104!

Disclaimer: I am not a member of any Black Greeks organization also known as the NPHC (National Pan-Hellenic Council) although I have family and friends that are members. This post is dedicated to the fraternity that started all of this and I respect them and what they stand for. The images you see are of the founders and prominent members of the organization.

On this day in 1906 seven African-American men formed a fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha at Cornell University. These seven men were Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle,  and Vertner Woodson Tandy. This is the oldest organization in the "Divine 9" and is known as the Father of all Black Greek Organizations.



Paul Roberson




Thurgood Marshall



Jesse Owens

Given racial attitudes in 1906, their accomplishments were monumental. As founder Henry Arthur Callis euphemistically stated—because the half-dozen African American students at Cornell University during the school year 1904-05 did not return to campus the following year, the incoming students in 1905-06, in founding Alpha Phi Alpha, were determined to bind themselves together to ensure that each would survive in the racially hostile environment. In coming together with this simple act, they preceded by decades the emergence of such on-campus programs as Affirmative Action and Upward Bound. The students set outstanding examples of Scholarship, Leadership and Tenacity —preceding the efforts even of the NAACP and similar civil rights organizations.

W.E.B Du Bois



Martin Luther King Jr.





Eta Rho Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. at Western Kentucky University




 This past week the Eta Rho Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. celebrated their annual Founders Week I attended all the events this week which included the following A Vote less People is a Hopeless People and The Conversation discussion based on the Hill Harper book entitled "The Conversation."

I really want to take the time to express my gratitude to the men of this organization as well as all Black Greek organizations. From what I have observed just because some people saw Stomp the Yard which was written and produced by Alpha Men it does  not mean that is all these organizations are about. Stepping, dancing, parties, etc. they are scholars and leaders on  and off college campuses everywhere. I would like to say congratulations and never lose sight of what your founders stood and fought for.