The SPHINX | Spring 2000 | Volume 85 | Number 1 200008501

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PRESIDENT'S L E T T E R

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FOUNDER'S LETTER

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EDITOR'S LETTER

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IN RETROSPECT

By Brother Raymond W. Cannon

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REMINISCENCES O F T H E EARLY DAYS

By Brother Roscoe C. Giles

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T H E HISTORY AND PURPOSE O F ALPHA P H I ALPHA

By Brother George B. Kelley

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WORLDWIDE H O N O R BESTOWED U P O N B R O T H E R KING

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ALPHAS AT YALE

By Brother William Ashby

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ALPHA'S 1936 OLYMPIAN TRIAD

By Brother William H . Gray, Jr.

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A GREAT MAN HAS FALLEN

By Brother C. Anderson Davis

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ALPHA'S M O T H E R SENDS GREETINGS

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F U T U R E O F ALL LIFE H A N G S IN T H E BALANCE

By Brother Roger Youmans

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AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY WEEK

By Brother Rayford W. Logan

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CORPORATE DIRECTORY

SPRING 2000 VOLUME 85 • NUMBER 1

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation THE SPHINX

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GENERAL OFFICERS Adrian L. Wallace

B a l t i m o r e , MD 31218-5234 2313 S t . Paul S t r e e t B a l t i m o r e , MI) 21218-5234

General President 2313 St. Paul Street! Bait;

M i l t o n C . Davis Immediate Past General President S e a t o n J. W h i t e , I I I Interim Executive Director

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2313 St. Paul Street; Bait, MD ;i;iB-t,?

G e o r g e N . Reaves General Treasurer Frank A . Jenkins, I I I Comptroller H a r r y E . J o h n s o n , Sr. General Counsel

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Al F. R u t h e r f o r d Director-General Conventions Kenneth Jordan Parliamentarian FOUNDERS Henry Arthur Callis Charles Henry Chapman Eugene Kinckle Jones George Biddle Kelley Nathaniel Allison Murray Robert Harold Ogle Vertner Woodson Tandy CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 2313 St. Paul Street Baltimore, MD 21218-5234 Phone: (410) 554-0040 Fax: (410) 554-0054 To change a mailing address: Send both the new and old address to: Membership Department I Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 2313 St. Paul Street Baltimore, MD 21218-5234 la Phi Alpha Web Page Address: http://www.apal906.org

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POSTAL I N F O R M A T I O N The SPHINX® (USPS 510-440) is published quarterly for $40 a year by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.®, 2313 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-5234. Periodical postage paid at Baltimore, MD. Postmaster: send address changes to The SPHINX®, 2313 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-5234.

The SPHINX® is the official magazine of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.® Send all editorial mail and changes of address to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. ® The Fraternity assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts or art. Opinions expressed in columns and articles do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. ® Use of any person s name in fiction, semi-fiction, articles or humorous features is to be regarded as a coincidence and not as the responsibility of The SPHINX®, and is never done knowingly. Copyright 2000 Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction, or use without permission, of the editorial or pictorial content of the magazine in any manner is prohibited. The SPHINX® has been published continuously since 1914. Organizing Editor: Brother Raymond W. Cannon. Organizing General President: Brother Henry Lake Dickason.

GENE IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME

The Sphinx* magazine, the official organ of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., carries the distinction of being the second-oldest continuously published African-American periodical. The Sphinx® is without question the standard bearer of excellence among fraternal publications.

The historical edition, which you hold in your hands, is a limited print run of approximately 3,000 issues (sure to become a collectible) produced as a special gift for our Millennium Convention.

Selected articles from The Sphinx® archives are reproduced in this issue. Voices from our past speak with the resonance of wisdom to us today, as we enter a brave new future. A test of true wisdom is if it weathers the rigors of time. I am certain you will agree that the articulated thoughts from these "voices from the past" ring with a clarity and prescience.

As we peer through a veil of the past, appreciating again from whence we have come, we cannot help but be humbled by the rich legacy and awesome responsibility that is ours.

In the fullness of time, with the dawn of a new century, Alpha Phi Alpha continues to unfold and evolve in ways, which manifest the leadership and preeminence that are our benchmarks.

These noble voices from the past rightly deserve to be heard again in this new millennium.

4A^.(ft£LADRIAN L. WALLACE General President

Raymond W. Cannon Organizing Editor Henry Lake Dickason Organizing General President

FOUNDER'S LETTER Official Organ of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Seaton J. White, III Editor-in-Chief

JEWEL CALLIS PROPOSES ALPHA SHRINE AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY Reprinted from the OCTOBER 1949 Sphinx" Attorney B.V. Lawson Jr. President, The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Washington, D.C. Dear Brother Lawson:

T h o m a s D . Pawley, III Contributing Columnist R o b e r t L. H a r r i s , Jr. Contributing Columnist Harry B. D u n b a r Contributing Columnist J o s e p h T. D u r h a m Consulting Editor J o h n I. H a r r i s , I I I Research Editor Brian A . C o l e l l a Design and Layout Deadlines for editorial submissions are as follows: Spring Issue - December 1 Summer Issue - March 1 Fall Issue - June 1 Winter Issue - September 1 For advertisement display rates and other ad information contact: Editor of The SPHINX* Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 2 3 1 3 St. Paul Street Baltimore, M D 2 1 2 1 8 - 5 2 3 4 Phone: (410) 5 5 4 - 0 0 4 0 Fax: (410) 5 5 4 - 0 0 5 4 lpha Phi Alpha Web Page Address http://www.apal906.org

Two events have given me the opportunity to return recently to the birthplace of Alpha Phi Alpha. In April, I was the guest of Alpha, the mother chapter. In June, I returned to Cornell for the fortieth anniversary re-union of the class of 1909. It is historically significant that the founding and the establishment of Alpha Phi Alpha should have been conceived and executed at Cornell University.

The doors of Cornell have been open to all without discrimination since 1868. Cornell refused any religious or denominational affiliation and has never awarded an honorary degree. (AfricanAmerican) students have always been welcome. The successful farmer-business man, Ezar Cornell, and the young Yale scholar, Andrew D. White, who became the first president, conceived an institution in which "any person may learn anything." For a half a century students have come from all parts of the world.

Today, New York State supports Cornell schools of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, Home Economics, Hotel and Institutional Management, and Labor and Industrial Relations. Tuition for New York State citizens is no problem. Yet only an occasional student from the state's half million (African-Americans) appears on the campus.

The democratic spirit of Cornell permeates the students and influences the graduates to a degree that fulfills the dreams of the University's founders. Today a group of students composed of all races and many nationalities possesses a home and a center of good will in a house on the campus, used formerly by one of the fraternities. Many graduates are engaged in work affecting directly our country's grave social and educational problems. Others are considered protagonists in their fields for equality of respect and opportunity.

The very catholicity of Cornell nurtured Alpha Phi Alpha. The Fraternity might well establish a Memorial House upon the campus of Cornell, dedicated to the Universal Brotherhood. For this the project should be so administered that any male student at the university might be a resident. The Brothers in Alpha Chapter are engaged now in the search for a home, which they can support. The financial difficulties are many. A permanent Memorial at the Birthplace of Alpha Phi Alpha is the responsibility of the General Organization. Such a monument to the beginning of the Greek-letter fraternities and sororities among us would center attention upon the problems we continue to face and should stimulate an increase in the number of our capable students who attend the university.

The relatively few (African-American) students at Cornell and the other colleges and universities leads to the consideration of means to augment these numbers. An impressive need is now present to find and encourage well-prepared young people to gain admission to these schools. Communities need to be informed of educational opportunities at their doors. Here is work the year around for a functioning educational committee in every graduate chapter. The urgency of the progress is especially great for those chapters situated near the large university centers.

In the founding of Alpha Phi Alpha, we were concerned with increasing enlightenment of all Americans by any and all available means of education. A half-century later, we can be content with one ideal and objective in this field: complete freedom and equality in all education for every American within the limits of his innate abilities.

The position of Alpha Phi Alpha cannot be equivocal upon this principle. The torch of leadership in the Fraternity must be carried always by hands free to hold high this beacon of freedom and equality without compromise.

Fraternally yours, H.A. Callis, Founder

EDITOR*

EDITOR'S LETTER

REMEMBERING THE DAY WHEN ALPHA PHI ALPHA TOOK HOLD OF THE COMMUNITY'S LEADERSHIP

In this issue, Brother Raymond W. Cannon, the first Editor of The Sphinx®, takes us to a time in the country's history when the leadership in the African-American community had failed. These were the days after Reconstruction—after the Civil War had been fought and African-Americans had taken their place as government leaders, serving in Congress and in other highranking legislative positions. The community's leadership later was systematically dismantled until not one African-American was left in office.

"In those days, we had little on which to pin our hopes for better days," states Brother Cannon, in his article "In Retrospect" that was reprinted from the Fall 1981 Sphinx®. "The old order of leadership had failed, and current courageous leadership was pitifully handicapped," he states,"... but the Founders of Alpha Phi Alpha were men of great integrity."

In this special "Collections From The Past" edition of The Sphinx9, the writings of some of the Fraternity's most noted members, and some not so well known, have been reprinted to help readers better understand the circumstances that surrounded Alpha Phi Alpha's coming into being and major developments in the life of the organization.

Since 1914, The Sphinx1" magazine has kept regular record of occurrences within and surrounding the Fraternity. The reprinted writings of historic figures in the Fraternity such as Brothers Cannon, Henry Arthur Callis, George Biddle Kelley, Roscoe C. Giles, Rayford W Logan and others will likely present perspectives of the organization that are new to many. Others may remember moments in our history, which they themselves took part in.

Another article in the edition is a reprint of a column written by the Fraternity's 15th General President Rayford W. Logan, who served from 1941 to 1945. In the article, Brother Logan discusses the nation's observance of "(African-American) History Week," offering the Fraternity's support and cooperation in the event. "Even in the liberal white colleges of the North and West, too little time is devoted to a consideration of the role that the (African-American) has played in the development of civilization," Brother Logan writes.

All the circumstances surrounding the penning of Brother Logan's article are not known. However, as an Editor and one very involved in the publishing of written materials, I look with great interest at the sentence in the article that reads: "Even if the week of February 6-12 has passed before this issue of The Sphinx® reaches the various chapters, this article will not be untimely."

I hope you enjoy this "Collections From The Past" issue of the magazine.

£ed*~ tfU^ SEATONJ. WHITE, III Editor-in-Chief

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IN RETROSPECT

By Raymond W. Cannon Reprinted from the Fall 1981 Sphinx® I am pleased that a kind and understanding providence has preserved me that I may celebrate with you our 75th Anniversary and Diamond Jubilee in Ithaca and Buffalo, New York. Jewels Kelley, Callis and Murray—survivors of the original seven—were there and I see here this evening a few others who were there. After the experience, I had with hot humid weather at a previous Convention, I had decided to forego attendance. I changed my mind. Furthermore, I may not be able to be with you when our 100th Anniversary is celebrated, so I am here now. This evening, I am proud to state that I have been a member of Alpha Phi Alpha since April 6, 1912—almost 70 years—during all of which time I have never had occasion to regret a moment of my career in this Fraternity. I LOVE ALPHA PHI ALPHA! Only a very few of us are left who had to do with shaping this organization when it was in a plastic state. In recent years, I have received many invitations to address groups of Brothers and chapters. They want to hear the stories about the Founders and the early trials and tribulations of the Fraternity. Groups of Brothers have come to my home, some with tape recorders. I know all the Jewels, worked with them, enjoyed the hospitality of some of their homes, and I have received their viewpoints and listened to their stories.

Now I shall endeavor to follow as closely as possible the subject assigned to me by General President Sutton. Someday, I hope to tell you about many of the great stalwarts of Alpha Phi Alpha and what they gave and did to make this Fraternity a great organization— also, some of the happenings with which we had to contend.

