SONS OF LIBERTY Alpha Phi Alpha First Black Fraternity THE EARLY HISTORY AND IDEALS OF THE FOUNDERS By Fay Lebowitz
SIX OF THE MEMBERS OF ALPHA CHAPTER, 1907 Jewel Vertner W. Tandy, Jewel Robert H. Ogle, Jewel Nathaniel A.Murray, Jewel E. K. Jones, Bro. J. H. Morton and Bro. Gordon Jones.
HOUSE OF ALPHA GOODWILL is the monarch of this house. Men, unacquainted, enter, shake hands, exchanging greetings, and depart friends. Cordially exists among all who abide within. I am the eminent expression of friendship. Character and temperament change under my dominant power. Lives once touched by me become tuned and thereafter amiable, kindly, fraternal. I inspire the musician to play noble sentiments and assist the chemist to convert ungenerous personalities into individuals of great worth. I destroy all ignoble impulses. I constantly invoke principles which make for common brotherhood and the echo resounds in all communities and princely men are thereby recognized. Education, health, music, encouragement, sympathy, laughter—all these are species of interest given on self-invested capital. Tired moments find me a delightful treat, hours of sorrow, a shrine of understanding— at all times, I am faithful to the creed of companionship. To a few, I am the castle of dreams—ambitious, successful, hopeful dreams. To many, I am the poetic palace where human feeling is rhymed to celestial motives; to the great majority, I am the treasury of good fellowship. In fact, I am the college of friendship; the university of brotherly love; the school for the better making of men. I AM ALPHA PHI ALPHA! INTRODUCTION The Negro needs defense everywhere but nowhere as in the United States. The sentiment in France and England is more just than here. While slavery (segregation) lasts, and long after, there will constantly arise occasions for defense and vindication. Ignorance, prejudice, pride of race and the selfishness of power will continue to evolve disparaging questions which none can answer so well as the black man himself . . . Frederick Douglass, January 18631
Though black institutions to assist the black man in answering "disparaging questions" have been in existence for more than half a century the vast majority of white America is unaware that these long-standing institutions exist. One such institution which is widely known in the black community but relatively unheard of in the white community is Alpha Phi Alpha, the first Negro fraternity. Charles S. Johnson, in his book The Negro College Graduate, finds that "the trends observed in Negro higher education are not wholly different from those noted in American education generally."2 However, one trend which is notably different is the dissimilarity in development and ideals between the Negro fraternity and the white fraternity, with the credit for accomplished goals going mostly to the Negro fraternity. For as it was noted much earlier in the saga of the Negro fraternity, "although they are Greek letter societies, they do not, strangely enough, follow the patterns of mere social snobbishness set by their prototypes. Each has definite, social value interests and a program of attack upon the problems which beset their race and society in general."3 The author goes on to state examples of such "programs of attack," and prominent among these was the Alpha "Go to High School, Go to College" movement. Alpha programs have been warmly endorsed by American Presidents from Calvin Cooldige to Lyndon Johnson. Alpha, throughout its long history, has never given up attacking the disparaging problems and today is continuing to play the active role prescribed by its history and tradition. An introduction should introduce the reader to what is to follow. At the same time it should, in my opinion, make the reader aware of some of the author's biases. My major one is that at the inception of this paper I was decidedly antiGreek. Now I am more selective—I am anti-white-Greek fraternities, and decidedly pro-black fraternities. I am also a respectful admirer of Alpha Phi Alpha. (Continued on page 4)