List of Alpha Phi Alpha members

Alpha Phi Alpha is the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter organization established for Black college students. Convened in December 1905 as a literary society with the first presiding officer being CC Poindexter, it was established as a fraternity on December 4, 1906, at Ithaca, New York. Alpha Phi Alpha opened chapters at other colleges, universities, and cities, and named them with Greek letters. Members traditionally pledge into a chapter, although some members were granted honorary status before the fraternity discontinued the practice of granting honorary membership. A chapter name ending in "Lambda" denotes an alumni chapter.Template:Sfn The only alumni chapters that do not end in "Lambda" are Rho Chapter, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as the Omicron Lambda Alpha chapter in Washington, DC and the Omicron Lambda Beta chapter in Illinois, which were both intermediate chapters but became alumni chapters after the discontinuation of intermediate chapters.

No chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha is designated Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet that traditionally signifies "the end". Deceased brothers are respectfully referred to as having their membership transferred to Omega Chapter, the fraternity's chapter of sweet rest.Template:Sfn Frederick Douglass is distinguished as the only member initiated posthumously when he became an exalted honorary member of the Omega chapter in 1921.Template:Sfn

The fraternity through its college and alumni chapters serves the community through nearly a thousand chapters in the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

The fraternity has been led by 36 general presidents. Its membership includes two premiers; four governors; a vice president, four senators; a Supreme Court justice; two presidential candidates; Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Lenin Peace Prize, Kluge Prize, Golden Globe, Academy Award, Grammy Award, and Emmy Award winners; French Légion d'honneur and Croix de Guerre laureates; at least four Rhodes Scholars; eighteen diplomats; fourteen Presidential Medal of Freedom, seven Congressional Gold Medal, and seventeen Spingarn Medal recipients; and eighteen Olympians.

Buildings, monuments, stadiums, arenas, courthouses, and schools have been named after Alpha men, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Thurgood Marshall Public Policy Building at the University of Maryland; the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans; the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge; the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium; the Paul Robeson Plaza at Rutgers University; the Jack Trice Stadium; the John H. Johnson School of Communication at Howard University; the Oscar W. Ritchie Pan-African Cultural Arts Center at Kent State University; the Arvarh E. Strickland General Classroom Building at the University of Missouri-Columbia; the G. Larry James Stadium at Stockton University; the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts; the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County; the John Hope Franklin Memorial Plaza in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Stephan P. Mickle Sr. Courthouse in Gainesville, Florida; the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building; the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago; the A. Maceo Smith Federal Building in Dallas; the Robert F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University; and the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The House of Alpha

The House of Alpha was first published in the December 1923 edition of The Sphinx Magazine. The poem would later be attributed to Bro. Sidney P. Brown and quickly became a staple within the fraternity. When speaking about the poem in 1981, Brown cited his experiences with Beta (Washington, D.C.), Theta (Chicago), Xi Lambda (Chicago Alumni), and Eta Lambda (Atlanta Alumni) as collective inspirations for the poem. Loyalty to the Fraternity was repeatedly urged by brothers on the part of those who were among the initiated, and for every chapter with the vision of a fraternity house. The statement has become a manifesto for the national fraternity and chapters, as each may symbolically be referred to as a "House of Alpha".Template:Sfn

Eugene K. Jones, sometimes referred to as "The Visionary Jewel", once said:

Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest of Negro Fraternities, with all of its members presumably far above the average American and having a good and practical understanding of the salient factors involved in the Negro's problem...should be able to take into their hands the leadership in the Negro's struggle for status.

Here follows a list of notable Alphas.

See also

• List of Alpha Phi Alpha chapters

External links

• Alpha Phi Alpha official site