The Jewels were somewhat older than the students of today. They were very practical men. Some had attended higher institutions of learning prior to their matriculation at Cornell. And they came from various parts of the country. They already had considerable of life's experiences. Each was different than all of the others but they had the ability to cooperate and work together toward a common goal. I would state that they were men of wide experience, they knew and understood people, both in their weaknesses and strengths. One important attribute of character each had was that although all of them had tasted the bitter dregs of racial discrimination, humiliation and prejudice, they did not permit that fact to deter them from their urge to serve.

They were able to love their fellow men.

Of the Founders, only Tandy was not obliged to work while in university. His father was a prosperous contractor in Kentucky and he was financially well situated as a student. Some of the other Founders used to borrow from him, and he said they used to hang on his coattail. Chapman, somewhat older, operated a brickyard and dining hall. Some of them had irregular menial employment of various kinds.

In order to understand some of the influences of their day, and some that led to their banding themselves together into fraternal union, we turn for a moment to note conditions in this country as a whole in their time as students.

A great controversy was raging between two schools of thought—one headed by our late Brother W.E.B. DuBois advocating higher education and the other headed by the late Dr. Booker T. Washington advocating industrial education. In addition, each differed from the other on the great social questions of the day. The Niagara Movement in 1905 preceded the founding of Alpha Phi Alpha in 1906, and this, as you know, was the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which came into being in 1909- For a few years before and after this period the South was feverishly endeavoring to push the (African-American) down the social scale and keep him there. Senator "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman of South Carolina, Vardaman and John Sharp Williams of Mississippi, Cole Blease of Georgia, Hoke Smith and a number of other white southerners were appearing in print, and Tillman on the lecture platform throughout the country, especially in the northern states, vilifying, defaming and maligning the (African-American). In some of the southern areas, lynching and burning were almost commonplace.

In those days, we had little on which to pin our hopes for better days. The old order of leadership had failed, and current courageous leadership was pitifully handicapped. Even there was prejudice at Cornell University. But the Founders of Alpha Phi Alpha were men of great integrity. They believed in themselves and their ability to do things constructively. They decided that they could and they would change things, circumstances and conditions. At first, they thought they would try and make it better in all respects for the (African-American) students who would come to Cornell in the future. But one among their number, Jewel Henry Arthur Callis, when our General Constitution was drafted, insisted upon provision to be included that would justify

a social action program, and the provision in the Preamble of the General Constitution, "to destroy all prejudices" is attributed to Jewel Callis. This constitutes the foundation upon which Alpha Phi Alpha can stand to justify all of its public programs of education, uplift and guidance.

Each Founder made his contribution. All at that time appeared to be of equal competence. Jewel Kelley seemed to feel that Jewel Callis proposed the name of our Fraternity and he endorsed it with a motion that it be adopted. Jewel Tandy designed our official badge, "the pin." Tandy, incidentally, had the first pin. Jewel Murray wanted to see and examine it. Tandy let him do so. Murray dropped it in the snow it was lost. Roscoe Conkling Giles, though not one of the Jewels, became the second General President and he in large measure helped to devise our Ritual with a background of Egypt, the Pyramids and the Egyptian Sphinx. The Ritual was in cipher for secrecy and protection.

Here I wish to state that the Niagara Movement had a terrific impact on the Founders. They were greatly influenced by DuBois whom Callis had met, circa 1909, enroute to Epsilon Chapter, which DuBois became an Honorary member.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was the first Greek-letter Society composed of (African-American) men of college grade. In some quarters it was viewed with curiosity, and in others some thought we were creating a "Jim Crow" organization. These impressions soon disappeared. And for more than a quarter of a century the very name—ALPHA PHI ALPHA—was magic. Its ranks were difficult to enter. One negative vote ("black ball") excluded a candidate from membership. A"C+" average in scholarship was required by many chapters. Just now I recall that at the 16th General Convention held in Columbus, Ohio in December 1923, Jewel George B. Kelley, who was not a very tall man, stood up on his chair so he could be seen and loudly exclaimed, "Alpha Phi Alpha wants QUALITY, not QUANTITY!" After Alpha Phi Alpha was founded and operating, presently other similar organizations began to come into being and they appeared to be watching us. Now, when Alpha Phi Alpha was established, the Founders had no rules or guidelines nor did they have very much information pertaining to Greek-letter college societies. They fashioned a Fraternity to meet their needs and to enable them to carry out a program. Two of the Jewels had worked in the fraternity houses with white students. They overheard things and acquired by bit, some ideas of what these organizations were all about. But chiefly, their own wisdom guided them.

Alpha Phi Alpha was very careful and our Fraternity knew that others were watching everything that Alpha Phi Alpha did. We were constantly under their observation. We held our General Conventions in December, and all of the others did likewise. We created a Fraternity journal, The Sphinx9, and the others, including the sororities, did likewise. And Mr. Lionel Artis, Editor of the journal of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, having been a personnel officer in my regiment in World War I overseas in France, felt he could write to me for information pertaining to his journal and I gave it to him freely. In the course of our progress, we began to hold a public meeting during our General Conventions, and finally we inaugurated our published programs of uplift, education and guidance. All of the other Greek-letter societies of our race did the same. Alpha Phi Alpha produced its Fraternity song (now called our Fraternity Hymn). All of the others composed songs. And when we started to hold General Conventions in the summer months, they copied that procedure, too. I am glad we were right because if we had made a mistake all of the others would have made that mistake also. Finally, we authorized and brought forth our written history, the first authentic record of a group of (African-American) men of college grade; a very brilliant monumental work that will stand for all time in the future as incentive to our youth, and a constant refutation of Anglo-Saxon superiority over those of African descent. I understand that some of the kindred bodies now have histories. Over the years, some students have used Alpha Phi Alpha's history as a source of information in writing their Master's thesis and dissertations for their Doctor of Philosophy degrees. One of these is a member of this Convention—Brother Doctor Herbert King.

From the very beginning, Alpha Phi Alpha endeavored to build character into young men and prepare them for leadership. The smoker was the most important of the sessions of some of the early Conventions. Too, it was the greatest fellowship we had. In the beginning, all were undergraduates. The Brothers assembled in the evening before the Convention, sometimes, and after an hour or so of camaraderie and refreshments, the host chapter's Chairman called the meeting to order, presented a topic for discussion and the smoker was underway. The meeting usually lasted far into the night. All of the speeches were extemporaneous and very forceful. The Brothers were eager to gain the floor and speak, and many, even the quiet, timid Brothers, suddenly became articulate and participated. The young Brothers of the Convention, attending for the first time were amazed. The smoker was just such a meeting at the 12th General Convention held in Chicago in December 1919. Many of the Brothers present were veterans of World War I and had seen overseas service in France. I was one of those veterans. They had acquired a world perspective and were very resentful about injustice and prejudice. Brother Joseph Bibb of Chicago gained the floor. Chicago had been the scene of one of the worst race riots in the nation's history during the previous summer. Brother Bibb published a small weekly newspaper. He related how black voters had been disfranchised in the southern states, and all of the black senators and Congressmen of the reconstruction era had been eliminated. He explained what was necessary to be done for (AfricanAmericans) to regain their losses. He electrified the audience when he told how black men would return to public office, including the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and he even placed a black man in the White House. He stated very positively that black men would return. Few there, if any, thought his predictions would come true in their lifetime, BUT THEY HAVE BECOME TRUE! all except the White House and that in due course may come true.

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This smoker set the tone of the whole convention. During the business session Brother Perry Jackson, now a retired Judge of the Superior Court in Cleveland, Ohio, and Brother Robert Martin, both of Pi Chapter, Cleveland Ohio, presented statistics and factual information showing that of approximately 30,000 black people in Cleveland, Ohio, the June 1919 graduating classes of the city high schools had but one black young man and only six black young ladies. Brother Herman Moore, who years later became a Judge in the Federal Court of the Virgin Islands, moved that the Fraternity launch a movement designed to influence our young men and women to Go-to-High School, Go-to-College. Brother Moore's motion carried; and thus Alpha Phi Alpha authorized its first public program designed to arrest the attention of halting youth standing on the threshold of life looking for direction and guidance.

Now this was not altogether in keeping with the accepted usage of Greek-letter College societies and fraternities but Alpha men thought they were wholly justified in taking this step to help the less fortunate of our race, and because of the numerous adverse circumstances affecting them.

The influence of this educational program was terrific and had a very forceful impact upon our members, black folk throughout the land, and faculties of schools and colleges. This instance will give you some idea of the way it worked. Attorney Charles P. Howard, an alumnus of Drake University, where he had been an outstanding player on its football team, learned about the Go-to-High School, Go-to-College campaign and he desired to participate in it. He found that it was being conducted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. In order to participate in the program, he organized a group of students attending the two universities in Iowa and petitioned Alpha Phi Alpha for a chapter. One of the other fraternities was trying to get most of these men in Howard's group but he held them together, except for two who defected, and in due course Brother David N. Crosthwaith and I were delegated to set this group up into Alpha Nu Chapter. One of the men whom we initiated was Frederick D. Patterson who, years later, became President of Tuskegee. The educational movement had "caught on." Groups of students began to petition for chapters. Our membership increased rapidly. High school faculties, social agencies, churches and prominent citizens throughout the country cooperated beautifully. After a few years some of our colleges in the south complained, their facilities were being taxed, some thought our program should be curtailed or slowed down. Instead, Alpha turned on more steam.

In another instance, as I previously indicated, the Founders visualized Alpha as a great training institution to prepare young men for leadership. So far, this purpose had been fulfilled gloriously. I could mention many instances but this one will suffice. One day I heard the late Brother Earnest Greene of Xi Lambda Chapter in Chicago relate that after he became a member of the Illinois State Legislature, he developed into a fountain source of information on parliamentary procedure. His colleagues frequently sought aid and information from him. One day one of his white colleagues asked him how he became so proficient whereupon he proudly replied that he had learned all of that on the floor of the General Convention of his college Fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha. In those days, our General Convention was a great deliberative body in which our intellectual giants of whom we had many took a very active part.

Brother Jewel Callis was a member of the 12th Convention in Chicago, December 1919, and on page 13 of the minutes of that Convention, paragraph 3, having listened to the reading of communications, Jewel Callis was moved to remark, "the letters that have just been read reveal the fact that we are beginning to achieve the ideals which the original Founders had in mind when they formed the first chapter of the Fraternity. Alpha Phi Alpha is an African institution in America. It is within our power and province to be the greatest force for the good of the (African-American) race in America."

Today, after 75 years of planning, toil and study, we see the members of our Fraternity, their sons and daughters, even their grandchildren in the front ranks of our activist organizations contending for our full rights of citizenship under the Constitution of the United States. In this respect, slowly but surely, we are succeeding. And today we have black men in the halls of Congress, a black woman there, too; black men and women sit on the benches of the municipal, state and federal courts in various parts of the country; black men are mayors of some of our largest cities, and they are holding various other high offices.

We still have representation in the Cabinet of the President, and one black man, one of our Brothers, sits as one of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court. The predictions of the late Brother Joseph Bibb made in the 12th General Convention in Chicago back in December 1919 have come true! And the achievements of our Brothers Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jesse Owens and Joseph Bibb, who eventually became the Public Safety Commissioner of Illinois, together with many others too numerous to name here, stand out as forceful incentives to our youth to prepare themselves so that they may continue our progress. And our youth must understand us, too! We do not want any special treatment; we want our youth to stand on their merits.

Meantime, while we were strengthening our foundation, the 31st General Convention in Chicago, Illinois, eliminated the restriction of our membership to (African-Americans) thus affording Alpha Phi Alpha a firmer footing in its struggle for right and justice.

