Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (ΑΦΑ) 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.
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. Poindexter was stated to have a relationship with the other students of the group that was more faculty-to-student than peer-to-peer, given that he was the secretary of a professor at Cornell. In December 1905, Poindexter organized a meeting of students which included Murray, Ogle, Phillips, Chapman, Kelley, Callis, Tandy, and George Tompkins.
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. There was disagreement about the group's purpose: some wanted a social and literary club where everyone could participate; others wanted a traditional fraternal organization. Poindexter felt the group should serve the cultural and social needs of the black community and not be an elite secret society. 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. On October 23, 1906, George Kelley proposed that the organization be officially known by the Greek letters Alpha Phi Alpha, and Robert Ogle proposed the colors black and old gold. Poindexter became the first President of Alpha Phi Alpha; under his leadership, the first banquet, initiation procedures, and policies were introduced.
The divisive issue of whether the terms "club" or "fraternity" should be used was still debated. A vote again confirmed the name Alpha Phi Alpha with the colors of old gold and black. The initiation of new members Eugene Kinckle Jones, Lemuel Graves, and Gordon Jones took place on October 30, 1906, at a Masonic Hall including James Morton was considered and selected, but at the time he was not registered at the university. Two founding members learned about fraternity rituals from other fraternal organizations: Henry A. Callis worked in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity House, and Kelly worked at Beta Theta Pi fraternity house. Coincidentally, an article about a Negro fraternity Pi Gamma Omicron's ambitions to become a national fraternity was noted by a Beta Theta Pi correspondent at Ohio State University. Callis said that these fraternities, SAE and BTP, were the source of the fraternity rituals. The other members of the group felt that Poindexter, as a graduate student, dominated the meetings of Alpha Phi Alpha. 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. In December 1906, George Tompkins' resignation was accepted. Seven of the original 12 men from the initial meeting in December 1905 would continue as members of the fraternity.
By December 4, 1906, the decision on a name was made: "fraternity". The earlier terms "club", "organization", and "society" were permanently removed. Before the December 4, 1906, meeting, Poindexter had submitted his letter of resignation from the Alpha Phi Alpha club/society, as he took a new job in Hampton University in Virginia. 11 members were present during the date of the founding of the fraternity on December 4, 1906. Despite Poindexter's role in the formation of Alpha Phi Alpha, it was agreed that his name would not be linked to the early formation of the fraternity by its founders. Murray was emphatic in his belief that Poindexter should not be considered to be a founder despite his role. As Charles Wesley stated in the fraternity's history book, "C.C. Poindexter deserves special mention. Without his serious and eager leadership, the fraternal organization would probably have advanced more slowly. He was the moving spirit in the literary organization, which served as the predecessor of the fraternity. He acted as president of the group and continued in office during the formation of the early policies and also through the first initiation in Alpha Phi Alpha society." According to his wife, Poindexter did not oppose the idea of a fraternity.
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.