Since its founding on December 4, 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 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 established for African-Americans, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood among African descendants in this country. The visionary founders, known as the “Jewels” of the Fraternity, are Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy.
The Fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell. The Jewel founders and early leaders of the Fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha's principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity.
Alpha Phi Alpha chapters were established at other colleges and universities, many of them historically black institutions, soon after the founding at Cornell. The first Alumni Chapter was established in 1911. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha also recognized the need to help correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African-Americans. Alpha Phi Alpha has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community's fight for civil rights through leaders such as: W.E.B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Edward Brooke, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, William Gray, Paul Robeson, and many others. True to its form as the “first of firsts,” Alpha Phi Alpha has been interracial since 1945.
The Jewels
The Founding Fathers of Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha was founded by seven undergraduate students at Cornell who were later called by other fraternity members, “The Seven Jewels.” They were;
Henry Arthur Callis (1887–1974
Henry Arthur Callis, who was born in 1887 in Rochester, New York, the son of an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Minister.
Upon graduation from Cornell in 1909, Callis took a position at Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware, a school founded in 1867 for the education of African Americans. There he taught history and German and met his first wife, Alice Dunbar–Nelson, a noted novelist, poet, and civil rights activist of the early 20th century. After a one-year stint at the school, he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, where he studied from 1910 to 1913.
In 1913, he entered the graduate science program at the University of Chicago to broaden his understanding of biological sciences. In 1914 he married commercial artist Pauline (Parker) Callis. The following year Callis graduated and gained employment as a chemist at Armour & Co. in its chemical laboratories. He stayed with Armour & Co. until 1919, when he became a bacteriologist at the Contagious Disease Hospital in Chicago and was accepted to Rush Medical College, where he graduated in 1921.
After medical school, Dr. Henry Arthur Callis served in many important positions. Two of the most notable were as pathologist and head of laboratory services at the U.S. Veterans Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama, and associate professor of medicine and attending physician in charge of medical services at Freedmen’s Hospital, Howard University. He continued to serve his community and fraternity until he died on November 12, 1974, at the age of 87.
Charles Henry Chapman (1876 - 1934)
Charles Henry Chapman, an older student and cafe owner in Ithaca.
Chapman left Cornell and returned to Howard University and then to Ohio State University. Detailed accounts of his travels or personal history during this time have not surfaced, but it is known that he met and married his wife, Esther Chapman, a dietitian in the public school system. The couple settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He would commute from his teaching institutions in the South back to Ohio for the rest of his life to visit Esther and her family who remained in Cleveland.
Charles Chapman served as a professor of agriculture at both Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, and Alabama A&M College in Huntsville, Alabama. His most prestigious appointment came in 1924 when Florida A&M in Tallahassee hired him to chair the agriculture department. He advanced the department by adding coursework in animal husbandry that did not exist before his appointment.
After a long hiatus from activity with Alpha Phi Alpha, he returned in 1929 at the Twenty-Second General Convention to give the Founder’s Address. From that point until he died November 17, 1934, of nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys caused by lupus), Charles Henry Chapman reaffirmed his commitment to the fraternity he helped start and the college he grew to love. In 1932, he helped establish a fraternity chapter at Florida A&M. On his tombstone, not far from Florida A&M, his achievements at the university and with Alpha Phi Alpha are engraved.
Eugene Kinkle Jones (1885 - 1954)
Eugene Kinkle Jones, the son of a Virginia Union University professor, after graduation would become the first Executive Secretary of the National Urban League;
In 1911, Jones began working as the first field secretary for the newly formed National Urban League (NUL). In 1917 Jones was appointed as Executive Secretary of NUL and led the organization until his retirement in 1941. As Executive Secretary he led a campaign to undermine the barriers to black employment. This campaign often included boycotts against firms that refused to employ African American workers. Jones also worked to expand vocational opportunities for young African Americans and sought a greater role for blacks in previously segregated labor unions.
In 1923, Jones helped to launch Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life magazine with Charles Spurgeon Johnson. By that date he had helped the Urban League expand to forty branches nationwide. In 1933, Jones he took a leave of absence from the NUL and accepted a position at the Department of Commerce as an advisor of Negro Affairs, a post he held until 1937. While in that position, Jones became a member of the President Franklin Roosevelt’s Black Kitchen Cabinet, a group of a dozen high ranking government officials who advised the President about matter of particular importance to African Americans. The leader of the Cabinet was Mary McLeod Bethune who worked in the National Youth Administration.