As I bring this to a conclusion, I digress for a moment to relate one instance, which established Alpha Phi Alpha as an activist organization. When I was Second, or Midwestern General Vice President, I received an urgent request to come to Upsilon Chapter. Upon my arrival I learned that Alpha men were being subject to racial discrimination in the cafeteria of the University of Kansas, and elsewhere in that institution. Brother William T. McKnight, Chapter President, tried several times to secure an

tinu appointment for me to see the Chancellor, but the Chancellor refused to see me. After subsequent attempts, the Chancellor told Brother McKnight he would step out in the hall and meet and greet me. I advised Brother McKnight that he should indicate to the Chancellor that Alpha Phi Alpha did not transact its business in the hall but that I would see him in his inner office, whereupon I prepared to take up residence in the Chapter House until the Chancellor could find it convenient to see me. Finally, after a day and a half passed, Brother McKnight succeeded in obtaining the appointment. Upon my arrival the Chancellor attempted to throw me off balance by stating that he was of Quaker stock in South Carolina, and that his folks freed their slaves before the before the Emancipation Proclamation because they did not believe in slavery. Brother McKnight and I took things in stride. We had quite a discussion. The Chancellor had proposed "reserved tables" in the cafeteria for our black students. I asked him if that would not lead to "reserving things" in other parts of the university. He said it would not. Brother McKnight then presented facts and instances of discrimination in other parts of the university. The Chancellor stated white students from the south had objected to the (African-American) students eating at tables in all parts of the cafeteria, that (African-American) students were there out of proportion to their population, and that unless (African-American) students accepted some kind of arrangement the white students would not patronize the cafeteria and it would have to be closed. I believe the chancellor knew we were aware of a provision by the donors of the land on which the university was built that there should be no racial discrimination. He solicited my opinion as to "reserved tables" whereupon I informed the Chancellor that I had no authority to speak for the entire (AfricanAmerican) student body, but the problem in this matter of every member of Alpha Phi Alpha was the problem of every (AfricanAmerican) student there, and that Alpha Phi Alpha could not accept his proposals. When we left his office (African-American) students, regardless of fraternal affiliation who were enrolled at the University of Kansas, could eat at any table in the cafeteria without humiliation or discrimination. I took the position that wherever we establish a chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the Fraternity is duty bound to defend and protect it and its members in all respects. Subsequently, our Fraternity had been obliged to oppose racial discrimination of various kinds in other places and institutions. Time, however, will not permit me to explain such further at this meeting.

Now, one of the immediate tasks before us is to attract more undergraduates. Perhaps we should have alternate conventions, i.e., hold every other Convention during the last three or four days in December, as the Founders planned. This would accommodate those who must work during the summer months. They could attend an alternate Convention and do so at much less expense.

We still have great tasks before us. Our mission has only begun. Our initial efforts were excellent and produced results beyond our expectations. But as time marches on, we must continually adjust our efforts and programs to meet changing times and circumstances. Our fraternities and sororities, all of them, are great and wonderful organizations dedicated to worthy purposes. But the time has arrived when all of them together must help to shape the destiny of people of our race in this country.

This we can do! Do you think the task is too great? Then let me tell you that in the 11th year of our existence, while we were a small, weak and struggling Fraternity, our Beta Chapter at Howard University alone spearheaded a movement which led to the establishment of an Officers' training Camp at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, to train and lead troops of our race in World War I. And in the first class to finish, 32 Alpha men received commissions in the United States Army as Captains, First and Second Lieutenants. And there were rumors of German agents visiting the homes of people of our race in the South posing as Bible agents and playing on the religious weakness of (African-Americans) and spreading German propaganda. We could not prove these rumors but they must have reached Washington because presently Brother Emmet J. Scott was appointed as Assistant to the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker.

So far, then, I think we have done a pretty good job. We tried, we have achieved, and we have accomplished our goals.

We shall continue our efforts "to destroy all prejudices," and to serve and uplift humanity; and, since we are the first of all to create such an organization as this Fraternity, we shall continue to serve all; and as we proceed up this rocky road of progress, we shall transcend all; whereupon then we may devote our efforts to the more cultural aspects of fraternal endeavor.

Oh Lord, May the true spirit of Fraternity rule our hearts, guide our thoughts and control our lives so that we may become, through Thee, SERVANTS OF ALL. I LOVE ALPHA PHI ALPHA!

Brother Raymond W. Cannon was the IT General President ofAlpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the first Editor-in-Chief The Sphinx® magazine.

Ed \

f)

Little Brother Robert enjoys beating his Big Brother, Duane, at the video arcade. Duane is a graduate student at North Carolina A&T University.

And you thought being a Big Brother was serious business.

We know. You thought that being a Big Brother meant being a serious, mature role model, giving lots of sage advice, and taking trips to cultural events.

Guess again. What a Little Brother wants and needs most is just your friendship, a few hours of your time, and some fun. That's all.

So go ahead, call your local agency to become a Big Brother — and let the serious fun begin.

16

BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF AMERICA* M A K I N G A BIG DIFFERENCE I

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The Seven Founders of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY DAYS

By Brother Roscoe C. Giles Reprinted from the May-June 1964 Sphinx® Having matriculated at Cornell University in September 1907,1 was fortunate in having intimate contact with the "Jewels."

I was chairman of the first Ritual and Constitution committee, giving me the opportunity of being familiar with the motives that stimulated the Founders to embark on the uncharted sea of their now historic endeavor.

Our Founders were frontiersmen—self made men denied the opportunity for advancement in their local communities.

Frequently they traveled miles in Jim Crow cars to come to Ithaca, thus leaving warm climates to live in a city where the temperatures hovered around 25 degrees below zero in midwinter.

In many instances their clothing was inadequate protection against the inclemencies of the weather, but they came heartened by an impelling ambition and by the welcome sign over the Great White Gateway to the entrance of the campus. The motto of Ezra Cornell the founder, was there written, "I would found an Institution where any person can get information in any subject."

Under this motto thousands have come through the years from the four continents and the Seven Seas.

To our Founders, the motto of the Fraternity, "First of all, servants of all, we shall transcend all," was not mere jargon.

The "Jewels" were men of diversified interests united in the ideas of making headway in the world and helping others up the ladder as they climbed. They maintained themselves by waiting tables, shoveling snow, pressing clothes during school years and in summer by red capping, dining car waiters, and serving Steamship Lines.

Even in the early days they transcended. Brother Jewel Henry Arthur Callis was forced to drop out of school for a year because of financial difficulties, but by his indefatigable determination returned to secure his degree, setting an example for the faint hearted who gave up the fight without a struggle. Brother Callis and others "transcended" by taking off their waiter's jackets where they were employed at various fraternity houses and tutored white students for $5.00 a lesson.

Brother Jewel George B. Kelley stood out in base relief. Most of you remember him for he never missed a convention. He was scholarly, deeply religious and a bachelor for most of his life. Those privileged to know him profited by his exemplary conduct and wholesome advice. He graduated as a Civil Engineer, but was never able to obtain a job in any corporation and had to be content to work for the State of New York in the Barge Canal District. He never became bitter, but was the primary force in the establishment of our beloved organization. Brother Kelley was a leader in the civic and social life of his hometown, Troy, New York.

Brother Jewel Robert Ogle was an outstanding member of the Fraternity. He was devoted to his mother and did not leave Ithaca until her demise, at which time he became secretary to the Appropriation Committee of the House of Representatives. His Spencerian handwriting is now preserved in the archives of the Fraternity.

Brother Jewel Vertner W. Tandy was from Kentucky. He was an excellent student and a very promising architect. St. Philips Protestant Episcopal Church of New York stands as a monument to his architectural genius. Later he became a vestryman of St. Philips under the late Brother Father Shelton Hale Bishop.

Brother Tandy was a fighter for the principles he believed in. The Dean of the College of Architecture at Cornell married the Dean of Women of Sage College. She was from Virginia and adamant in refusing to accept (African-American) women in Sage College. Brother Tandy led the fight against this pernicious practice, which finally culminated in their admission.

Brother Jewel Tandy was not, however, a paragon of virtue. I suppose his genius gave him license. He would at times be an ardent devotee at the Shrine of Bacchus and Aphrodite. During one of his excursions, he disappeared from the house for a week.

Fearing something serious had happened to him, we held a council of strategy, deciding if Tandy did not show up by noon Saturday, it would be necessary to report his absence to the provost. When we came home Saturday we went to Tandy's room where he found him in a deep sleep. Attempts to interrogate him were futile. We were never able to get a word of explanation about his absence.

Two weeks later a man in clerical garb came to the home inquiring for the Reverend Vertner W. Tandy. We told him there was no minister living at our house. The gentleman was insistent that Reverend Tandy did live at 214 Hozen Street. Reverend Tandy, he said, weighed about 230 pounds, clean-shaven, light-brown skinned and wore nose glasses. The F.B.I, could not have given a bet-

ter description of our distinguished Jewel. Finally the minister let us in on a secret, although he did not know all the facts. Brother Tandy, it developed, had gone to the minister's town, ended up in riotous living and had gotten broke. Not having found funds to return to Ithaca, he had gone to the pastor and preached a sermon for him. The minister had lifted a collection for the benefit of his itinerant assistant, which enabled Tandy to accomplish his objective. Tandy, out of gratitude, told the minister if he ever came to Ithaca to look him up.

Brother Jewel Kinckle Jones was Brother Tandy's roommate. His father and mother were professors at Virginia Union University at Richmond, Virginia. Jones was a graduate student in sociology. Later he became the Executive Secretary of the National Urban League before Brother Lester Granger. Brother Jones was an astute scholar and leader. In his college days, he was mischievous and full of tricks and fun.

Our landlady, Mrs. Clara Nelson, sang in the local church choir of which her plethoric and rotund, elderly husband was the minister on Sundays and a chef during the week at one of the fraternity houses. Mrs. Nelson had the habit of singing every night when we were intent on studying. As a compensatory diversion, Jones would start a game of whist and we would play until the distracting noise cleared.

No money or chips were used, but invariably Mrs. Nelson would run upstairs, throw open our door without knocking, and with arms akimbo announce she did not allow card playing in her house. No amount of protestation would serve to break this procedure much to Jones'disgust.

One day Jones called all the freshmen to his room. When we got inside, he locked the door, then without batting an eye told us to remove all of our clothing. Being an upperclassman and under the duress of some threatening gestures of his roommate, Tandy, we reluctantly complied. Then Jones had us sit at the card table and dealt the cards. He then stealthily unlocked the door, and with as much noise as he could make with his high pitched voice, he cried out, "Don't you dare cut my ace." With her accustomed alacrity, Mrs. Nelson ran upstairs and under the force of her momentum before she could draw up she was in the center of the room with all of us clad in only our birthday suits. She backed out of the room and knocked, but she never bothered us again.

When the Constitution was written it stated that after the fourth chapter was formed, we were to have a General Convention. Jones ran on the road in the summer time. He landed in Washington, D.C. and he set up a chapter without any authority, but the fiat of his will.

The next place his train laid over was Richmond, Virginia, and before we had recovered from the first irregularity, he had set up a chapter at Virginia Union University. Then his car went to Toronto, Canada and cut out but not before Jones had set up a chapter there.

By this time, we decided to expel Jones from the Fraternity for insubordination. The night for the proposed expulsion came as we sat around grim faced. Jones got up to explain his actions. He said, "Why I even made an African Prince, Robert M. Mahlangan, a member." To pronounce the prince's name, Jones screwed his mouth to one side and made an almost indistinguishable sound similar to that of a duck. Jones won his point. We were convulsed with laughter and instead of the expulsion, we gave him a rising vote of thanks.

Brother Roscoe C. Giles, M.D., served as the second General President ofAlpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

• EDITORS of THE SPHINX9 Raymond W. Cannon 1914 L.L. McGee 1915 W.A. Pollard 1916 V.D. Johnson 1917 (Interim) Carl J. Murpky 1918-1922 Oscar C. Brown 1923-1929 P. Bernard Young, Jr. 1930-1933 Arnett G. Lindsay 1934-1935

Lewis O. Swingler 1936-1943 Meredith G. Ferguson 1943-1944 (Interim) Reid E. Jackson 1945 Lewis 0 . Swingler 1946-1947 Arnett G. Lindsay 1948 Lewis O. Swingler 1949-1950 W. Barton Beatty, Jr. 1951-1961 C. Anderson Davis 1962-1965

•

George M. Daniels 1966-1968 J. Herbert King 1969-1972 Laurence T. Young, Sr. -\973 (Interim) J. Herbert King 1973-1974 Mickael J. Price 1974-1990 Ckarles F. Rokinson, III 1991-1992 Jokn J. Johnson, III 1993-1996 Seaton J. Wkite, III 1997-

anes n. wesiey

BRUARY 1948 Page 50

AMONG ALPHA'S GRE

It's no idle boast when Brothers in Alpha point to their members who have achieved greatness. not to mention prominence, in th various fields < service. Here ar four Brothers ii the bond... all trut and tried, as they , enjoy a Smoker tendered in their honor by members of Phi Lambda Chapter, Raleigh, NC and Beta Rho with its chapter seat at Sha\ University. Th event was held 01 the Shaw campus Special guests wa Brother Pau Robeson.

