Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved into a fraternity with a founding date of December 4, 1906. It employs an icon from Ancient Egypt, the Great Sphinx of Giza, as its symbol. Its aims or pillars are "Manly Deeds, Scholarship, and Love For All Mankind," and its motto is "First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All." Its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

Chapters were chartered at Howard University and Virginia Union University in 1907. The fraternity has over 290,000 members and 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. It is the largest predominantly African-American intercollegiate fraternity and one of the ten largest intercollegiate fraternities in the United States.

Alpha Phi Alpha is a social organization with a service organization mission and provided leadership and service during the Great Depression, World Wars, and Civil Rights Movement. The fraternity 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 A Voteless People Is a Hopeless People, My Brother's Keeper, Go To High School, Go To College, Project Alpha, and the World Policy Council. It also conducts philanthropic programming initiatives with the March of Dimes, Head Start, the Boy Scouts of America, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

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, United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, and film director Barry Jenkins.

Alpha Phi Alpha was directly responsible for the conception, funding, and construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

History

Founding

upright|thumb|The 1907 ΑΦΑ Constitution and [[Bylaws]]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. The initial study group consisted of 14 students. These students included four from Washington, D.C. – Robert Ogle, Fred Morgan Phillip, Fannie Holland, and Flaxie Holcosbe. There were also four men and a woman from New York State: George Kelley, Henry A. Callis, James Thomas, Gordon Jones, and Paul Ray. From West Virginia came Eugene Kinckle Jones and Mary Vassar. Vertner Tandy came from Kentucky, and C.H. Chapman was from Florida.

The group met every two weeks at 421 North Albany Street, where Poindexter roomed.

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. 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. A vote again confirmed the name Alpha Phi Alpha with the colors of old gold and black. Callis said that these fraternities, SAE and BTP, were the source of the fraternity rituals. In his absence in the meeting in November 1906, the fraternity idea was pushed for a vote by Murray and was seconded by Robert H Ogle.

The original fraternal founding members are now stated to be Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones (who replaced James Morton), George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy. Eugene Kinkle Jones who joined the group in October 1906 was given the title of a founder in 1952, while James Morton was removed because of his lack of enrollment at Cornell. The founders are collectively known as the Seven Jewels.

Mrs. Annie C Singleton played a pivotal part in helping the organization in its early years. She became the Mother of the fraternity as a result.

Consolidation and expansion

The fraternity's constitution was adopted on December 4, 1906, limiting membership to "Negro male" students and providing that the General Convention of the Fraternity would be created following the establishment of the fourth chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. The preamble states the purpose of Alpha Phi Alpha:

Chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha are given Greek-letter names in order of installation into the fraternity. No chapter is designated Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet and traditionally used for "the end". Deceased brothers are considered by brothers to have joined Omega chapter.

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 charter at Howard made it the site of the organization of the first black Greek letter organization for men among historically black colleges. The first black Greek letter organization among historically black colleges was Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, as it was established early in November 1907.

The purpose and objective of the fraternity within the articles of incorporation were declared "educational and for the mutual uplift of its members."

The fraternity chartered its first international chapter at the University of Toronto in 1908. Chapters have been chartered in London, Frankfurt, Monrovia, the Caribbean, South Africa, and South Korea.

thumb|The first General Convention at [[Howard University in 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. Each newly elected General President is automatically considered one of the "100 most influential Black Americans".

The fraternity established its first alumni chapter, Alpha Lambda, in 1911 in Louisville, Kentucky. It was again incorporated as a national organization on April 3, 1912, under the laws of Congress within the District of Columbia, under the name and title of The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

For more than 100 years, Alpha Phi Alpha and its members have had a voice and influence on politics and current affairs. The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was started by fraternity member W. E. B. Du Bois in 1910.

thumb|right|200px|Alpha Phi Alpha Fourth Annual Convention 1912, Elected President [[Charles Herbert Garvin|Charles H. Garvin on bottom right]]

In 1912, Charles H. Garvin was elected as the fourth annual president of Alpha Phi Alpha at the fourth annual convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was the first individual to serve two terms as president. He served two terms as president, between 1912 and 1914. While in office he helped secure a chapter house, appointed a special committee to consult with the president of Howard, and asked members to 'use every means possible to raise the moral and scholastic tone of the Fraternity". Garvin saw that it was vital that the Fraternity establish a mindful image and perception for future generations. One of the most notable contributions made by Garvin was the national incorporation of the fraternity under the laws of Congress.

As president, Garvin wrote the fraternity's Esprit De Fraternite. In it, he dictated:

The Training Camp at Fort Des Moines during World War I was the result of the fraternity's advocacy in lobbying the government to create an Officers' training camp for black troops. Thirty-two Alpha men were granted commissions (four were made captains and many were first lieutenants). First Lieutenant Victor Daly was decorated with the for his service in France. Today, the fort is a museum and education center which honors the U.S. Army's first officer candidate class for African-American men in 1917.

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 a long history of providing scholarships for needy students and initiating various other charitable and service projects. It evolved from a social fraternity to a primarily community service organization.

History: 1919–1949

The fraternity's national programs date back to 1919, with its "Go-To-High School, Go-to-College" campaign to promote academic achievement within the African-American community as its first initiative.

During the Great Depression, Alpha Phi Alpha and its members continued to implement programs to support the black community. The Committee on Public Policy, the Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation, and "The Foundation Publishers" were established at the 1933 general convention. The Committee on Public Policy took positions on numerous issues important to the black community. It investigated the performance of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal agencies to assess the status of the black population, both in the treatment of agencies' employees and in the quality of services rendered to American blacks. Alpha men Rayford Logan and Eugene K. Jones were members of Roosevelt's unofficial Black Cabinet, an informal group of African-American public policy advisors to the President.

The Education Foundation was created in recognition of the educational, economic, and social needs of African Americans in the United States. The foundation, led by Rayford Logan, was structured to provide scholarships and grants to African-American students. The Foundation Publishers would provide financial support and fellowship for writers addressing African-American issues. Historian and fraternity brother John Hope Franklin was an early beneficiary of the publishing company

In 1933 fraternity brother Belford Lawson Jr. founded the New Negro Alliance (NNA) in Washington D.C. to combat white-run businesses 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 businesses. In response, some businesses arranged for an injunction to stop the picketing. NNA lawyers, including Lawson and Thurgood Marshall, fought back – to the Supreme Court of the United States in New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co. This ruling in favor of the NAACP became a landmark case in the struggle by African Americans against discriminatory hiring practices. "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" groups multiplied throughout the nation. The fraternity sponsors an annual Belford V. Lawson Oratorical Contest in which collegiate members demonstrate their oratorical skills first at the chapter level, with the winner competing at the District, Regional and General Convention.

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. The Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy said, "Alpha Phi Alpha...developed citizenship schools in the urban South and with its slogan "A Voteless People is a Hopeless People" registered hundreds of blacks during the 1930s, decades before the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) launched their citizenship schools in the 1960s." The slogan is still used in Alpha Phi Alpha's continuing voter registration campaign. Alpha Phi Alpha member and former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry was the first chairman of the SNCC.