The Founding of Alpha Phi Alpha™
About Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Since its founding on December 4, 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has provided voice, vision, and leadership in the struggle for justice and equity for African-Americans and people of color around the world.
As the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-Americans, Alpha Phi Alpha was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, by seven visionary college men who recognized the need for a strong and enduring bond of brotherhood among African descendants in this country.
The Seven Jewels
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
- Vertner Woodson Tandy
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.
Expansion and Impact
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.
Fraternity Aims
Manly Deeds, Scholarship, and Love for All Mankind.
Fraternity Motto
First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All.
Fraternity Mission Statement
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. develops leaders, promotes brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities.
Fraternity Objectives
The objectives of this Fraternity shall be:
- To stimulate the ambition of its members;
- To prepare them for the greatest usefulness in the causes of humanity, freedom, and dignity of the individual;
- To encourage the highest and noblest form of manhood;
- To aid down-trodden humanity in its efforts to achieve higher social, economic, and intellectual status.
The first two objectives--to stimulate the ambition of its members and to prepare them for the greatest usefulness in the cause of humanity, freedom, and dignity of the individual—serve as the basis for the establishment of Alpha University.