THE HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF ALPHA PHI ALPHA

By Jewel Brother George B. Kelley Reprinted from The Sphinx'1', 1917 A true application of the saying that great accomplishments have humble beginnings is the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. In the Fall of 1905, a number of (African-American) students registered at Cornell University. It had been the first time in the history of Cornell that the citizens of Ithaca had seen so many students of the race enter the university with an expressed determination of succeeding by force of effort.

(African-American) students had been in Cornell before, but never so many as now. It had frequently happened that one or two of the few (African-Americans) enrolled had either been sent home for insufficient scholarship or had left before completing a course.

It is safe to say that prior to 1905, not more than 15 (African-Americans) had been graduated from Cornell, although its doors had always been open to the race. A large percentage of this 15 had been women of the race, who have always demonstrated at Cornell the best and greatest possibilities of the (African-American), both in conduct and scholarship.

Since 1905,1 can recall personally over 35 (African-American) graduates and not more than six of these women. Besides this number there have been several that I do not know personally. Twenty-six of these graduates were members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

The fellows soon realized that we were before the bar of public opinion and must govern our actions in and out of school accordingly. This was the condition that confronted the ten or more (African-American) students who found themselves that Fall in Cornell. We realized that we must accomplish our efforts by help to each other and to those who surrounded us.

We soon formed a little literary and social club with the late Professor Charles C. Poindexter, the only (African-American) student taking graduate work, as our President. We had about ten fellows and two co-eds in the club but the young ladies, finding themselves so greatly outnumbered, graciously withdrew from the club. Some of us made ourselves members of the local Zion Sunday School and a few became teachers. In this manner, we showed our interest in the affairs of the (African-Americans) of Ithaca, who were actually doing something for the uplift of the race.

As is natural, when a number of young men are constantly together in classroom and out, we soon became greatly interested in each other. We were soon helping each other in schoolwork and in our different daily occupations, for nearly all of us were working for our board in the various fraternities around campus. If one of us had a dollar it seemed the common possession of all. Thus we were soon spoken of by the town people as the most united bunch of (African-Americans) that had ever entered Cornell.

Don't think that we were different from other young men in the art of cutting up. We were as full of life and noise as the average student and some us had more than the average. We gave our landladies much trouble because of the rackets we would make in our rooms. Cornell is one of the greatest Fraternity centers in the country and as we came in contact with the members of these clubs every day, we could not but see the spirit of helpfulness and comradeship displayed by them toward each other. No doubt we unconsciously imbibed some of their spirit, for we were daily growing closer and closer in helpfulness and usefulness toward each other. Some of us began to think and expressed our thoughts to each other. If a fraternity could unite fellows in such bonds of friendship and usefulness because of the oath they had taken, we must have a fraternity.

After several individual talks we brought the matter up at one of the meetings of our literary club, for discussion. Some thought the idea good and others thought it foolish. It was brought up at several meetings before action was taken and in the Spring of 1906 we decided to change our club into a fraternity.

The following men voted for the change, and became the original founders of Alpha Phi Alpha: Henry A. Callis, Charles H. Chapman, Robert H. Ogle, Vertner W Tandy, Nathaniel A. Murray, James H. Morton and George B. Kelley. A committee was named to find a suitable name and George B. Kelley was elected president of the Fraternity and Robert H. Ogle was elected Secretary. The name selected by the committee was the "Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity."

In the Fall of 1906, we began to discuss the advisability of expanding or of becoming just a local fraternity. We then realized that what we had found should be shared by others and resolved that as soon as possible we would form chapters of our Fraternity and if possible make the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity the means of uniting the most earnest and industrious (African-American) students in all the leading (African-American) and white universities and colleges of the country.

We realized that in no better way could the spirit of race helpfulness, race pride and upright living be taught than through these little groups of men. As they leave college, they impart these ideas unconsciously to others and show to the world that the (AfricanAmerican) college men are practically united for race uplift. Although this was our dream it was not until 1908 that we began to see it realized.

In the Fall of 1906, we had our first initiation, which had been carefully worked out by some of the seven, and I am glad to say that a great part of this original initiation is in use today. The initiates were Lemuel E. Graves, now a Professor in the A & M College at Tallahassee, Florida; Eugene K. Jones, Secretary of the Urban League of New York City, and Gordon H. Jones, now a successful engineer with the Public Service Commission in New York City. How we did labor with these three men to impress upon their minds and bodies the great importance of Alpha Phi Alpha! Their excellent records in life show how well we succeeded.

In 1908, the Fraternity was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York as the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity of Cornell University. During this same year began the realization of our dream of expansion, for through the efforts of Brother E.K. Jones, we formed the Beta Chapter at Howard University and the Gamma Chapter at Virginia Union University.

It seemed a fitting application to our purpose that our first chapters should be among our own schools. Since 1908,16 active, one graduate and one alumni chapter have been formed. Our chapters are founded in all of the largest universities of the East and West where there are a sufficient number of (African-American) students and in four of our (African-American) universities: Howard, Virginia Union, Lincoln and Wilberforce.

WASHINGTON, D.C. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. NATIONAL MEMORIAL PROJECT FOUNDATION, I N C .

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License granted by Intellectual Properties Management, Inc. as Manager of the Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A project of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. authorized by the United States Congress, Public Law 104-333; also known as the "Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project."

General President Frank L. Stanley, accompanied by Southern Vice President Lewis O. Swingler and General Secretary fames Huger, present a check for $1,000 to Brother Dr. Martin Luther King, fr. as a donation in the Alpha Campaign of "Dollars for Freedom" in Alabama. The photo was taken on the front steps of the Montgomery, Alabama Court House where Brother King was on trial.

WORLDWIDE HONOR BESTOWED UPON BROTHER MARTIN LUTHER KING, IR., NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER Reprinted from the October 1964 Sphinx* One of the most cherished and important worldwide honors has been bestowed on one of our most outstanding Brothers.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Brother Martin Luther King, Jr. Brother King stated: "The prize is a tribute to 'millions of gallant (African-Americans) and white persons who followed a nonviolent course' in the (African-Americans') struggle for equal rights. It is also gratifying to know that the nations of the world recognize the Civil Rights Movement in this country as so significant a moral force as to merit such recognition." Brother King further stated that he intends to spend every dollar of the prize money, $53,123.00, on the Civil Rights Movement.

Brother King is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, where he now resides. He was born January 15,1929, and is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr. He is married to Mrs. Coretta King and has four children, Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott and Bernice Albertine.

He attended the public schools of Atlanta, received his A.B. degree from Morehouse College, 1948; the B.D. degree from Crozer Theological Seminary (Chester, Pa.) 1951; studied at the University of Pennsylvania, 1950-51; studied at Harvard, 1952-53, and received the Ph.D. degree from Boston University, 1955, in the field of Systematic Theology. (Thesis: "A Comparison of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman"). He has received the following honorary degrees: LHD, Morehouse College, 1957; D.D., Chicago Theological Seminary of the Federated Faculties of the University of Chicago, 1957; LLD, Morgan State College! 1958; LHD, Central State College, 1958; D.D, Boston University, 1959; Lincoln University, 1961; LLD, University of Bridgeport, 1961; Doctor of Civil Laws, Bard College, 1962; Doctor of Letters, Keuka College, 1963. He was initiated into Alpha Rho Chapter, Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia.

Brother King is co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, where his father is pastor; president-emeritus of the Montgomery Improvement Association, Inc. and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of which he is founder. In 1957, the Gallup Poll revealed that he was one of the most admired religious leaders in the world. In 1957, TIME magazine selected him as one of the ten most outstanding personalities of the year. He is listed in Who's Who in America. He has received more than 125 citation awards for his work in civil rights. In a poll conducted by LINK magazine of New Delhi, India, he ranked as one of the 16 world leaders who had contributed most to the advancement of freedom during 1959- In 1963, TIME magazine elected him as its 37th Man of the Year, stating that he had become "The unchallenged voice of the (African-American) people and the disquieting conscience of the white."

Some of his publications are: Stride Toward Freedom; The Measure of a Man; and Strength to Love. A biography of Brother King entitled Crusader Without Violence by Lawrence D. Reddick, traces his life story from birth in Atlanta through his leadership in the Civil Rights struggle.

Brother King has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. In 1957, at the invitation of the Prime Minister, he attended the independence celebration of Ghana, West Africa. He has lectured at more than 150 colleges and universities in the United States.

We salute Brother King on his great achievements and this most magnificent achievement, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which is a signal global honor for all of us.

ALPHA'S HEADQUARTERS

Eight national officers of the Fraternity were present in Chicago during the first week in May to help formally open the headquarters of the full-time secretary ofAlpha Phi Alpha at the Binga Arcade Building, located on South State at nirty-fifth Street. Brother Bennie D. Brown, (Seated). Alpha's first fill-time Secretary, occupies two suites of offices in the Arcade. He is shown with the seven of his fellow officers, namely, from left to right: Brothers H. Councill Trenholm ofAlabama State College, Director of Education: Belford V. Lawson, of Washington. DC. General President: Charles F. Imie, of Chicago, General Counsel: William N. Lovelace, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Midwestern Vice President: Cornelius Parrish, of Chicago, Lay Member of the Executive Council; William D. Hawkins, of Nashville, Chairman of the National Auditing Committee: and Lewis 0. Swingler, of Memphis, Tenn., Editor-in-Chief of Tl)e Sphinx" magazine.

Scene from the office of the Secretary.

ALPHAS AT YALE UNIVERSITY In the following excerpts from a then unpublished autobiography, Brother William Ashby, '16 B.D., conveys the flavor of an era from his special perspective of it as a 25-year-old waiter with a college degree who came to Yale just before World War I and left after helping to found the University's first African-American Fraternity (Alpha Phi Alpha). The incidents recounted here—some nostalgic, some bitter—offer to enlarge our understanding of a time and a place usually held in the mind with satisfactions of a majority perspective.

By Brother William Ashby Reprinted from the May-June 1970 Sphinx® I felt a contemptible disgust for myself; I was a disappointment to Mamma, a disappointment to lots of people who knew that I ought to do better, and who believed that I was capable of doing better. A college degree, and still a waiter. I had worked with hundreds of waiters. Some of the best of them could neither read nor write. But I was on the same level with them. With all of my learning, I had not risen one inch above them. I knew that I must do something. My frustration was beyond words. I was in a void at one minute, and then I would feel fenced in. "The fence, the fence," I thought. "Why, no one can build a fence without leaving a gate to get in and out." I'd just have to find the gate, that's all.

One day sauntering down Market Street in Newark, I saw a placard in a window. In heavy letters across the top was the name, Eugene V. Debs. It said that Debs would speak at the Labor Lyceum on Springfield Avenue. My decision to hear him was immediate. I had read something about Debs. It wasn't much. But it was enough to make me believe that he might say something that I ought to hear.

The man completely captivated me. I was caught up in his words as he railed against the coal barons, steel barons, ship-owning barons, and railroad barons for their persecution and exploitation of poor and unrecognized working men. Then Debs changed his mood. He spoke of brotherhood. He made a compassionate plea for man to serve his fellow man. His words penetrated deep inside me.

"There," I thought, "I will devote by life to the service of my fellow men. I will be a foreign missionary. I will go to Africa and convert the heathens."

I knew a lot of Africans at Lincoln (Lincoln University, Chester County, Pennsylvania). They were forever uttering the Macedonian cry, "Come over and help us."

But this sacrificial resolve was effervescent. It was an emotional swell that did not have enough mental resolve to make it stick. But the words "brotherhood" and "service" hung on. I made no attempt to dislodge them or evade them.

