including historically black institutions and in Canada. 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.

The "Seven Jewels"