BEFORE IT WAS A FRATERNITY​
Alpha Phi Alpha initially started as a study group when seven young men saw a need for a united front for African-American males at Cornell University. After its formation, they soon created a brotherhood and support system as they faced the challenges of college life.

FOUNDER'S DAY
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. was founded on Tuesday, December 4, 1906 on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

HISTORY
Alpha Phi Alpha is the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-American men. It was founded by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of brotherhood among African descendants in this country.

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.

Soon after the founding at Cornell, Alpha Phi Alpha undergraduate chapters were established at other colleges and universities, many of them historically black institutions. 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.

JEWELS
Dr. Henry Arthur Callis
Mr. Charles Henry Chapman
Mr. Eugene Kinckle Jones
Mr. George Biddle Kelley
Mr. Nathaniel Allison Murray
Mr. Robert Harold Ogle
Mr. Vertner Woodson Tandy


NOTABLE CIVIL RIGHTS MEMBERS
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, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, William Gray, Paul Robeson, Charles Houston and many others.

MISSION
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. develops leaders, promote brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities.

AIMS
Manly Deeds, Scholarship, & Love for all Mankind

MOTTO
First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this fraternity are: 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; and to aid downtrodden humanity in its efforts to achieve higher social, economic and intellectual status.