Alpha Legacy: A Brief History

The Seven Jewels

The most remarkable leadership in the African-American community in the 20th century has without question come from the ranks of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Since its founding on December 4, 1906, the Fraternity has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African-Americans and people of color around the world. Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity in the United States established for men of African descent, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood between African-Americans.

Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy


These seven young men felt there was a need for more Black unity on Cornell's predominately white campus. Since other avenues in Greek life at this time were not readily accessible to many Blacks, these men took it upon themselves to take the first steps in forming the traditional Black Greek system.

The Fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice-educationally and socially-at Cornell. During those beginning days, the Jewel founders and early leaders of the Fraternity worked to lay a solid foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha's principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character and the uplifting of humanity. Today, THE ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INCORPORATED exceeds 125,000 members and has over 700 chapters in the 50 states, Bermuda, England, Liberia, South Korea, the Virgin Islands, and West Germany.

Alpha Phi Alpha has evolved into an organization that takes pride in attempting to right many wrongs society has bestowed upon us. Alpha's constant efforts of increasing the educational, economic, and social well-being of the Black people in the United States are unparalled. These efforts are evident in our direct participation in numerous national organizations and our financial contributions to their programs oriented to handle problem areas such as civil rights, poor housing, and inadequate education of our youth. Alpha Phi Alpha was a proud sponsor of the recent Million Man March last year in Washington D.C. And our philanthropies are the NAACP, United Negro College Fund, and the National Urban League. Alpha Phi Alpha's fraternity motto is:

FIRST OF ALL,

SERVANTS OF ALL,

WE SHALL TRANSCEND ALL!!!

Henry Arthur Callis

Henry Arthur Callis was born January 14, 1887. He attended Cornell University in the fall of 1905, where he worked part time as a janitor and a waiter. Due to financial difficulties he was forced to drop out of school in 1907, but returned the following year. After Graduating in 1909 he went on to Rush Medical School and became a practicing physician, Howard University Professor of Medicine and prolific contributor to medical journals. Often regarded as the philosopher of the founders, and a moving force in the Fraternity's development, he was the only one of the Cornell Seven to become General President. Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., he was a medical consultant to the Veterans Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama. Upon his death on November 12, 1974, at age 87, the Fraternity entered a time without any living Jewels. His papers were donated to Howard's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.