The Sphinx Magazine Fall/Winter 2006 part 2

Political, Business and Organizational Leaders From Across Country Attend Fraternity’s 14th Annual CBC Reception

31st General President Harry E. Johnson, Sr. and 25th General President James R. Williams.

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(l-r) Brother Michael Rogers, Ms. Janette Hoston Harris, Brother Willard Hall, Ms. Johnetta B. Hardy and Brother Levonia Wiggins.

lpha Phi Alpha Fraternity honored members of the Congressional Black Caucus and recognized the efforts of its members and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation toward building a permanent tribute to the civil rights leader during its 14th Annual Congressional Black Caucus Reception.

The reception was held at the Renaissance Washington, D.C. Hotel in downtown Washington in conjunction with the 36th Annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Legislative

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Conference, entitled “Changing Course, Confronting Crises, Continuing the Legacy.” The energy crisis was one of the key issues the CBC addressed during the conference and its theme highlighted the need to take new approaches in solving problems.

Congressional, business and organizational leaders from throughout the country attended the Fraternity’s CBC Reception to support the Fraternity’s leadership efforts. General President Darryl R. Matthews, Sr. and Fraternity Executive Director Willard C. Hall, Jr. recognized and welcomed attendees to the Reception.

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(l-r) General Presidents Henry Ponder, James Williams, Darryl Matthews and Harry Johnson.

Congressman Brother Gregory Meeks.

Congressman Brother Bobby Scott.

Brothers Darryl Matthews and Lt. Michael Fines.

Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. President Harry E. Johnson, Sr. announced that the group is well on its way to obtaining the funds needed to build the project and that groundbreaking for the memorial would take place at the proposed site in two months. Other members of the MLK, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation present at the Reception included Brother Roderick Gillum, Chairman of the Board of Directors; Brother Dr. Ed Jackson, Executive Architect; and Richard Marshall, Foundation CFO.

Congressmen Brothers Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Bobby Scott (R-VA) brought greetings from the Congressional Black Caucus, welcoming the Fraternity back to Washington, D.C. following its Centennial Convention there a few weeks earlier.

They also spoke about the importance of the upcoming general election and the Fraternity’s role through its A Voteless People Is A Hopeless People campaign. Other congressional leaders in attendance included Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-FL).

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Brothers Al Bailey and Darryl Matthews.

(l-r) Congressman Brother Gregory Meeks, General President Darryl Matthews, Congressman Brother Bobby Scott, Executive Director Willard Hall.

Brother Reginald McGill, Congresswoman Corrine Brown and General President Darryl Matthews.

(l-r) Western Regional VP Ryan Williams, Southwestern Regional VP Arthur McDade, Eastern Regional VP Dennis Kemp, and 31st General President Harry Johnson.

Pan Hellenic Council member-organization’s national leadership included Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Supreme Basileus Barbara McKenzie and Executive Director Dr. Betty James; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority National President Dr. Louise Rice; Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority International Grand Basileus Dr. Mynora Bryant and Executive Director Jennifer Jones; Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Grand Polemarch Samuel Hamilton and Executive Director Richard Snow; Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity National President Paul Griffin and Executive Director Donald Jemison;

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and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity International Grand Executive Secretary Tyrone Patton.

Also recognized were Margaret J. Cooper, 26th President of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs; the organization’s incoming 27th President Dr. Mary Wright Toliver; and Brother Ronald LeGrand of AARP. Special presentations were made by Executive Director Willard Hall to the Chairs and Co-chairs of the Fraternity’s Centennial Convention activities who led a team of over 500 volun-

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G.P. Executive Assistant Monica Rose (far right) and unidentified guests .

Brothers Horace Dawson and Darryl Matthews hold picture of Centennial Convention official group photo.

(l-r) Mr. Richard Marshall, Ms. Trudy Byrd, Brothers Darryl Matthews, Ed Jackson and Harry Johnson.

Brother Darryl Matthews, Ms. Tamaria Perry and Brother Willard Hall.

teers to make the celebration a resounding success. Those recognized included Brothers Vincent Orange, Michael Rogers, Levonia Wiggins, Anthony Harris; and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority members Janette Hoston Harris and Johnetta B. Hardy who served as women’s activities Chair and Co-chair, respectively.

At this year’s Annual Legislative Conference, the CBCF acknowledged the historic legacy of the Congressional Black Caucus with the unveiling of AVOICE, a unique online repository for rare political documents, historic speeches and photographs.

The site will feature rarely and never-before seen private letters and documents from CBC members like Shirley Chisholm and Brother Adam Clayton Powell. Also, the site will include information on the CBC, its beginnings and legacy.

The ALC provides the platform for the 43 African American members of Congress to share the progress of their work on legislative items and also allows for the exchange of ideas correlated to policy issues that are of critical concern to their constituents.

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Boston Resident Brother Franklin Miller Named City’s Crime Fighter of the Year oston resident Brother E. Franklin Miller was honored as Crime Fighter of the Year by the city government and police officials. The award was presented to Brother Miller by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Acting Police Commissioner Albert E. Goslin, members of the Boston Police command staff and representatives from other local law enforcement agencies during an annual National Night Out festivity at the city’s Fenway Park.

A Spring 1991 initiate through Rho Nu Chapter and graduate of Harvard University, Brother Miller is the leader of the Wendover Street Neighborhood Crime Watch Group and has been involved in the city’s Crime Watch program since 2003.

In making the presentation, Mayor Menino said Brother Miller epitomizes the Neighborhood Watch principles of: developing relationships with his neighbors, displacing negative activity with positive activity, and partnering with the police.

Fed up with violence and drug activity on Wendover Street and in his neighborhood, Brother Miller began organizing the Wendover Street Neighborhood Crime Watch in 2003.

In response to recent shootings, Brother Franklin repeatedly reached out to his neighbors, taking the time to engage them in conversation and inspiring them to participate in the Neighborhood Crime Watch. The group has worked to displace negative activity with positive activity. Their partnerships with the police and the city of Boston resulted in a change of traffic direction, repaving of sidewalks, erection of additional street signs and a Jersey barrier, a strong relationship with the B-2 district police,

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and in developing a can-do attitude among members of the group.

Brother Franklin’s wife, Rita, said he is “driven to make change happen and is committed to the inner city.” He attends up to four community meetings a day, Mrs. Miller said. “It’s his calling and he knows someone needs to do the work.”

The morning of May 18, 2006, Brother Franklin witnessed suspects fleeing after a drive-by shooting and he was able to catch the license plate of the vehicle. He immediately called 911, and because of his quick and detailed response, which he learned at Neighborhood Crime Watch meetings, the police were able to identify the vehicle involved in the crime and locate the potential suspects.

Mayor Menino said “Franklin Miller is named the 2006 Crime Fighter of the Year for his selfless contributions to his street, neighborhood, and our city. His actions state loudly and clearly, violence is no longer tolerated on Wendover Street.”