But I still did not know what to do, which way to turn.

I wrote to Yale University School of Religion for a catalogue. In it was a course, which read something like the things about which Debs spoke and which I thought I could do and ought to do. A persuasive inducement was that if the student were accepted, his tuition and room were a gift from the University.

Dean Charles R. Brown of the Yale School of Religion was a lovely man, kind, sympathetic, inspiring. Mrs. Brown was the very essence of a gracious hostess.

Dean and Mrs. Brown invited the new students to spend an evening with them in their home. I went into their dining room. I sat on their chairs. We talked. We laughed. I sat at their dining table. I ate their food. They served me. I used their china, silver, napkins, glassware.

Always before, I had been the servant of white people.

This was shocking, astounding, a drastic revolution in life as I knew it. I had sat at the table with white people and dined with them.

Had I been suddenly boosted into an indefinable, chaotic, amorphous, something that they called "social equality"? ************************************************** The football team of Brown University came down from Providence to play Yale's team at Yale Field.

On Brown's team was one Fritz Pollard. The sports writer of the New York Tribune in each edition of the week of the game wrote about Brown's team and Pollard. He described him as a "burly Negro."

On the day of the game, I—with Aiken Pope, Nimrod Allen, J. Anderson, Charlie Tribbett, Early Caples, and Francis Williams—went and stood in front of the Yale gym on Elm Street where the Brown team was quartered. Our aim was to see Pollard and give him such support and encouragement as we were able.

A fellow came out of the door of the gym and walked toward us on the sidewalk. He was small, brown-skinned, and had the easiest smile one could imagine. Brainwashed by the articles in the Tribune about the size of the man, we expected to see a fellow at least 6'2" and weighing 210 pounds.

I asked, "Did Fritz Pollard come with the team?"

He hesitated a moment. Then he said, "I'm Fritz Pollard."

This couldn't be, it simply couldn't. At most, this fellow could not weigh more than 145 pounds. Our shock was beyond words. The fellow had lied. He was playing a trick on us.

On our way out to the field we were depressed, literally and honestly scared to death. We knew the size of the men on the Yale line. They would murder this little man.

We went to the Brown side of the field, wanting to give Pollard as much moral support as possible, but also because we knew that there would be animosity toward us in the Yale stands. We would be baited with the foulest and vilest epithets hurled right into our teeth, and we could do nothing about it.

Fritz Pollard mastered to a degree one of the essentials of football seldom ever equaled and never surpassed by any other halfback. It was that of handling a punt. Such was his confidence in himself to catch the ball that he played very deep. The moment the ball was kicked, he took off at full speed as does a center fielder after a short fly. When he caught the ball, he was going as fast as he would ever go. Unless the opponent grabbed him the moment the ball was caught, there was no way to stop him short of a gain.

The ball was kicked to him. He began to circle toward the right sideline. The Yale stands arose, "Catch that nigger. Kill that nigger," they screamed.

I jumped up and hollered, "Run, nigger, run. Go, Fritz, go."

Sheldon, the left tackle on the Yale team, a big fellow from Atlanta, Georgia, took out for him on a lateral course. Bingham, the quarterback, was coming up in a burst of speed from his deep safety position. They would make a pincer tackle on Pollard. They would murder the boy.

Pollard kept running. As he got to the sideline, he jumped off the field and landed straight up on the Yale bench.

Sheldon and Bingham had left their feet simultaneously for a flying tackle. They grabbed at a slick Pollard who was not there. A stretcher was brought out to take them off the field.

I was in the gym after the game, hoping to shake Pollard's hand.

Sheldon burst in. "Where is he? Where is he?" he was calling. "Pollard, where are you?"

Pollard, having taken his shower, stepped out of a cage in which he was dressing.

"You're a nigger, but you're the best goddamn football player I ever saw," blurted Sheldon, thrusting his hand out to Pollard.

My first year completed, I went to work for the summer at Tappin's Inn, Sheepshead Bay, near Coney Island. It was a very famous shore dinner place, indeed, the most famous on the Atlantic Coast; it was a rambling, one-story frame house, sitting flat on the ground, just across from the inlet. It was owned and operated by Jim Villepeque, a giant of a man, easily 350 pounds. There was no telling where his head left off and his neck began. On top of his huge head, he wore always a cap, a too-small cap. It was the original bump on a log.

He always sat at a door between the kitchen and the dining room, and each waiter reaching him had to lower his tray before him for his personal inspection. He always walked very slowly with a large cane the size of a sapling.

On one side of the building, in full view of the patrons who sat at the tables, was a garden perhaps a hundred feet long. In it was planted golden bantam corn. At the end of the garden was a chicken house and perhaps a couple dozen fowl strutting about the yard.

One of the most delicious items in the dinner was the entree. It consisted of a half- broiled spring chicken, topped with a slice of genuine Smithfield (not Virginia) ham, and golden bantam com on the cob. Almost always came words of praise for the food.

I would pass Mr. Villepeque and say, "Boss," (everybody called him Boss) "Mr. So-and-So says that's the best chicken and com he ever ate."

"Did you show him out the window my farm and chicken house and tell him I raise everything right on these grounds?"

Often we really did tell patrons to look through the window at the com and fowl and tell them that all the food served in Tappin's Inn was homegrown and home-raised. Some of the fools were gullible enough to believe our white lies and swallow the stuff hook, line, and sinker.

Few places could equal it for celebrated patrons. On any Wednesday, Saturday, or Sunday dinner, one might see Diamond Jim Brady, a couple of Goulds, a couple of Vanderbilts, Jack Norworth, Nora Bayes, Mayer John F. Hyland, Jim Corbett, Gus Edwards, Tom Sharkey, Sam Gompers, Congressman Nicholas Longworth, Blanche Ring, John R. Keene, Frank D. Waterman. |L Lee Smith was the headwaiter. Lee was the most impeccable man I have ever seen. No matter how clean and fresh you thought you were, you always felt dirty standing next to him. Also, he was one of the most nearly perfect persons that I have ever seen in executing the job which he was hired to do. He was Napoleonic in size, a fact of which he was conscious, but it made no difference. His manner as he met guests at the door, and the respect and loyalty, which he commanded from all who worked under him, removed all doubt as to who was the headman.

He was from Farmsville, Virginia, and perhaps never went above sixth grade in school. But early in his life he had decided that hotels offered the best, perhaps the only, avenue for steady employment. He would master the whole thing.

He could step behind the bar and mix any drink, no matter how exotic. He could go into the kitchen and come out even with any chef.

Fortunately, he quickly took a liking to me. Sometimes, even when dinner was over, if a late party came in, he would bring them to my

I

0

tables. If I remonstrated by saying, "Chief, this was my long day on watch; I'm tired," he would step a little way from me and chide almost in a fatherly manner, "Schoolboy, ain't you? Told me you had to make money to go to college. Go head and feed them people." Then he walked away in a laughing triumph.

A course on Shakespeare was being offered to sophomores in Yale College. Yale curriculum makers had very wisely made it possible for a student in one college to take a course in another, providing the deans of the two schools are convinced that the progress of the student will not be inhibited by extra work. ^^L I wanted to take this course on Shakespeare. I obtained consent from my dean. In the class I was never to be more than an onlooker.

I could take the assignments, but I would not be expected to ask or answer questions; nor need I take the tests when given.

Professor Brooks, the teacher, who had the somewhat disturbing and irritating habit of walking from one place to another as he talked, was standing near me. He said, "Let us imagine a scene something like this. Brabantio and friends were gathered at his home. All of them knew about Othello. Brabantio was deeply concerned about the fate of his daughter, Desdemona. Othello had not won her love fairly. He was a black man, a foreigner. He had captivated her by tricks, bewitched her by incantations, conquered my darling weak daughter by his eloquent boasts of thrilling tales of battles he had fought, and conquests he had made. He has cast a spell over my daughter. That nigger wants to marry my daughter. I ask you, gentlemen, how would you feel if a nigger asked the hand of your daughter? I am a senator of Venice. ThfeMoor seeks social equality with me. I call upon my friends, my attendants to 'lynch this nigger'."

I sat through this scene which Professor Brooks had delineated to these adolescent students. I noticed that one fl|two of them glanced at me and snickered.

There was a lot of talk going on among us about the organization of a chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a Greek-letter Fraternity among (African-Americans). I took little or no part in the discussion.

Always, I think, I have had a strong aversion to any sort of organ ization of selectivity or exclusiveness which said that one person could belong but another could not, a congregation of snobs or bigots, were I a member of such a fraternity, I would have to blackball someone and keep him out, and I would never know why.

M Without being told, I was designated Vice-president of the group. I was hooked. I could find no reason, which the other fellows would accept that would help me to wiggle out of this unsolicited appointment.

In all departments at that time—College, Sheffield School, Law, and the School of Religion—there were about 16 (African-American) students. Because of the diverse hours at which our classes were held, it was found that the only time we could all get together was at 6:30 in the morning. We got together for a picture of the chapter, Yale University Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

In the chapter were Beal Elliot, Joe Allen, Dr. Fleming, Wayman Ward, Emory Smith, P.F. Johnson, Clement MacNeal, Charley Tribbett, Bill Ashby, Father Bowles, W.N. Bishop, Nimrod Allen. Aiken Pope, John Williams, J.W Anderson. I do not know how I came by it, but for more than 50 years I have kept that picture. ************************************************** Dr. Booker T. Washington was coming to New Haven to lecture in Woolsey Hall. It would be a rather select and preferred audience.

Mr. Holland was the headwaiter in the Student Union, the student-dining hall. He was afraid that the (African-American) people would not have the chance to get into the hall to hear Dr. Washington.

I worked in the dining room. For my services, I received my meals. They were almost always terrible, sometimes hardly more than "slop", served to us in the help's dining room in the basement of the building. I have eaten parsnips in every way in which they can be cooked.

Sometimes I was faced with parsnips, a slice of bread and coffee for breakfast.

Mr. Holland confided his concern to me. I understood, but I had no solution. He suggested that Dr. Washington might respond favorably to an invitation from the (African-American) students. I was but lukewarm to the suggestion. Where would we hold such a meeting? Also, even if we had it, would it not be entirely run by the students with the townspeople still left without any real participation?

I knew that it was Dr. Washington's custom, after he had appeared before a white audience, to go to an (African-American) church or fraternal hall where he could speak face to face with his people.

I suggested to Mr. Holland that his church, the Dixwell Avenue A.M.F., invite Dr. Washington to come to them after his Woolsey Hall address. My suggestion pleased him. He then told me that I must write the letter. I agreed, but told him that he and the officers of the church should sign it.

M When Dr. Washington came out of Woolsey Hall by a side door, Mr. Holland and I were waiting for him in a horse and carriage. We drove him to the Dixwell Avenue A.M.E. Church.

All records claim that the last public appearance made by Dr. Washington was before that select audience in Woolsey Hall.

But I know that his last public appearance was before an (African-American) audience in the Dixwell Avenue A.M.E. Church.

I was there.

£k

DECEMBER 1948

ALPHA BREAKS ALL RECORDS IN WINNING WEST COAST CAGE CHAMPIONSHIP

Boasting what was probably the finest fraternity basketball team ever assembled on the Pacific Coast, and according to some observers the entire nation, the 1948 Los Angeles Alpha Phi Alpha Basketball Team pictured above, smashed all records In the 16* renewal of the local inter-Fraternity Basketball Series by rolling to eight straight victories to become the first team to ever win the crown by going undefeated.

Headed by Ail-American and United States Olympic Team center Don Barksdale, UCLA's twice all conference and one time AilAmerican guard Dave Minor, high scoring Clayton Moore, and Joe Oliver, and coached by the former Toledo University and Harlem Globetrotter great, Bill Jones, the big Black and Gold team was too much for the best the Kappas, Omegas, and Sigmas could offer. The '48 squad regained the title the Alphas won in '46 and lost to the Kappa Alpha Psi last season. Front row (left to right) are: Lott, Kerry, Miller, Oliver, Hibler, Clarke, and mascot Stratton. Second row (standing left to right) Venerable (manager), Moore, Chapman, Minor, Patterson, Barksdale, Parks, Henderson, Bartlett, and Jones (coach).

