About

About Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

The most remarkable leadership in the African American community in the 20th and 21st centuries has without question come from the ranks of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Since its founding on December 4, 1906, the Fraternity has supplied a 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 established for African-American men, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood among African descendants in this country. 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 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.

Alpha Phi Alpha chapters were developed at other colleges and universities, many of them traditionally black schools, soon after the founding at Cornell. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, the Fraternity also recognized the need to help correct the educational, economic, political and social injustices faced by African Americans.

The Fraternity’s national programs date back to 1919, when Alpha Phi Alpha introduced its “Go –to–High-School, Go-to-College” campaign to increase the education level of the African American community. Alpha Phi Alpha later took the lead in the voting rights struggle for African Americans and coined the nationally famous phrase: “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People” as part of its effort to register black votes. The slogan remains the battle cry today for Alpha voter registration efforts.

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, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, William Gray, Paul Robeson, Maynard Jackson, and many others.

The Fraternity’s leadership development and community service training to young men has made Alpha Phi Alpha the most prestigious organization of its kind today.

Alpha Phi Alpha continues its commitment to the African American community. True to its form as the “firsts of firsts,” Alpha Phi Alpha has been interracial since 1945.

About The Epsilon Xi Lambda Chapter

In the early 1950’s, a group of Black college-educated men saw the need to consolidate their talents and resources for the purpose of uplifting their community through the power of brotherhood. They believed that even amid the debilitating strain of racial segregation and Jim Crow justice, they possessed the key to turn the tide of ignorance for future generations. A single spark from 1906 ignited a flame that blazed brighter than a thousand burning crosses across the Mississippi Delta — the spark, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. — the flame, Epsilon Xi Lambda Chapter.

The Epsilon Xi Lambda Chapter was chartered on August 20, 1951 at 8:00 p.m. in Mound Bayou, MS. The service was conducted by the Regional Director and assisted by the brothers of Alpha Epsilon Lambda of Jackson, MS.

Charter Members of Epsilon Xi Lambda