Brother Miller, 34, grew up in New Jersey, but moved to Massachusetts in 1990 to attend Harvard University where he studied African American studies and government. He lives with his wife and their children, Antwanai, 3, and Douglas, 1, and is currently working on his Master’s degree in public policy at Tufts University.

Although Brother Miller says he has never been threatened, others in his crime watch group have been.

He says he has lived in the inner city most of his life and it is where he feels he belongs. “I’m an inner-city person. I enjoy living there,” Brother Miller said. “I feel like there are a lot of great opportunities and experiences you get from living there.”

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At Left: Award recipients during the African American Empowerment Weekend include (l-r) NBC’s The Apprentice season four winner Brother Randall Pinkett; General President Darryl Matthews; NBC’s The Apprentice season one finalist Kwame Jackson; and John Crump, Executive Director of the National Bar Association.

At Right: General President Matthews (2nd from left) is pictured with other award recipients at the African American Empowerment Weekend.

African American Empowerment Weekend Recognizes Darryl Matthews, Lou Gossett, Jr., NBC’s The Apprentice Winner and Finalist

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n October, General President Darryl R. Matthews, Sr. joined a host of national business experts who shared their experience, winning tactics and advice during the 2006 African American Empowerment Weekend, held at the JW Marriott Westfield in Chantilly, Virginia. Brother Matthews received the Legacy Brotherhood Award during the event’s African Americans of Distinction Dinner. Other honorees at the dinner included Earl Graves, Sr., Black Enterprise Magazine; John Crump, Executive Director of the National Bar Association; Deborah Peyton and Cynthia Sligh, Founders of Divas-On-The-Go; Randall Pinkett, President & CEO of BCT Partners and season four winner of NBC’s The Apprentice; and Kwame Jackson, Chairman

& CEO-Founder of Legacy Holdings, LLC and season one finalist of NBC’s The Apprentice. Other noted figures that participated in the conference included award winning actor Lou Gossett, Jr., founder of Eracism Foundation; Stephanie Elam, CNN Business Correspondent & co-host of Black Enterprise Report; Allegra Bennett television commentator and Publisher of Renovating Woman Magazine; and Terrell Whitener, Productive Workforce Development, LLC. The three-day conference brought together an elite group of speakers to enlighten, educate and inspire African Americans with high standards of achievement; and to discuss ways of achieving balance in career, family, social demands, expectations and spiritual needs.

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CHAPTER

CHAPTER NEWS

EASTERN REGION

Alpha Gamma Lambda New York City Metropolitan

New York City Government Officials Honor Fraternity New York City Councilmember Brother Leroy Comrie presented a proclamation to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at the City Council’s Stated Meeting on December 6, 2006 at City Hall. The Fraternity was represented at the meeting by New York City Metropolitan Brothers. Regional leaders received the honor in recognition of the Fraternity’s 100th

Anniversary Year. Brother Comrie was joined in the presentation by Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilmember Brother Al Vann and Councilmember Helen Foster, a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. “I am proud to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated,” Councilmember Brother Comrie said in making the presentation.

“As a proud member of this organization, I know firsthand the dedication of this Fraternity to education and service. As the first black Fraternity, this organization has been at the forefront of every civil rights and humanitarian movement in our nation during the last hundred years. Today, we honor not only their commitment to the upliftment of our community, but their role as the standard-bearer of all fraternal organizations.”

New York Metropolitan Brothers are pictured after receiving Centennial Proclamation from City Council. Photo by Rance E. Huff

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Gamma Sigma Chapter Brothers.

Gamma Sigma Delaware State University Dover, DE Gamma Sigma Brothers Continue Providing Leadership Gamma Sigma Chapter Brothers continue to provide leadership to the Delaware State University campus in Dover, Delaware. Brothers there hold all of the major campus leadership positions. Brother Ira Daniel serves as president of the Student Government Association and Brother Duncan Harris serves as the SGA vice president. Brother Jason Pilar serves as President of the Men’s Council and Brother Emilio Stewart, Jr. serves as Men’s Council Treasurer. Brother Christopher Jackson is president of the university’s Pan-Hellenic Council and Brother Anthony C. Magee is president of the International Student Association. Brother Harold G. Burnett II was named as Mr. Delaware State University for the current year. Brother Burnett, who also serves as the Chapter Vice President, is only the second man to be named Mr. Delaware State University. He follows in the footsteps of Gamma Sigma Brother Eric Dickens, the first Mr. DSU. Brother Barney Brown, Jr. holds the position of Mr. Senior. In addition to his position with the Men’s Council, Brother Stewart also represented the school as Mr. Social Work during homecoming activities and Brother Dajuan Scott represented the school as Mr. University Village. Gamma Sigma is led by Chapter President David Ware, a senior majoring in criminal justice. Among its many community programs, Chapter Brothers led the university’s participation in the City of Dover’s 2006 AIDS Walk. Also, Brother Pilar, the Chapter’s step master, led Gamma Sigma Brothers to the university’s Homecoming Step Show championship. The Brothers have won the step show competition for the past two consecutive years.

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CHAPTER NEWS

Bermuda Chapter Conducts Project Alpha.

Epsilon Theta Lambda Hamilton, Bermuda Chapter Introduces Project Alpha Sessions and Soccer Clinic Epsilon Theta Lambda Chapter Brothers conducted the first of five planned Project Alpha Sessions at various high and middle schools in Bermuda. The event was organized

by Brother David Minors and featured almost 75 young men ages 1215. The event was well attended and teachers at the schools were very appreciative of the program.

Dellwood Middle School also is the location of the Chapter’s Go-to-High School, Go-to-College program, entitled Math Attack. As part of the program, some 15 to 20 boys are tutored every Thursday on various mathematic techniques designed to improve their ability to solve complex problems. The session also provides positive male role models to the middle school students. Pizza is served at the end of each session. Also, Epsilon Theta Lambda Brothers organized a Soccer Clinic for unmatched Big Brothers/Big Sisters male “Littles”.

The Chapter has pledged to help

facilitate at least 50 “matches” of unmatched male “Littles” with Big Brothers. The event was organized by Brother Michael Wellman who also sits on the Board of Directors of BBBS. It featured tutoring sessions by a certified soccer coach with Epsilon Theta Lambda Brothers serving as assistant coaches.

Zeta Omicron Lambda Philadelphia, PA Philadelphia Chapter Holds Inaugural Beautillion Program During the past year, Zeta Omicron Lambda Brothers participated in the Philadelphia Metro Chapter’s Alpha Phi Alpha Founder’s Day. The Chapter also launched their first Beautillion Project—a five-month program, which engaged senior high school African American males in workshops, tutoring, SAT preparation, college application processes, personal grooming, etiquette and other events designed to develop them intellectually, spiritually, socially, and emotionally. The Beaus participated in the Chapter’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon and Black

& Gold Beautillion Ball. Scholarships were presented to the students during the formal affair held at Galdo’s in South Philadelphia. Also, the Chapter held its Alpha Forum ’06, where the topic was “Our Mental Health Issues” and participated in the March of Dimes/WalkAmerica program. Finally, the Chapter’s 50th Anniversary Banquet was held during the Centennial Year.