Winning world renown in a blaze of immortal glory, sons of Alpha Phi Alpha commandeered the sports spotlights in the recent 1936 Olympiad.

J.C. "Jesse" Owens, by achieving an Olympic grand slam, with the most brilliant individual performances everrecordedin the annals of sports, led the Alpha Triad of Brothers, Owens, Metcalfe, and Albritton, at the 11th Olympics.

Heralded by millions, nations, kings, dictators, governors, and dignitaries of both continents, Owens and his Alpha cavalcade paced an unusually fine group of (African-American) stars, who exemplified the zenith of sportsmanship and reflected credit on a nation and (African-American) college fraternities in general.

Unusual was the fact that in registering his Olympic conquests at the Berlin games in August, Owens broke the records of another Brother of Alpha, Eddie Tolan, whose 100-meter dash mark fell before the onslaught of the mighty Buckeye Comet.

Brother Dave Albritton, a product of Cleveland and Ohio State, displayed great stamina in tying for second behind Cornelius Johnson's record breaking 6-foot and 7 15/16-inch high jump, and then capturing the jump off with Finland's Kotkas, Japan's Yada, and United States' Thurber, to win the second place medal.

The veteran of two Olympiads, Brother Ralph Metcalfe, was the pre-Olympic choice for premiere honors in the sprints. No lesser authorities than Grantland Rice, Alan Gould, Damon Runyan, and his own coach, Conrad M. Jennings of Marquette, voiced this sentiment; while Lary Snyder, Owens' famed coach, expressed dubiousness over his protege"s possibilities against the overdue Metcalfe.

Notwithstanding this, Metcalfe, whose defeat by Tolan in 1930 came in for much questioning in athletic circles, ran second again, being content with pressing Owens to the limit in the 100. Metcalfe, with that characteristic Alpha will to be first of all, got the hoped for "another chance" in the 400-meter relay and contributed his bit with Wykoff, Draper, and Brother Owens towards smashing the world's record, and winning his first Olympic Gold Medal.

"Greater Love Hath No Man" It was the relay race that furnished the opportunity for Owens to display his unselfish spirit and his regard for his Brother and friend Metcalfe. Following the 400-meter conquest Lawson Robertson, Coach of the American forces delegated Owens to ascend the stand and receive the Laurel Wreath of Olympic Victory. Owens instead pushed Metcalfe to the fore, affording a true paraphrase of the statement: "Greater love hath no man . . . " Surely this was the great Alpha spirit.

To say that Owens, who held the world's news spotlight exemplified through his spirit and character the ideals of other Alpha men in his circle would be a fair assertion. Not once did any of the group falter in the face of subtle race prejudice as they exploded the Nordic supremacy myth. Owens' own 10:02 time in a 100 meter heat was invalidated on the basis of an aiding wind, yet there was no instrument to scientifically gauge the velocity of "Old Boreas"; again warm-up broad jumps were counted to give him only one actual trial for qualification, yet in spite of these incidents, certainly not because of them, Owens ran and jumped "first of all."

Other unsung heroes of the eleventh Olympiad, who contributed their bit indirectly to these amazing successes included Brothers Eulace Peacock, and Al Threadgill, Temple, Edward Burke, Marquette, Ben Johnson, Columbia, and Santee Brockman, Michigan Normal.

IfJ

OLYMPIC CHART SHOWING FEATS OF OWENS, METCALFE, ALBRITTON EVENT

FIRST

SECOND

THIRD

Winning (Performances) 100-M Dash

Owens

Metcalfe

Osendarp

Johnson

Albritton

Holland Thurber

Owens

Long Germany

U.S.A. Tajina Japan

Owens

Robinson

10.3* High Jump*** 6' 7 15/16" Broad Jump** 26' 5 3/8" ** 200-m dash***

U.S.A.

20.7 s *** 400-m relay***Metcalfe Owens Draper Wykoff *** New Olympic and World records

U.S.A.

Osendarp Holland

Italy

Germany

New Olympic record • *Equals World and Olympic records

VICTORIES OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE The victories and achievements of these men obviously go far beyond the bonds of Alpha Phi Alpha. Their feats have taken on national and international significance.

The Jesse Owens' Day in Cleveland set a precedent in America since it marked the first time in history a metropolis has paid spiritual and official homage to an (African-American); similarly the Jesse Owens' Day at the Cleveland Exposition honoring his wife, Mrs. Minnie Ruth Solomon Owens, shows the magnitude of his achievement. Honorable Martin L. Davey, Governor of Ohio, acknowledged his feats with a personal cablegram sent to Owens in Berlin before the games terminated.

The high esteem in which these youths are held is typified in editorials from the nation's press. The New York Herald Tribune in an editorial captioned: 'Home Boys Making Good', states, "At Berlin young Mr. Jesse Owens is living up brilliantly to the high expectations of his countrymen and his team mates both Negro and Caucasian, but especially Negro are showering the American coloreds with their olive crowns."

In a similar vein, the Philadelphia Record under the title, "A Practical Lesson for the Nazis", says: "Der Fuehrer can look the other way if he pleases, but he can't prevent the Negro athletes from winning. America is proud to pay them honor."

Likewise Alpha Phi Alpha is proud to pay her sons tribute because the radiation of good will and annihilation of the gripping bonds of racial prejudice effected by their amazing display of athletic prowess, certainly writes a laudable epic in the history of an underprivileged people.

Brother William H. Gray, Jr. was a regular contributor to The Sphinx9 and served as Vice President of the Southern Region.

W A L K A M E R I C A

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JEWEL VERTNER W. TANDY (Center) of New York, during his appearance at the 1937 General Convention in New Orlea With him are Brothers Attorney Sidney Jones. Jr. (left) then Mid-Western Vice President: and Dr. Milton S.J. Wright, of Wilberforce I niversity. Associate Editor of the Sphinx. Brother Tandy hadjust been presented a bound volume of the Sphinx magazines by Editor L.O. Swingler following his Founders' Address when this picture was made.

(Jewel Tandy's) death Monday. November 7th, reduced the number of living Jewels to only three.

A GREAT MAN HAS FALLEN ... Essayist, Reformer, Prophet

By Brother C. Anderson Davis Reprinted from the October 1963 Sphinx® "A wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries."

I Corinthians 16.9 RSV Brother Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois, leader, author, scholar, educator, has passed this span of life, now he belongs to the ages and the glory of our imagination.

He passed in Accra, Ghana (Africa) August 27th where he had become a citizen. Some time before leaving the United States, he wrote: "I was not an American. I was not a man. I was, by long education and daily reminder, a colored man in a white world."

Brother DuBois settled in Ghana at the personal invitation of President Kwame Nkrumah. He became editor of the Encyclopedic Africana, a work sponsored by the Government. He was given a state funeral at Christiansborg Castle, now known as Government House and was buried just outside of the castle. President Kwame Nkrumah, his cabinet, members of parliament and state officials joined in the ceremony and a national state of mourning was declared.

Death is not the end, but only an epoch in life which is endless, therefore, we need not fear, for he who lives in "manly deeds and love for all mankind" shall live, though his body falls in dust.

The physical body cannot endure eternally, for we are in a vacillating world. The mountains, the forests, the landscapes, everything around us change, we are not the same today as yesterday and tomorrow may bring growth or digression, broadened horizons or narrow pitfalls. Here was a man who gave the full measure of his devotion in scholarly struggle for the freedom and redemption of his fellow brethren. No pangs of death can still his courageous endeavors. For him, there were problems to be solved, dangers to be faced and difficulties to be overcome. Catch a glimpse of his spirit, a spirit worthy to be imitated by all believers in equality for the human race.

In his early years, great opportunities of service were opened to him in his own vigorous imager}'. These opportunities were like a door of hope swinging widely and beckoning his dauntless spirit to pass through. "A wide door for effective work has been opened to me, and there are many adversaries." This man understood that difficulty and opportunity go hand in hand, but he knew how to transmit difficulties into opportunities.

Brother DuBois was a scholar in truth—truth for a purpose, a way of life and not academic exercise. He could not compromise the truth, as he saw it, nor emasculate its form in search for selfish gain, academic expediency nor earthly fears. The thinking of this man was far ahead of the thinking of his day on matters pertaining to race. He might have been pampered by the so-called beneficent "angels" of (African-American) institutions, as many (African-Americans) were, had he confined his proclamations of truth to the classroom and withdrawn when truth conflicted with invested interest. But his nature could not endure such deceit for he was a symbol of those cutting words, "I would rather be right than president."

Brother DuBois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, February 23, 1868,iive years after the Emancipation Proclamation. His father, a shopkeeper, was of French-West Indian ancestry. His mother was of African, (.African-American) and Dutch ancestry.

He went to Fisk University and after his first year spent his summer vacation teaching in the rural South, where he lived among former slaves, slept on clay floors and ate from an iron pot. He received the B.A. degree from Fisk University in 1888 and from Harvard in 1890 and five years later he received a Ph.D. from Harvard.

A grant from the John F. Slater Fund made possible two years study in Europe. He attended the University of Berlin and visited Poland. It was during this time that Brother DuBois began to see America's race problem, the problem of colonial peoples in Africa and Asia and the political development of Europe as facets of a worldwide problem.

After teaching successfully at Wilberforce University, the University of Pennsylvania and Atlanta University, Brother DuBois interrupted his career as an educator in 1909 to devote full time to the NAACP, which he helped to found. He later founded the PanAfrican Congress.

From 1910 to 1933, he was editor of The Crisis, official organ of the NAACP. Between 1930 and 1946 he edited The Encyclopedia

ontinu of the Negro and in 1945, he edited and presented to the United Nations "An Appeal to the World", a document on the status of the (African-American) in the United States. By 1934 his growing policy differences with other leaders of the NAACP led to his first withdrawal. He went back to Atlanta University but ten years later, he returned to the NAACP leadership group. In 1948, he again left the NAACP to take up other duties.

Brother DuBois was the author of 19 books. His Suppression of the Slave Trade, published in 1896 as Volume I of the Harvard University Historical Series, became a college textbook. His last was World's of Color (1961). Among his other books were Souls of Black Folk (1903), Darkwater (1920), Dark Princess (1924) and The World and Africa (1947).

Brother DuBois served as consultant to the United Nations on its formation in San Francisco in 1945. He later became head of the Council on African Affairs. In 1949, he was made chairman of the Peace Information Center in New York.

In 1950, he ran unsuccessfully for United States Senator on the American Labor party ticket. Two years later he received the Grand International Prize of the World Peace Council, headed by the French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie.

In recent years, Brother DuBois traveled extensively in Communist China and the Soviet Union. On his 91st birthday, he was honored in Peking at a celebration attended by Premier Chou En-lai.

In 1959, Brother DuBois received the Lenin Peace Prize "for strengthening world peace." He was the first (African-American) to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was also a life member and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Before going to Ghana, he lived at 31 Grace Court, Brooklyn Heights. His first wife, Mrs. Nina Gomer DuBois, whom he married in 1896, died in 1950. A year later, he married Shirley Graham, a writer. Surviving are his widow, and a daughter, Mrs. Yolanda Williams of Baltimore. Close the shutters, pull down the shades, an era has ended—the era of William Edward Burghardt DuBois.

By Brother C. Anderson Davis served as Editor-in-Chief of The Sphinx® from

1962-1965

ALPHA'S MOTHER SENDS GREETINGS Reprinted from the October 1946 Sphinx9 It was over six years ago at the Alpha's World Fair Convention in New York City (1939) that the Fraternity had as special guest Mrs. Annie C. Singleton. The majority of the Brothers had never seen this grand lady in our fraternal life, and the introduction given her

by Brother Charles H. Wesley, then General President, disclosed that it was at her home in Ithaca, New York, that the Seven Founders had gathered time and again to formulate plans for the organization of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

Mrs. Singleton was greeted as "Mother Singleton" by the four Founders who were present at this session. The name "Mother" took with the Convention and she was designated officially as the "Mother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity."