Jones was awarded an honorary degree from Virginia Union University in 1924. Eugene Kinkle Jones died at his home in Queens, New York in 1954. He was 69
George Biddle Kelley (1884 - 1962)
George Biddle Kelley of Troy, New York who later became New York State’s first registered African American civil engineer.
On December 4, 1906, Kelley chaired the meeting that changed the club into a fraternity. Kelley became the first president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Alpha Chapter. Incorporation would come the following year, and Kelley was essential in its development. He was a leader in naming, early logo designs, and initiation rituals for the fraternity.
After graduating from Cornell, Kelley registered with the State of New York Engineering Board and became the state’s first officially certified African American engineer. He spent half his career with New York’s Engineering Department, contributing to many projects including New York State’s Barge Canal. During the latter half of his career he worked in taxation, first with the state of New York and then in the private sector as a tax consultant.
Kelley remained a resident of Troy, New York, throughout his life and served the community in various capacities. He was ordained an elder with the Liberty Presbyterian Church despite being raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He also was a director of Troy’s Central YMCA and vice chairman of the Troy Council of the New York State Anti-Discrimination Commission. In addition, he was a Mason (32nd degree) in the Prince Hall Masonic Organization and a longtime member of Troy’s NAACP chapter.
Kelley’s extensive involvement with the community did not prevent his continuing work with the fraternity he helped found. His efforts contributed to ensuring the values set by its founders remained a cornerstone of continuing development within the organization. He was a strong advocate for ensuring the college members were heard even as alumni chapters grew in strength, and believed in character and potential over affiliation and heritage when choosing new members. His popularity with the Brotherhood never wavered, and he remained active in the organization until the end of his life. He died May 5, 1962, in Troy at the age of 77.
Nathanial Allison Murray (1884 - 1959)
Nathanial Allison Murray, son of the first black employee of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
In 1911, upon completion of his studies, Murray left Cornell and returned to Washington, D.C. There he acquired a post at his former school, Armstrong Manual Training School, and served as an instructor in agriculture and biology for over 30 years. During this time, Murray married and had two daughters.
His involvement with Alpha Phi Alpha continued throughout his life. In Washington D.C., he, along with founding jewel Robert Harold Ogle and others, helped charter Mu Lambda (the Washington, D.C., alumni chapter). He was a regular speaker and leader in local and national issues involving the fraternity. In 1949, Murray moved to Los Angeles, California, and became affiliated with its alumni chapter. He continued to be a strong advocate for his beloved organization until his death on December 12, 1959, at the age of 75.
Robert Harold Ogle (1886 - 1936)
Robert H. Ogle also of Washington, D.C. and the only married member of the founders, later became a staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Upon graduation in 1909, Ogle returned to Washington, D.C., first working as a clerk for judges in the city. He later secured a job with the United States Senate Appropriations Committee and was assigned to Sen. Francis E. Warren of Wyoming. Ogle’s original position title was “laborer,” later changing to “messenger,” and finally to “additional clerk.” Regardless of how they classified him, the appointment to serve as a professional Senate committee staffer is a first for a person of African heritage.
Ogle was married twice, first to Helen (Moore) Ogle and, upon her death, later to Marea (Scott) Ogle. He had two daughters with his first wife – Helen Ogle (Atkins) and Mary Ogle (Wilson). Ogle was a lifelong resident of Washington, D.C., with service to his family, community, and fraternity. Olga and fellow founder (Jewel) Nathaniel Allison Murray were members and helped charter Mu Lambda Chapter (an alumni chapter) in the D.C. area. At the time of his death, on December 3, 1936 (a day before the 30th anniversary of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.), there were more than 100 chapters of the fraternity across the country.
Vertner Woodson Tandy (1885 - 1949)
Vertner W. Tandy, the son of a Lexington, Kentucky building contractor who later became the first registered African American architect in New York.
Upon graduation, Vertner W. Tandy became the first African American registered architect in the State of New York. His office on Broadway in New York City would be the home of Tandy and Foster, his architectural firm. Among the buildings designed by the highly gifted architect are Saint Phillips Episcopal Church in New York City and the Ivy Delph Apartments which in 2005 were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His most famous commission was Villa Lewaro, the mansion of Harlem businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker, in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Villa Lewaro, completed in 1918, was a 34 room, 20,000 square-foot mansion, completed at a cost of $250,000.
Vertner W. Tandy became the first African American to pass the military commissioning examination in World War I. After undergoing officer training at Fort Des Moines in Iowa, he was subsequently commissioned First Lieutenant in the 15th Infantry of the New York State National Guard. Upon his release from military service Tandy would return to practicing architecture in New York City for the next three decades. He died on November 7, 1949 of pneumonia in New York City at the age of 64.