Epsilon Gamma Lambda Boston, MA National Council of Negro Women Award Accepted The National Council of Negro Women, Greater Boston Section

presented Epsilon Gamma Lambda Brother Clifton E. Reed with its Liberating Vision Award.

The award is presented for service that extends above and beyond the simple performance of good works. It involves having a vision and turning the vision into reality.

Brother Reed accepted the award on behalf of Epsilon Gamma Lambda because in 1983, under the leadership of Brother John H. McMullen, Jr., the Chapter’s Educational Foundation incorporated a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Under its auspice, the chapter has contributed education instruction, materials, counseling services and academic scholarships to uplift school age youth in the Greater Boston community. In addition to services rendered in keeping with the Fraternity’s national programs and projects, coalitions and collaborations have been formed with: the Massachusetts Aviation/Space Educational Council, the Boston Partners to Advance the Learning of Mathematics and Science (PALMS), the Massachusetts PreEngineering program (MASSPEP) and the Massachusetts Board of Regents Scholarship Advisory Committee, to carry out this vision of uplift. Brother Reed is a life member of the Fraternity and serves as ONECA District Coordinator for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation.

Epsilon Gamma Lambda Brothers

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CHAPTER NEWS

Iota Alpha Lambda Project Alpha Team.

Iota Alpha Lambda Aberdeen, MD Project Alpha Program Educates Maryland Youth Brothers of Iota Alpha Lambda Chapter and Inner County Outreach, Inc. partnered to educate youth in the Aberdeen, Maryland area on issues related to sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and violence in relationships. Inner County Outreach operates a program called Peer Abstinence Choice Education (PACE). PACE is a peer-led, abstinence education program utilizing a portion of the Sex Can Wait abstinence curriculum to train youth about abstinence, self-esteem and sexually transmitted diseases.

The peer leaders travel to locations to train youth in abstinence education and handout abstinence promotion materials to youth ages 10 and above. Iota Alpha Lambda provided additional information along with T-shirts donated by the March of Dimes. Teen-aged youth

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gave a presentation at the fall Unity Festival. Iota Alpha Lambda plans to recognize the peer leaders at its annual Donald J. Waldon Memorial Scholarship banquet.

Xi Zeta Longwood University / Hampden-Sydney College Farmville, VA

drive on Longwood’s campus for the first time. More than 50 people registered for the National Bone Marrow Program. Chapter Brothers also participated in VACAPAF’s Area 3 and 6 Joint Founder’s Day Program in Keysville, Virginia where Brother Brettney DaSean Smith, Xi Zeta Chapter President, received the College Brother Distinguished Service Award and Brother Tony

Chapter Celebrates 20th Anniversary Xi Zeta Chapter at Longwood University/Hampden-Sydney College has been busy conducting the Fraternity’s national programs and creating new partnerships.

The Chapter performed the Go-toHigh School, Go-to-College program where they worked with Beulah A.M.E. Church in Farmville, Virginia in mentoring and tutoring young African American students in their high school courses. Xi Zeta also conducted a National Bone Marrow

Xi Zeta Chapter Brothers.

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T. Moss, Xi Zeta Alpha Advisor and Beta Gamma Lambda Chapter member, received the Alumni Brother Distinguished Service Award. The Spring Semester was also productive for Xi Zeta Brothers. During the 2006 VACAPAF Convention in Danville, Virginia, the Chapter held their first Miss Black & Gold Pageant.

Miss Kujore McKinney represented the Chapter. During the Convention, Brother Tony T. Moss received the VACAPAF Alumni Brother of the Year Award. In addition, Xi Zeta celebrated their 20th Anniversary during this past year at Longwood University. The anniversary weekend served as a chance for Brothers to reflect, reminisce and greet all members initiated through Xi Zeta.

Brothers dating back to the first Chapter initiates performed a group community service project during the weekend and conducted an Omega Service for one of the Spring 1986 Charter members—Brother Massie Harris Jr.— at the 20th Anniversary Banquet held at Longwood University.

CHAPTER NEWS Mu Mu Lambda Glen Ellyn, IL

Theta Zeta Dartmouth College Hanover, NH Theta Zeta Receives Coveted Leadership Award Theta Zeta Brothers have emerged as the leading student organization on the Dartmouth College campus, winning the school’s coveted Leadership Award. The Chapter’s programming over the past year has included their annual Pharaoh’s Ball, which is a social event open to the entire community. The Chapter has also created two educational programs to introduce and discuss current world issues. Gay marriage, gay rights, civil rights and African American leadership are some of the topics they have discussed. The Chapter says their programming is geared to educate, spark debate and inspire further research on the topics. The Chapter also presented “Alpha Week” on the campus, which was an entire week of educational programming that included a Knowledge Bowl, Black Men’s Dinner, and an Evening of Roses. In addition, Theta Zeta Brothers conducted its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Vigil.

Beyond the Dartmouth campus,

the Chapter demonstrated leadership during its trip to Cardigan Mountain School where Brothers spoke on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MIDWESTERN REGION Beta Lambda Kansas City, KS Annual Golf Tournament Raises Scholarship Funds Brothers of Beta Lambda Chapter hosted their annual “Chip in for Children Golf Tournament” at the Painted Hills Golf Course in Kansas City. The players competed for a variety of prizes, including a 2007 Cadillac CTS courtesy of Cadillac Bob and Major Cadillac, $10,000 in cash, Trump Atlantic City Resort getaways, a Nike SasQuatch driver, 36 dozen Nike golf balls, a Dell computer, a set of Callaway Irons, and round trip airfare anywhere within the continental United States. Proceeds from the annual tournament enable the Beta Lambda Educational Institute to

Mu Mu Lambda Celebrates 30th Anniversary Mu Mu Lambda Chapter of Glen Ellyn, Illinois celebrated its 30th Anniversary at the Arrowhead Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois. The Arrowhead Golf Club provided a beautiful and serene environment for the Anniversary Celebration. Attendees included founding and active Brothers, past presidents and the current Chapter president.