This was over six years ago. Since that fateful year (the Nazis marched into Poland during the last day of the 1939 Convention) a war has been fought and won. The two Conventions that followed the New York session (Kansas City, Missouri, 1940 and Louisville, Kentucky, 1941) were turbulent ones. Many of the finer sentiments and traditions that Alpha men had cherished in past years were subdued by internal readjustments, and outside pressure of world confusion.

The Sphinx9 Editor deliberately set out to find "Mother" Singleton with the hopes that she would again appear on the Alpha scene as a source of inspiration for younger Brothers now taking over the reign of leadership. After many years of residence in Toledo, Ohio, "Mother" Singleton has returned to New York and is now residing in Buffalo, 107 Northland Avenue. She expressed appreciation for the interest shown in her by our staff, and penned this communication as a message to all of her "Boys."

"Writing this article makes me both happy and sad. Happy because many have returned from the great conflict to their loved ones. Sad because some will never return.

In all large families, like Alpha's, there are a few who do not live up to the high ideals of the group, but I feel that the vast majority of Alpha men have, and I pray that the few who have not will do so as a dedication to those who gave their lives that we may have liberty and free speech to organize as we see fit just as the Founders of our first Fraternity among (African-American) college men did many years ago."

Sincerely yours, "Mother Singleton."

k.

ftfc

I

k Mrs. Annie C. Singleton

WC5* I \ C H A N ' MNIMMMI

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FUTURE OF ALL LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE SAYS BROTHER ROGER YOUMANS IN ADDRESS ^M ^i&

By Brother Roger Youmans Reprinted from the February 1955 Sphinx9

Brothers in Alpha, I consider it a real honor and a pleasure to stand before you today. I think any man would consider it a pleasure because what I have to say to you lies close to my heart. I am now convinced that your future, any future, the future of all, hangs in balance, depending upon how seriously you take this message.

History is being written in these days in which we live. Not only history in Alphadom, not only history in our modern world or of Western Culture, but history is being written in terms of man's relationship to his fellow man and to his God! Show me another era, another culture, another situation in which man has attempted with such insight to establish proper relationships with his fellow man; to establish this fellowship with God. Fellowship with God and man is the purpose of our existence; it is the purpose of Alpha, also. Recall our Hymn: "Manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind," and "First of all, Servants of all, We shall transcend all."

But wait, Brothers! What have I just said? What is the purpose of Alpha? Does "First of all" mean that Alpha is the greatest of fraternities and has special privileges to be first? If so, then what does "Servants of all" mean? I have heard our motto discussed without hearing any reference to service. I think that the last phrase, "We shall transcend all" helps to clarify the meaning of the first quite a bit. What makes George Washington a great figure in our history? What makes Albert Schweitzer or George Washington Carver great? Is it not their service to others - the colonists, the Africans, the Southern farmer? What makes our nation great? Is it not her dedication and service to her people - a government for the people? Isn't it spontaneous, free service that makes a man or institution great? In our prayer we ask God to "control our lives that we may be servants of all." Our Jewels perceived this truth, and they have told us that taking precedence over all of our other activities, we of Alpha must be servants of all people, and in that way we will become great; we transcend all! ^^ Some chapters have made the initiation of Sphinxmen the primary goal of their activities, and as a result they have failed to accomplish any real significant achievements. Some Brothers and chapters have made the praise and honor of Alpha their goal, and have therebv deeply stained her reputation among outsiders, and have hindered her power. These things are important along the way, but let us keep in mind the real purpose of our existence - "Manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind." Let us consider these aims of Alpha. What do they mean?

To better understand them, I think we should consider the last one first. What is love? Does not "to love" mean the putting of the interest and welfare of the beloved above the interest and welfare of the one who loves? Is not love patient and kind? Love is not jealous or boastful; it is not irritable or resentful. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And what is it to love all mankind? What is in the best interest of all people? k Is it love for all mankind to allow a group of people to be abused and trodden underfoot? Is it love to witness hate without opposing it? On the other hand, is it love to all mankind to obtain social equality at the expense of bitterness and fear? Is it love of all mankind to coerce agreement before there is understanding or desire for agreement? No matter what we do or say, there are some who will not understand; there will be some who hate and fear and resent any course of action we follow. But we must understand the tenacity, and even sincerity, with which some people cling to their prejudices and ignorance. We must fight the destruction of personalities, regardless of race, creed or color, but we must not degrade the personalities of even those who would oppose us in our efforts to elevate human dignity! We must pray for those who persecute us, and do good to those who hate us and despitefully use us! It is a hard thing, which I am saying, but it is a faithful truth and by applying it we may truly transcend all.

Let me illustrate this point with an experience of a very close friend of mine, a minister in a Chicago church, Reverend Roland Brown There was a man in his congregation who was deliberately blocking and thwarting every move the pastor made. "If there was

any trouble brewing, any malicious gossip set in motion, I could nearly always put my finger on its source," he said. I'm sure all of you have known some person like this, a person who tries deliberately to frustrate every plan you make. This man was neurotic and unhappy. He gave no evidence of any sweetness or love; he was as hard as pig iron, cold, cynical and puritanical.

One day Roland's wife suggested that he try acting like a Christian toward this man. Then Roland realized that he really didn't want to love the man at all. Roland felt at first that he had met his Christian Waterloo, but finally decided to risk his faith on God's ability to change this man. Against this "unchangeable rock" of a man, Roland pitted his Christian beliefs to be strengthened or bro; ken. < * "I began hesitantly and feebly to turn love on him," Roland explained. "I tried not to judge him by the obvious outer appearances. I tried to think of him constructively, as Jesus would think of him. Then finally there came a day when prayer was easy and my love for him was real. With this I was no longer concerned as to whether he was changed! A short time after this, he said to me at the door of the church: 'Pastor, that was a powerful sermon you preached this morning. It seemed especially for me.' Eight years have passed, and not once has the man caused me any difficulty." It is amazing, but God can and does change other people and their attitudes when you let Him first change yours. Let us try practicing our purpose; let us truly have love for all mankind!

Returning to the aims of Alpha again, where do manly deeds and scholarship fit into this Love about which I have been talking? We must study and learn and take our place in society; we must labor tirelessly for social equality, we must enact laws that guarantee legal justice! We must do these things as the studied means of showing a fuller life to all men. We must strive for more complete integration regardless of obstacles, but in the process, let us keep our own hands clean of the injustice and hate, which we abhor in others. Let us fight the sin, but love the sinner! It will take scholarship to see accurately what needs to be done to benefit all mankind, and it will take manly deeds to carry out what we conscientiously believe is right.

In asking me to speak to this convention, Brother President Smith indicated that he would like for me to discuss integration and interracial fellowship. Perhaps you think I've been preaching a sermon. Maybe I have. I wish that I could give you a simple formula or a pat answer that would solve our racial problems, but I cannot. I can say that it is your attitudes that will make or wreck interracial fellowship. The attitudes you have as you pursue your newly acquired but long overdue freedoms are crucial. Affiliate as closely as you can with interracial groups whose activities and interests are similar to your own. Smile at the slights you receive, and overlook and forgive the ignorance of people who deliberately attempt to make you feel unwanted. It is a difficult thing to do. It is far easier to tolerate abuse than to love the abuser. Perhaps you say that I know not of what I speak. You may say that I have never known the abuses you have, and you are partially right. m If you think Lawrence, Kansas is unprejudiced, allow me to point out that, among other things, (African-Americans) are not allowed in the Barber Shops, and cafes all post signs concerning their right to refuse service. To be sure, Lawrence is not as bad as many towns, but I did not find it easy to stand apart from my friends in this community. It was difficult to meet the scorning eyes or hear the hushed questions whispered behind my back. The people who were hurting me were not strangers; they were my friends with whom I had grown up. These were classmates whose parents had warned them to avoid me. A girl friend from grade-school days called to break her date with me when she heard that a flaming cross had been planted in the yard of the Fraternity House. She said she didn't want to be involved in race relations. Of course not! No one likes to be different! No one likes to be misunderstood. Nobody wants to stand alone, but somebody must. My closest friends asked me constantly why I joined a predominately (African-American) Fraternity. What was I trying to prove? My parents and Brothers wondered, and they could not understand. Perhaps you also wonder why. If I have talked to you so long, and you still do not understand why I had to demonstrate my love and concern, then I have wasted my time. If you do not know that I earnestly want you to have the happiest, fullest lives possible, then I have wasted your time also. But if you do understand, what further reason do I need for pledging myself to you?

Because I am the Undergraduate Speaker at this convention, I would like to say a little bit about our undergraduate chapters.

I would like to point out that the number of members is not a criteria of an organization's value. Neither is the efficiency of an organization an adequate standard by which to judge. We must look to see what is the effect on the man in the organization also—does the group help the man to be more mature and of more service? On the basis of this I would like to propose that our undergraduate chap-

continue'

ters adopt a system of operation which gives all of the members a chance to work together, and where each member is responsible for performing his share of the work. I would like to see the men plan out their own menus, cook their own food, do their own dishes, keep their own books, and purchase their own food themselves. I don't mean for each individual to do every job, but I mean for the men in the chapter to select from among themselves the persons for each task. This not only leads to better understanding and Brotherhood, not only to the making of the man, but by reducing the expenses it makes it possible for many capable men to be a part of our Fraternity who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

For two years I lived in a house with 35 other students which was organized on this basis, and we operated for only $40 per month for room and board. Last year while I was living in the Upsilon Chapter House we set up this system, and we operated with about 12 participants at the rate of $7 per week for food and $3 per week for room. I know that this system can work, and that it can produce the results, which I have described. With the coming of integration there is a decreasing need for a fraternity on our campuses devoted to the social unity of the (African-Americans) there. Let Alpha recognize the new need and rise to meet it. We need a service fraternity with a unique function in teaching maturity, and this is the future, which I see for the Undergraduate Chapters of Alpha.

The position of Alpha, the position of you men, her leaders, reminds me of a courtroom scene in which a drama of life unfolded. A youth in his early 20s or late teens stood before the judge, his back to the crowded courtroom. He was a handsome lad, tall and slender. The boy's face was drawn and tense, his shoulders slumped forward, and his eyes stared blankly at the judge. It seemed that several weeks ago he had been to a party with some of his friends, and they had had a few drinks together before parting. The next morning he was accused of having run down and killed one pedestrian and having injured another, both of whom had been standing in a safety zone. The youth had not the slightest recollection of the accident, but the battered fenders of his car and the account of a witness were convincing evidence. The lawyers had argued the case, one for leniency toward this unfortunate youth, and the other for the safety of the citizens in the community. The jury had found him guilty and the judge pronounced the sentence of 15 years in prison. But before the judge's gavel could adjourn the court, a well dressed, middle-aged business man pushed his way toward the front of the courtroom, and he turned and faced the courtroom, the pathos in his eyes glued each person to their place. The man was James E. Goodrich, a respected and successful citizen in the city and the father of the convicted boy!

K "I made my son a criminal," he began. "Fifteen years ago I took Jim across the country with me, and left him in the car while I stopped a minute to call a customer. The house was down in a valley among a grove of trees. When 1 had finished my business I took a short cut back to the car. 1 then discovered that Jim was gone. The snow on the ground had fallen fresh that morning. My tracks were the only ones that led from the car. I walked around the car several times with fear mounting in my heart. Then I noticed, coming out of the grove of trees, stretching his tiny legs to match my strides, carefully putting each little foot in the print which I had made, was my boy. "It has always been this way. He always followed my path. He always imitated me as best he could. He has seen me drink many times, but I left no tracks to lead him beyond that pitfall. He has now undone my folly. I made my son a criminal."

Each of us is leaving footprints in the snow, and somebody is following in the path that each of us leaves The question is, where do your footprints leave others? I have tried to indicate where I believe where they should lead, and the rest is up to you.

Our racial difficulties are only a manifestation of our inability to love and get along with other people, and these are the symptoms of maladjustment to God. Love, in the Christian sense, is the cure. I am offering no panacea; this putting the welfare of other people on an equal plane with your own is difficult. It is a difficult medicine to take. Is a healthy society worth it? Is integration worth planning and working for in a spirit of love? You men of Alpha are the leaders of a great portion of our society. Where will you lead them?