Mu Mu Lambda was chartered on April 14, 1976. There were 22 chartering members. Seven of the chartering Brothers are still active with the Chapter. They are: Brothers Ernie Gibson, Mickey S. Brown, Clarence Lewis, James Ivory, Robert Wells, Kenneth Watkins and Delbert Jones. Others have either moved out of the area, transferred to Omega Chapter, or are unable to participate in Chapter functions. Since its chartering, more than 300 Brothers have affiliated with Mu Mu Lambda. The chapter reached its largest numbers in 1999-2000 with over 110 finanacial members. Currently, there are about 90 financial members and 46 life members. The membership is diverse with over eight ministers, four attorneys, a college president, 11 members holding Ph.D.s, and several educators, entrepreneurs, accountants, engineers, architects, and other business professionals. The Chapter’s most outstanding accomplishment continues to be its annual Beautillion. The fundraiser was established in 1982 through the encouragement of Brother Art Thompson. It now serves as the Chapter’s primary source of scholarship awards and program funding. The success of the Beautillion has permitted the Chapter to award over $30,000 annually in scholarships. To date more than $500,000 has been awarded to over 275 college bound students.

continue providing college scholarships and a wide variety of free tutoring and mentoring services for youth in the greater Kansas City community. Among the efforts is the Institute’s annual Ali Kemp

Memorial scholarship presented to a college-bound female student and the annual Beta Lambda Educational Institute Scholarships to college-bound students in Missouri and Kansas.

ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC. DEVELOPS LEADERS, PROMOTES BROTHERHOOD AND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE, WHILE PROVIDING SERVICE AND ADVOCACY FOR OUR COMMUNITIES.

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CHAPTER NEWS

Alpha Epsilon Lambda Jackson, MS A Centennial Celebration Kick-Off in Jackson, MS

Delta Iota Lambda Brothers pictured at health fair.

SOUTHERN REGION Delta Iota Lambda Columbus, GA Chapter Presents First Annual Health Awareness Day Thousands of residents in the Columbus, Georgia tri-cities area turned out for a unique heath event, created by and primarily for African-American men—the First Annual “Dr. M. Delmar Edwards Men’s Health Awareness Day” held at Peachtree Mall in Columbus. The event was hosted and co-sponsored by Delta Iota Lambda Brothers. The event’s goal was to encourage residents, especially African-American men,

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to adopt a healthier lifestyle and to get regular medical checkups and health screenings. The Brothers welcomed participants to the event, by leading them on a two mile health-walk around the mall. Also available to participants were: vendors representing various health organizations from local hospitals to the American Red Cross; health screenings to monitor high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, hearing, PSA levels, body and mass index; presentations on healthy lifestyles from several Alpha Brothers who are medical doctors; prize give-aways, including round trip tickets on Air Tran and Atlanta Falcon football tickets were offered to entice men to participate in the free screenings. In addition, as a living example of someone who can talk first-hand about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle—eight-

time Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney, was on hand to present his “TotaLee Fit” workshop, sign autographs and answer questions. The event is named in honor of Brother Dr. M. Delmar Edwards, the first African American physician with a specialty practice in Columbus.

Brother Edwards has been recognized for his unwavering service to citizens of this area and his impact on the medical community. Dr Edwards served as Chief of Surgery at the Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia. In addition to Delta Iota Lambda Chapter, other sponsors were Aflac, Inc.; the Tidwell Cancer Treatment Center; the American Red Cross; ENT Associates of Columbus; Columbus Regional Healthcare; Synovus/CBT; and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer Newspaper.

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Marking the Fraternity’s 100th Anniversary, Alpha Epsilon Lambda—Mississippi’s oldest Alpha Phi Alpha chapter, which was founded in June 10, 1927— and the Alpha Foundation, Inc.—the Chapter’s 501(c) 3 Education Foundation—kicked off their Centennial Celebration at the annual H.T. Drake Spring Gala. The event was held at the Mississippi Telecommunications & Conference Center. The toastmaster for the evening was Marshand Cristler, president of the Jackson City Council and member of Alpha Epsilon Lambda Chapter. The 2006 Gala activities included a Champaign reception, a salute to service and leadership awards ceremony, dinner and dancing. Centennial Service and Leadership Awards were presented to each of the past presidents of the Alumni Chapter. Brothers receiving awards included Immediate Past President Eric D. Bluntson, Ronald Davis, William “Bill” Dease, Foster Ellis, Obra Hackett, Clarence Johnson, Jr., Keith Jones, Jessie Lewis, Richard Middleton, III, Herman Porter, Sr., Oliver Rice, Louie Robinson, J. Louis Stokes, Rickey Thigpen and Floyd Williams, Jr. Harvey Johnson, Jr., former chapter president and the first African American Mayor of the City of Jackson, was honored for outstanding service and leadership to the community at-large by current Chapter President Dr.

CHAPTER NEWS

SOUTHWESTERN REGION Epsilon Upsilon Southern UniversityNew Orleans New Orleans, LA New Orleans Chapter Adopts Charter School

Alpha Epsilon Lambda Chapter’s former presidents were honored at their Centennial Celebration. Pictured are: (front l-r) Brothers Audwin Fletcher, Clarence Johnson, Eric Bluntson, Bill Dease, Obra Hackett, Harvey Johnson, Jr., Oliver Rice and (back l-r) Rickey Thigpen, Richard Middleton, Ron Davis, Louie Robinson, Herman Porter, Sr., and Floyd Williams, Jr. Audwin Fletcher. The Fraternity’s 24th General President and past Alpha Epsilon Lambda Chapter President Brother Dr. Walter Washington was honored posthu-

mously for his contribution to Alpha Phi Alpha’s first century of service. Each attendee was presented with a Champaign flute with the 100 Year Shield embossed on

it to commemorate the event and the founding of the nation’s oldest African American collegiate Greekletter organization.

Xi Zeta Lambda Pascagoula, MS Mississippi Brothers Continue Helping Following Katrina Xi Zeta Lambda Brothers continue to help in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina by renewing their support of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program in the State of Mississippi. The Chapter has participated in the local BBBS program for the past five years.

They also have participated for three years with the Kreole Elementary School in Moss Point, Mississippi.

Epsilon Upsilon Chapter Brothers adopted the Sophie B. Wright Charter School in honor of departed member Dr. Halloway C. Sells and to reach young African American males in the community. The Brothers mentored, tutored and served as positive male role models the hurricane Katrina affected youth. Currently, there are 24 young men participating in the program. Plans are for the youth to participate with Brothers in national programs such as, Go-to-High School, Goto-College, A Voteless People is a Hopeless People and Project Alpha, which help teach the importance of education, voting and trust. Students in the program are asked to pledge and commit to the following: (1) I promise to do my best in all my classes; (2) I promise to follow all rules and regulations of my school; (3) I promise to obey my parents and be helpful around the house; (4) I promise to finish and turn in my homework on time; and (5) I promise to practice positive behavior in school and at home.

Pictured (l-r) are 4th grader Little Brother Kendrick Roberson, age 10; Big Brother B.B. Jennings; and 6th grader Little Brother Joshua Watts, age 11.

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CHAPTER NEWS

Mu Phi Lambda Chapter.

WESTERN REGION Mu Phi Lambda Seoul, Korea Brothers of the Far East Provide Scholarships Mu Phi Lambda Chapter in Seoul, Korea, led by Lieutenant Colonel John Bradsher, is the Fraternity’s

second largest graduate chapter in the Western Region. Self-proclaimed “The Brothers of the Far East,” the chapter is providing Manly Deeds, Scholarship and Love for all Mankind as well as military protection for over 48.4 million South Koreans, as they perform their duty of maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula. The Mu Phi Lambda Chapter consists primarily of military and non-commissioned officers who continue to grow in numbers.

Despite the members’ busy sched-

Eta Pi Lambda Pasadena, CA Pasadena Brothers Offer Youth Cultural Enrichment Eta Pi Lambda Chapter is presenting a project designed to bring cultural enrichment to youth and young adults in Pasadena, California and the surrounding areas. The program is being spearheaded by Brother Jame’l R. Hodges, an accomplished tap dancer, and is being held at the Alkebu-Ian Cultural Center in Pasadena. Also, Eta Pi Lambda Brothers joined with the Southern California District in celebrating the Fraternity’s 100th

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ule, the chapter conducts two intake sessions annually along with many other social and community service events. They also provided over $10,000 in scholarship monies to high school students attending college in academic year 2006-2007.

Mu Phi Lambda invites Brothers traveling to the Far East on vacation or on assignment to visit the chapter where they are Holding Alpha High.

The chapter can be contacted via its secretary Brother Geoffrey Mosley at geoffrey.mosley@us.army.mil.

Anniversary with a weekend of activities that began on Friday with a Centennial Step Show & After Party hosted by Brother Hodges in the Grand Ballroom and Lindbergh Ballroom at the Westin LAX in Los Angeles.

The Centennial Celebration continued the following day with a Brotherhood Breakfast in the Concourse Ballroom of the hotel. The Breakfast was followed by a pilgrimage to the gravesite of Jewel Nathaniel Allison Murray. A Centennial Celebration and Banquet was held that evening, rounding out the day’s events. Rev. Brother Cecil “Chip” Murray was the keynote speaker for the banquet. The Centennial Celebration closed with a Worship & Fellowship held at Faithful Central Bible Church.

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Fraternity Centennial Celebration in Baqubah, Iraq

It does not take a lot of Brothers to hold a celebration. There were only two Fraternity members at FOB Warhorse BAQUBAH, IRAQ on Founders’ Day, December 4, 2006, when Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity reached its Centennial Anniversary. Brother Cpt. Jeremiah S. Owoh (left) and Brother Tillman who served at the Army post prepared a banquet— complete with a cake—for troops at FOB Warhorse to celebrate the 100th Anniversary. The Jewels would have been proud.

Ambassador Andrew Young Receives Distinguished Leadership Award Highlighting Global Contributions to Peace & Understanding

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he Honorable Ambassador and former Atlanta Mayor ships are tailored to local interests and increase global coopBrother Andrew Young recently received the Sister eration at the grassroots level. The organization is purposed to Cities International Distinguished Leadership Award in promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and recognition of the his exceptional global leadership. cooperation by focusing on sustainable development, youth The award was presented during The Africa Channel’s and education, arts and culture, humanitarian assistance and Atlanta launch party. Sister Cities International has a formal parteconomic growth programs. nership with The Africa Channel, which includes the “Sister The award presented to Brother Young was created as part Schools Africa” program. of the organization’s 50th Anniversary celebration. The movement In presenting the award, Mae Ferguson, president of the Board dates its beginnings to a White House Conference on Citizen of Directors for Sister Cities International said “It is an honor to Diplomacy convened in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower present Ambassador Young with the Sister Cities International to bring together citizens forging ties with communities abroad.

Distinguished Leadership Award. The work he has done locally and On September 11, 1956, President Eisenhower exhorted delethroughout the world has prompted his colleagues into thinking gates, “to help build the road to an enduring peace.” globally and recognizing the importance of international engagement at the local level.”

Brother Young is the co-founding principal and chairman of Goodworks International, a leading global advisory firm. He also is The Africa Channel’s spokesperson and the chair of its advisory board.

Brother Young served as mayor of Atlanta for two terms, was elected three times to the U.S. House of Representatives, is a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and was co-chair of the Atlanta committee for the Centennial Olympic Games.

As mayor of Atlanta, Brother Young helped establish critical sister city relationships that benefit both Atlanta and its many sister cities. His leadership with The Africa Channel has helped develop new programs and partnerships on the African Continent through Sister Schools Africa; and he also works to promote local economic development in Africa and the Caribbean through Goodworks International.

Sister Cities International represents more than 2,500 communities in 134 countries. The organization is a citizen diplomacy network creat- Brother Ambassador Andrew Young receives the Distinguished Leadership ing and strengthening partnerships between the Award from Mae Ferguson, president of the Sister Cities International U.S. and communities abroad. Sister city partner- Board of Directors.

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THE SEVEN JEWELS

Alpha Phi Alpha Hymn to the Founders:

PENNING THE CENTENNIAL ANTHEM

By Dr. Thomas D. Pawley III

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he Centennial Anthem, “Hymn to the Founders”, had its genesis at the second meeting of the Centennial Committee on September 12, 2002 in Washington, D.C., nearly four years prior to its premier performance at the Centennial Convention’s Public Program. Several task forces were established on this occasion, one of which was the Task Force on Music and Fine Arts. It was assigned the goal of “commissioning by Alpha of original music works, recordings, and programs to celebrate one hundred years of service and leadership” by the Fraternity. Heading the list of proposals was “A Centennial Anthem: a choral work for a male chorus with full orchestration capturing the journey of a people and of a committed fraternity of men whose character, scholarship and education brought leadership and uplift to a race of people and a nation (sic). Sounding a theme of struggle, hope, courage, and triumph,” The Task Force was formally organized the following August with Brother Peter Felder of Orangeburg, South Carolina as Operational Chair for Music.

During the next few months, the Task Force chose Professor Uzee Brown of Morehouse College to compose the music for the anthem but it still faced the problem of finding someone to write the words. At this point, the General Chairman of the Centennial Committee, Brother Milton Davis, advised the group that he knew a person who could create the words. In 1993, at the time of Brother Davis’ inauguration as General President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, I had written a poem commemorating the event (see Centennial Book of Essays and Letters). It was this work that convinced him I could write the words for an anthem.

Consequently, in late February 2004, Brother Davis called and urged me to undertake the task. While I was flattered by his confidence, I was hesitant about acquiescing since I had never written the words for an anthem. True, I had written poetry but that is not the same as writing words which are going to be set to music. A few years earlier, I had written the words for a Fraternity sweetheart song, which another Brother and I submitted to the Selection Committee. It was rejected without comment. I also was being

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requested to complete the work as soon as possible. The composer on the other hand would have nearly two years to compose the music. In spite of these doubts, I agreed to try.

Since I had not been present at the meeting at which the concept of the proposed anthem had been discussed, I was unaware of the thematic structure quoted above, which the committee desired.