What tracks will you leave? The nation, the world, history, and even God the Father Himself, are all awaiting your next move!

By Brother Roger Youmanspresented the above article as the Undergraduate Address to the Miami Convention.

1

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY WEEK

By Rayford W. Logan Of the many "weeks" devoted in America to the popularizing of some principle or ideal, few merit the sincere interest and active cooperation of the Fraternity more than does (African-American) History Week. Even if the week of February 6-12 has passed before this issue of The Sphinx® reaches the various chapters, this article will not be untimely. It will serve as a kind of follow-up letter to remind the Brothers of the importance of what may have slipped by unnoticed in their community. Or it may arouse some to interest themselves individually in the history of our race. At all events, it will show that the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity realizes the necessity for such study and officially endorses the annual effort to stimulate, foster, and perhaps revive enthusiasm for this praiseworthy endeavor.

Even in the liberal white colleges of the North and West, too little time is devoted to a consideration of the role that the (AfricanAmerican) has played in the development of civilization. The textbooks in some instances are avowedly unscientific in their treatment, particularly with reference to the Reconstruction. The authors of other books think that they are sufficiently fair when they omit all mention of the (African-American). Even such excellent volumes as Hockett and Schlesinger's "Political and Social History of the United States," while more just in their analysis of the Reconstruction, fail to mention any real contribution of the (African-American) at any other epoch of our history. Jerome Dowd's latest effort, "The Negro in American Life," exhibits the almost pitiable attempt of Southerners to write history with unprej ucliced pens. What member, for instance, of the 372nd Regiment who served under both (African-American) and white officers will not laugh at Dowd's dictum that all the (African-American) regiments fought well except those commanded by colored officers?

The soldiers of that regiment will hardly agree that the Croix de Guerre which their flag proudly Hies resulted from the efficient training or the dashing courage of the trembling white rookie shave-tails from Gondrecourt dumped on the regiment in Champagne.

Such books will hardly correct the first impression created by our common school geographies. Hundreds of thousands of white students still remember that there are five races of people, the black, yellow, brown, red and white; that the yellow, brown and red races may have accidentally or incidentally advanced civilization, but that the black race has done nothing at all except be slaves and found such uproariously ridiculous republics as Liberia and Haiti.

We should not then be astonished at the amazing ignorance of some of our fellow students. The fault lies not with them if they do not know the theories of Sergi, Branhes, and Wiener of the influence of African civilization on Europe and America; if they have never heard of Benjamin Banneker and Matzeliger; if they do not realize that Pushkin and Dumas are of (African-American) extraction. Many of us are hardly better informed. We can, however, supplement our scant knowledge and correct our own false impressions by delving into such works as Woodson's "The Negro in Our History", "Negro Education Prior to 1861", "A Century of Negro Migration", "The History of the Negro Church". "Negros and Their Orations", Brawley's "A Short History of the American Negro", our own DuBois' "Suppression of the Slave Trade", which has the signal honor of being Volume One in the Harvard Historical Studies, 1896. This is by no means an exhaustive bibliography, but merely a suggestion for some of the books that should be in the library of every Brother and on the shelf of every school in the country. i|L 1 ^r Those of us who did not participate this year in (African-American) History Week may begin now to prepare for the future. Such preparation should include not only study of books, but also the gathering of documents. Every community is rich in the unwritten history of our race. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and its Director of Research, Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, Spingarn Medalist for 1926, can do little alone.

Alpha Phi Alpha can help to make (African-American) History Week as inspiring and productive of real results as the Go-to-High School, Go-to-College campaign. The Sphinx®, beginning with the next issue, will help to keep the purpose constantly in the mind of the organization by reviews by the Literary Editor of Books pertaining to the (African-American).

Brother Rayford W. Logan served as the 15th General President of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

CORPORA

CORPORATE DIRECTORY

THE SEVEN JEWELS

HeruyA-Callis

Charles H. Chapman

Eugene K. Jones

GENERAL OFFICERS General President Past General President Imma Interim Executive Director General Treasurer Comptroller -4'.

General Counsel Director-General Conventions Parliamentarian VICEPRESF Eastern Midwestern Southern Southwestern /' Western ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENTS Eastern Midwestern Southern Southwestern Western

geB. Kelley

Nathaniel A. Murray

Robert H. Ogle

^fertner W. Tandy

Adrian L. Wallace, 281 Debra Lane, Lake Charles, LA 70611-9216 Milton C. Davis, P.O. Box 830509, Ttiskegee, AL, 36083 Seaton J. White, 111, 2313 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 George N. Reaves, 2933 Balmoral Crescent, Flossmoor, IL 60422 Frank A. Jenkins m, 529 South Perry Street, Suite 16, Montgomery, AL 36104 Harry E. Johnson, Sr, 8606 Running Bird Lane, Missouri City, TX 77489 Al F. Rutherford, 1718 M Street, NW, PMB Suite 223, Washington, DC 20036-4504 Kenneth Jordan, 15366 Kentfield, Detroit, MI 28223 Albert E. Lucas, 165 Church Street, 2nd Floor Atrium, New Haven, CT 06510 Samuel DeShazior, 911 Mercer Avenue, Akron, OH 44320 Lynwood Bell, 1902 East Pollock Road, Lakeland, FL 33813 Terry Arlington, 5426 Upton Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Gregory G. French, 5625 Windsor Way #103, Culver City, CA 9023 Thomas Fitzpatrick, 411 South 43rd Street, Philadelphia, PA Ronelle DeShazer, 8660 S. 86th Avenue #315, Justis, IL 60458 Y. Trevor Beauford, 318 Pickens Street, Rock Hill, SC 29730 Micah J. Smith, 8710 Scenic Green Drive, Houston, TX 77088 Malcolm Darrell, 554 Liberty Street #4, El Cerrito, CA 94530

LIVING PAST GENERAL PRESIDENTS 21st General President T. Winston Cole, Sr., 812 S.W. 50th Way, Gainesville, FL 32607 25th General President James R. Williams, 1733 Brookwood Drive, Akron, OH 44313 26th General President Ozell Sutton, 1640 Locli Lomond Trail, SW, Adanta, GA 30331 27th General President Charles C. Teamer, Sr., 4619 Owens Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70122 28th General President Henry Ponder, N.A.F.E.O., 8701 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910 29th General President Milton C. Davis, P.O. Box 830509, Tuskegee, AL 36083 ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS TO THE GENERAL PRESIDENT International Affairs Special Assistant Assistants

Horace G. Dawson, Jr., 1601 Kalmia Road, NW, Washington, DC 20012 Darryl R. Matthews, Sr., 5075 Red Robin Ridge, Alpharetta, GA 30202 Robert A. Willis, 130 Old Fairburn Close, Adanta, GA 30331 Joseph E. Heyward, P.O. Box 384, Florence, SC 29503 Joshua Williams, Jr., 9696 Hayne Blvd. #15, New Orleans, LA 70127 Ronald L. Anderson, 6300 Taliaferro Way, Kmgstowne, VA 22315

CORPORATE DIRECTORY WORLD POLICY COUNCIL Chairman Chairman Emeritus Members

ALPHA PHI ALPHA BUILDING FOUNDATION, INC. Chairman

Horace G. Dawson, Jr., 1601 Kalmia Road, NW, Washington, DC 20037 Edward W. Brooke, Suite 301-S, 2500 Virginia Avenue, NW, Wash., DC 20037 Charles Rangel, 2354 Rayburn House Office Building, Wash., DC 20515 Huel D. Perkins, 1923—79th Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70807 Henry Ponder, N.A.F.E.O., 8701 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910 Vinton R. Anderson, AME Church Finance Office, 1134-11th Street, NW, Wash., DC 200 Chuck S. Stone, UNC-Chapel Hill, 107 Oxford Hills Place, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Bobby Austin, The Village Foundation, 211 N. Union Street #100, Alexandria, VA 2231

Everett Ward, 5002 Avenida Del Sol Drive, Raleigh, NC 27604

ALPHA PHI ALPHA EDUCATION FOUNDATION, INC. Chairman James Ward, 9306 Twin Hills Drive, Houston, TX 77031 NATIONAL COMMITTEE/COMMISSION CHAIRMEN Alpha Collegiate Scholars Awards & Achievements Budget & Finance Business & Economic Development College Brothers Affairs Constitution Elections Endowment & Capital Formation Grievances & Discipline Headquarters Maintenance Internal Auditing Jobs Fair Life Membership Management Information Systems Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Project Membership/Standards & Extension National Historian National Programs Personnel Publications Racial Justice & Public Policy Reclamation Subcommittee Recommendations & Resolutions Rules & Credentials

/A

Rituals & Ceremonies Senior Alpha Affairs Special Projects Strategic Planning Time & Place Training & Development PROGRAM/PROJECT COORDINATORS Big Brother/Big Sisters of America Leadership Development & Citizen Education Miss Black & Gold Pageant Oratorical Contest Project Alpha ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC. CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS

Willie Ruff, 314 Applegrove Court, Herndon, VA 22071 Steven M. Sims, 2508 Dysart Road, Cleveland, OH 44118 Frank A. Jenkins III, 529 South Perry Street, Suite 16, Montgomery, AL 36104 Harold Patrick, 5959 West Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045 Barton J. Taylor, 2117 Flat Shoals Road #4, Atlanta, GA 30316 Lloyd Givens, 6050 Canaan Woods Drive, SW, Atlanta, GA 30331 Russell C. Campbell, Sr., 1504 Delmont Lane, Takoma Park, MD 20912 Christopher C. Womack, 2109 Christina Cove, Birmingham, AL 35244Isiah Ward, 303 Waterford, Willowbrook, IL 60521 R. Leandras Jones II, 1045 Audubon Circle, SW, Atlanta, GA, 30311 David M. Cheri, 5106 Porter Ridge, Houston, TX 77053 Ralph Caro, 6826 Garfield Avenue, Kansas City, MO 66102 George Wayne Watkins, 40983 Oaks Drive #4A, Troy, MI 48098 Eddie Henderson, 4563 Wellspring Way, Stone Mountain, GA 30083 John H. Carter, 3465 Somerset Trail, Atlanta, GA 30331 Ronald T. James, 9317 Autumn Road, Oklahoma City, OK 73151 Robert L. Harris, Jr., Cornell University, 310 Triphammer Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850 Ronald J. Peters, Jr., 8900 Chimney Rock, Apt. 123, Houston, TX 77096 Sean Woodroffe, 705 Summer Avenue, Uniondale, NY 11553 Harry Dunbar, 281 Rose Road, West Nyack, NY 10994 Norman Towels, 3243 Arlington Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506 Harold Foster, 5642 Georgia, Avenue, Kansas City, KS 66104 Tophas Anderson HI, 14811 Tumbling Falls Court, Houston, TX 77062 John E. Walls, Co-chairman, 107 Colonial Drive, Vicksburg, MS 39180 Johnny Thomas, Co-chairman, 1414 Mill Street, Lake Charles, LA 70601 Darren Morton, Chairman, 549 S 7th Avenue, Mt. Vernon, NY 10550 James Ivory, 1241 Oak Hill Road, Downers Grove, IL 60515 Richard D. Smith, Jr., 3510 Medical Park Drive #7, Monroe, LA 71203 Chester A. Wheeler in, P.O. Box 6682, Macon, GA 31208 Elliot Ferguson, Jr., 2790 DeVinci Blvd.,Decatur, GA 30034 Phillip Jackson, 1200 Little Gloucester Road #1904, Clementon, NJ 08021 Dale Long, 1614 Dorado Street, Garland, TX 75040 Willis E. Baird, P.O. Box 74, Durham, NC 27702 Alvin Cavalier, 413-C Longwood Court, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 John German, 1124 32nd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98144 John L Colbert, 2140 Loren Circle, Fayetteville, AR 72701 2313 St. Paul Street • Baltimore, MD 21218-5234 Phone: (410) 554-0040 • Fax: (410) 554-0054

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