Therefore, for several days, I proceeded to jot down ideas which I thought should be included. This resulted in a chronological narrative of the Fraternity’s early years interspersed with covert allusions which duly initiated Alpha men will recognize. The work was not titled until later after I realized what I had created. This “first draft” as I labeled it was sent to Brother Milton Davis along with the following letter:

Dear Brother Davis, This is a first draft of “Hymn to the Founders” my proposal of the words for a centennial anthem. It embraces elements from our history, ritual and practices, which in my judgment stem from the Founders. Please note I have refrained from using the word “Jewel” because that occurred later in our history. This development took place in four phases, thus four verses ending in a triumphant chorus.

The chorus may be sung wherever it will be most effective viz. between each verse, at the beginning or only at the end.

Verse one identifies the place of the founding, the establishment of the Social Study Club, and the ethnicity of the founders. The second verse describes the social and political conditions in the United States and the reading of Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk by the club members. It contained a blueprint for Alpha Phi Alpha. (There are also metaphors, which you will recognize.) The organization of the Niagara Movement to counter racism, segregation and discrimination and its influence on the Founders is the central theme of the third verse. Three major facets of the Fraternity as created in 1906 are enumerated in the final verse.

I am not entirely satisfied with this effort and I am sure that in the days ahead I shall want to make changes.

Meanwhile, I invite you and the music committee to give me your reactions.

Fraternally yours, Thomas Pawley

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Centennial Alpha Chorus members.

I fully expected both the Committee and Brother Davis to request numerous revisions, which I was prepared to make. Instead a member of the Committee called me to say they were quite pleased with what I had written and (here my recollection is fuzzy) asked me to send a copy to Professor Uzee Brown at Morehouse College. I complied anticipating, however, that he would request changes and modifications. That did not happen.

In fact, I began to wonder if he had received the draft when I did not hear from him. But I was assured by someone—Brother Davis or Brother Felder—that he had. (This was further confirmed at the Centennial Convention when I discovered to my great surprise that his composition had been based upon the initial version of the words. It was printed in its entirety inside the cover of the musical score.)

During the ensuing year, I continued to await some word

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the words. He directed me to send a copy immediately to Brother Felder. I did so on May 10 with the following message:

“This is the second draft of words for the proposed Centennial Hymn. I hope it meets with your approval.”

regarding the composition of the anthem. Finally, in April 2005, I learned that the music had not been composed. At the same time, I was requested to fax another copy of the words to Peter Felder. I did so with the following message:

“There are a few changes I would like to make after reading these words for the first time in a year. I also await your comments.”

Having reviewed the text I recognized the need for revising it.

I proceeded to do so knowing that the score had not yet been composed. When I had finished, I called Brother Davis and told him I had written a second and, I thought, much better version of

At some point, I also sent a copy to Brother Davis. No further communication ensued regarding the anthem although I made an occasional inquiry of Brother Davis. He would assure me that the work of composing the anthem was proceeding and that it would be completed on schedule. What I did not know was that the second version of the words was not being used by the composer and that he, in fact, was modifying the words of the first version. I, of course, had anticipated the necessity of doing this. However, I do not know why he did not use the second draft.

About a month and a half before the Centennial Convention, Brother Davis informed me that the score for the anthem had been completed and printed. He also stated that the composer had made some modifications to the words but the body of the text remained essentially as I had written it. Of course, I assumed he was referring to the second draft. He also asked me to prepare “my poem” (his words) exactly as I would like to see it printed in the Centennial Convention Souvenir Journal.

Surprised, I made it clear that I had not written a poem but words to be set to music in hymn and that the second version was my preference for printing. However, since it was going to be printed separately from the musical score, I complied with his request because the format needed adjusting. However, the score carries the notation “From the poem of Thomas D. Pawley III.” On the day before the premiere performance at the Centennial Convention Public Program, I attended a rehearsal of the Alpha Chorus, heard the music, and met the composer for the first time. It was then that I discovered that the first draft of words—modified— had been used by the composer. The chorus, however, had not been changed and remained exactly as I had written it. I was deeply moved by the music—a stirring anthem celebrating the founding of the Fraternity—which was given a standing ovation by the audience the following evening. Lionel Ritchie who was present at the Public Program was so moved that he said to Brother Brown and me afterwards, “Gentlemen, in my business we would call it a hit.”

I consider this to be a remarkable achievement in view of the fact that the composer and I never communicated with one another during the creative process. It is also a tribute to Uzee Brown’s artistry as a conductor as well as a composer.

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Original Music Commissioned for Centennial Anniversary Celebration

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hree original music compositions were presented at the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s 100th Anniversary Convention in Washington, D.C., as a highlight of the Centennial Celebration.

The critically acclaimed compositions—Hymn to the Founders, Grand Processional for a New Century and Centennial Fanfare—were designed to celebrate the Fraternity’s rich history while also ushering in the second century.

The musical works were development under the direction of the Centennial Committee’s Task Force on Music and Fine Arts, on which Brother Peter Felder of Orangeburg, South Carolina served as Operational Chair.

The Task Force commissioned writer Dr. Thomas D. Pawley III and composer Dr. Uzee Brown, Jr. to develop the lyrics and music for the Centennial Anthem, Hymn to the Founders, which was first performed at the Convention Public Program by the Centennial Alpha Chorus. Lyrics to the song were composed for first tenor, second tenor, baritone and bass voices. (See the cover story in this issue, entitled “Penning the Hymn to the Founders” by Dr. Thomas Pawley.)

Brother Uzee Brown also was commissioned to compose an original score entitled, Grand Processional for a New Century. The music, designed for brass ensemble, percussion and organ, was first performed July 26, 2006 at the Grand Opening Plenary Session of the Centennial Convention.

The performance was conducted by Brother William T. McDaniel, Jr. The third original composition commissioned for the 100th Anniversary Celebration, Centennial Fanfare, was composed by Brother William McDaniel and first performed on July 26, 2006 at the Convention’s Grand Opening Plenary Session by the Centennial Brass Ensemble.

ABOUT THE WRITER Brother Dr. Thomas D. Pawley III was born in Jackson, Mississippi and grew up on the campus of Virginia State University where his father was Professor of English. After earning an Associate Bachelor’s degree in English with distinction at Virginia State, he enrolled at the University of Iowa where he was awarded the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in theater. Brother Pawley has done post doctoral study at the University of Missouri. He was an actor and director for five seasons in the Atlanta University Summer Theatre. He also was director of drama at Prairie View A&M University and Lincoln University, Missouri. At Lincoln, he also was a department head, divisional chairman, managing director of the Summer Theatre and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences during his 48 year tenure. Upon his retirement from Lincoln University in 1988, he was designated Curator’s Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Speech and Theatre. Brother Pawley served as National Historian of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. from 1993 to 1996. He previously served the Fraternity as Midwestern Regional Vice President, Chairman of the Education Foundation and Chairman of the Committee on Internal Structure.

Brother Dr. Thomas D. Pawley III

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ABOUT THE COMPOSERS Brother Dr. Uzee Brown, Jr., was initiated at Alpha Rho Chapter in 1969. He is a native of Cowpens, South Carolina and is a composer, arranger, performer, researcher, lecturer, educator and choral director. For more than 30 years, he has been immersed in researching and preserving the Negro spirituals. He was initiated at Alpha Rho Chapter in the fall of 1969 and has been affiliated with the Nu Mu Lambda Chapter in Marietta, Georgia for several years.

Brother Brown joined the faculty of Morehouse College in 1973 and currently serves as Chairman of the Department of Music. He has received numerous composition and arranging commissions, ranging from National Public Radio and the Atlanta Symphony to colleges, universities, churches and civic organizations. His compositions have been heard throughout the world, including at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. As past president of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Brother Brown spearheaded the competition of the first official publication of a Documentary History of the National Association of Negro Musicians by the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to study at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood and the University of Siena in Italy, he holds a B.A. degree from Morehouse College, M.M. degree in Composition from Bowling Green State University and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in voice performance from the University of Michigan.

Brother Dr. William T. “Ted” McDaniel, Jr. is professor and director of jazz studies in the School of Music and professor in the Department of African-American and African Studies at The Ohio State University. Prior to joining The Ohio State University faculty in 1981, he taught at North Carolina A&T State University and Morehouse College.

Professor McDaniel is a specialist in African American music, jazz history, and jazz performance; and he is noted for his analysis of the works of John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. He is in his ninth year as director of the OSU Jazz Ensemble, after leading the Jazz Lab Ensemble for nine years. Since 1981, he has also served as music arranger for the OSU Marching Band and has written many arrangements for jazz ensembles. A Ford Foundation Fellow, he has received grants for jazz performances and projects from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ohio Arts Council, and Ohio Humanities Council. In 1987, Dr. McDaniel was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award and in 1994, he received the Distinguished Scholar Award in the School of Music. Brother McDaniel received his B.A. degree from Morehouse College where he was initiated at Alpha Rho Chapter in 1966. He later received his M.A. degree and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.

Brother Uzee Brown, Jr.

Brother William T. McDaniel, Jr.

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Hymn to the Founders Lyrics for the Centennial Anthem Based on the Following Poem By

Thomas D. Pawley III • Beta Gamma ’34 Heirs of freedom won by those who’d been enslaved To cloistered halls above Cayuga’s shores they came; For knowledge their forebears had craved, Formed a bond of enduring friendship To sustain them along the way; And lit a flame which glowed brightly On that cold December day.

Along the narrow, rugged, rock-strewn path Filled with barriers to distract them, They thought only of the aftermath As they stepped forward through the thorny maze; Still they heard the souls of black folk crying As the nation forgot Antietam and Appomattox And forged the shackles their voices were denying.

Watching in despair as a plague swept o’er the land Destroying the hard-won freedoms for which their fathers fought; They heard the clarion call of a small but noble band A battle cry—above Niagara’s roar; They knew then that they must enter the fray As they embraced one another in a circle of brotherhood And lit the torch that lights the world today.

They emblazed their banners with black and gold And a symbol of the land from which their forefathers came, The mystic Sphinx of Giza, a wonder to behold, Silent and majestic on Egypt’s sun-scorched sands; What now, they asked, shall our brotherhood’s goal be?

The answer they gave is our answer still: Educating youth so that free men will stay free!

Chorus: Sons of Alpha Phi Alpha, valiant, strong, Wise and noble like the mystic Sphinx, Let’s renew our vows to right all wrong To banish ignorance, hatred and fear The sacred aims we hold so dear; Transcending all, as we serve mankind.

Music for Hymn to the Founders was composed by Dr. Uzee Brown, Jr. (Alpha Rho, 1969). The composition was first performed on July 27, 2006 at the Centennial Convention Public Program by the Centennial Alpha Chorus.

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The Centennial Book of Essays and Letters LIMITED EDITION BOOK ON SALE NOW! A Blueprint for Success…

Read the writings of the greatest thinkers over the past 100 years. The collection serves as a blueprint for the success of the African American community.

$69.95 plus shipping and handling Order today online or by mail at: www.APA1906.net

or MAIL (Photocopy order form before sending):

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Address (No P.O. boxes or APO's ) Phone/Day

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PAYMENT INFORMATION

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$69.95 plus shipping and handling

❏ Visa

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(NO PERSONAL CHECKS WILL BE ACCEPTED)

Centennial Book of Essays and Letters ❏ Certified Check / Money Order

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Completed Forms Should be Mailed or faxed to: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., P.O. Box 630792, Baltimore, MD 21263-0792 or fax 410-554-0054

THE LATTER ‘HOUSE OF ALPHA’ SHALL BE GREATER THAN THE FORMER The following address was given by 32nd General President Darryl R. Matthews, Sr. during the opening plenary session for the Fraternity’s Centennial Convention in Washington, D.C. The address has been edited for publication.

M

y Brothers, at no other time in the history of this great Fraternity has it been better to be a Brother of Alpha Phi Alpha than right now.

Today, we gather here to demonstrate the leadership that our communities expect of us—the Talented Tenth—as advocates for those who are voiceless. No other African American Inter-collegiate Fraternity has experienced 100 years of existence. No other group of African American men has ever savored the camaraderie and brotherhood that we enjoy today.

Look about this room. You are the prototype. You are the beginning. You are the Alpha. Let it also be known that in the celebration of our greatness, it becomes our task to honestly look at the state of Alpha and plan for its next 100 years.

House of Alpha The House of Alpha in its original state was nothing short of magnificent. It was modern—for its time. It was useful—for its time. It was cutting edge—for its time.

Throughout its 100-year history, the House of Alpha underwent renovation. It was updated. It was beautified. Its interior was

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refurbished and its furniture was rearranged. Some of these renovations worked and have stood the test of time. Others, while well intentioned, did not work and were thus retired.

The history of Alpha Phi Alpha is replete with change, modernization and improvements. However, throughout those years, its structure has remained the same. Its foundation is and always shall be…First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All. But just as our Lord said, on many occasions in various texts, that change must and will happen. With each and every request for change, there is a promise: “The latter shall be greater than the former.”

It is no secret that throughout biblical reference, we are asked to give up something to make ourselves, our souls, and our spirits better to equip us for the battles that lie ahead and to prepare us for the mission to which we are called.

This residence and this castle that we call the House of Alpha is placed high on a hill—overlooking all those that were constructed after her and viewing those who took the infrastructure of Alpha and rearranged it and gave it a new name, and called it a new fraternity or sorority. This—the original—will undergo renovations and we will watch as others will once again follow our lead.

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The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, says the LORD of hosts.

—Haggai 2:9

General President Darryl Matthews receives a standing ovation during his Centennial Convention Address.

Re-Examining the House Alpha will be modernized. It will be updated. It will be retooled as we redefine our mission and we prepare for the battles that lie ahead. It will have at its core the same framework and the same motto. We are not talking about a new Alpha Phi Alpha.

We are talking about making Alpha relevant and useful for its time. And it comes with the promise that “The latter shall be greater than the former.”

My Brothers, in this Centennial Year, we have to come to grips with the reality of today. The society in which we work has changed.

The demands of the people we serve have changed. The structure of this brotherhood has changed. The demographics are changing even as we speak.

So, what better time is there than now—as we celebrate a milestone in American history—to re-examine our house, inspect it, look at its usefulness and update it for the times ahead?

We do so, not in a vacuum, but rather with a deliberate and well reasoned analysis and plan. Far too frequently in our history, we have resorted to knee-jerk reactions to a problem. We have jumped to conclusions, using anecdotal data instead of a fact-

based analysis—and with no real solutions in mind. We have not taken proper consideration of all that is involved with the Fraternity before we launch new programs, new initiatives and plans. If we were to be true to ourselves, we would find that on some occasions, we leaped into action with no plan at all.

My Brothers, those days have come to an end. From this day forward, we move with a purpose. We move with a destination. We move with a plan.

Vision for the Future In May 2006, I assembled your Board of Directors and other key people within the Fraternity. Together, we reviewed our years past with a vision to the future. I will not be able to share all the results of that meeting with you right now because there simply is not enough time. But allow me, if you will, to give you the highlights of our vision for the future of Alpha Phi Alpha.

As with all great plans, there must be a mission statement.

There must be a clear definition of the parameter that brings a desired result. The methodology I will explain will provide us with just that. In the past, Alpha Phi Alpha has been so much to so many;

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and that may be one of our problems. We have tried to be too much to too many.

If you look at the greatest of companies—each defines a single goal and works toward that goal with vigor. For example, many of you will remember a time when the Ford Motor Company was struggling to secure its rightful place in the market. It had suffered from phrases like “Ford” stands for “Fix Or Repair Dailey” or “Found On the Road Dead”. But then a turning point came when Ford redefined itself to its employees and its consumers; and “Fix Or Repair Daily” became “At Ford, Quality is Job One!” Home Depot, fighting off competition from Lowes, decided to empower its employees and its consumers and adopted the position: “You Can Do It. We Can Help”.

Then, we look at Alpha Phi Alpha. Quite honestly, we suffered from an identity crisis. We were something different to different groups within the brotherhood and to the people we serve. We have been the civil rights leaders. We have been the Big Brothers, the March of Dimes leaders, the Boy Scout leaders, the developers of housing, and the blood drive captains.

We have tried to take on a number of causes—all of them noble, all of them worthy of our efforts. It is time now for us to narrow the scope and to be absolutely excellent at one thing.

We put that into words in the form of this, your Mission Statement: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. develops leaders, promotes brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities.

How did we arrive at this? First, we examined who we are, what we do, and our purpose for being. Let me make it clear that the purpose of this process is not to change the basis of what Alpha is. No one can do that! The purpose here is to clearly define our mission, to further develop our goals and strategies, and lastly, to take the necessary steps that will assure that we fulfill the destiny of this great organization in a deliberate manner.

The Strategic Plan In developing this strategic plan, we had to look honestly at our strengths and our opportunities for improvement. We are keenly aware that there needs to be better leadership management—this includes Membership Intake, meeting the needs of individual Brothers, better aspirant selection and then, retaining those Brothers.

We must have better management and planning for the Fraternity as a whole and all of the business it conducts, which

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includes everything from better chapter meetings; better fundraising; development of new policies and procedures; and enforcement of those currently in existence. We must tell our story better, with an improved public relations program—both internally and externally. We must vigorously defend our brand and we must have a consistent image. Those are just a few of the areas of opportunity we have identified.

The great thing is that there are some tremendous strengths in Alpha Phi Alpha. We have a rich history and legacy on which to build. We have the most audacious brotherhood in America, with professionals that span the spectrum and reach around the globe. We have the reputation of excellence and we are as diverse as any fortune 500 company. We have access to resources, both financial and human, and we stand behind the Alpha brands of commitment to community; and we enjoy spheres of influence unparalleled in any other non-profit organization.

My Brothers, over the next five years, we will plan our work and work our plan. Let me add, we will also update that plan annually as we work it. And I assure you that the latter temple shall be greater than the former.

We have before us a tremendous opportunity for organizational effectiveness, fiscal management, brand management, and membership management. Those shall be the pillars of our plan with an eye toward honing every little detail.

We do not have all the answers but with the help of a professional management advisory company, we are identifying every aspect of our plan to strengthen the House of Alpha.

This is a plan that will be revisited over time. It will be revised as needed but I can assure you that positive change will be the result. It is designed to let you know the direction in which we are heading.

The greatness of Alpha Phi Alpha lies not in our history. It lies in our future. If the world was impressed with our last 100 years, just image how it will view us in the next 10… 20…100 years.

Inasmuch as we share the same family name, we will work together as a family and as a brotherhood. We will embrace our diversity. We will call on all Brothers—from those who have been in the Fraternity for a few months to those who have been carrying the shield for more than 50 years.

This is your Fraternity. This is your heritage. This is your history. We are bound by our Credo.

We will do what is right. We will work hard and we will insure that the latter House of Alpha shall be greater than the former.

What will you do? How will you claim your place in the history of this House?

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United States Congress Honors Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s 100th Anniversary

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he U.S. House of Representatives and Senate unanimously approved a resolution, recognizing and honoring the 100th Anniversary of the founding of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.

The Bill (H.CON.RES.384) was originally introduced in the House by Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) on April 6, 2006.

The measure was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce before it was returned to the full House and passed by a vote of 422-0 on July 25, 2006.

The Bill was sent to the Senate on July 26, 2006 where it was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) pushed the measure through the Senate on Rep. Hinchey’s behalf. The Concurrent Resolution was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent, without amendment and with a preamble, on November 16, 2006—about two weeks before the Fraternity’s 100th Anniversary date on December 4, 2006.

In addition to Congressman Hinchey, there were 44 other cosponsors of the legislation, including Representatives Marion Berry (AR); Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA); Sherwood Boehlert (NY); John Boozman (AR); Robert A. Brady (PA); Benjamin L. Cardin (MD); Julia Carson (IN); Michael N. Castle (DE); Donna M. Christensen (VI); William Lacy Clay (MO); Emanuel Cleaver (MO); John Conyers, Jr. (MI); Elijah E. Cummings (MD); Artur Davis (AL); Danny K. Davis (IL); Bob Etheridge (NC); Lane Evans (IL); Chaka Fattah (PA); Al Green (TX); Alcee L. Hastings (FL); Rush D. Holt (NJ); Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX); William J. Jefferson (LA); Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (MI); Tom Lantos (CA); Barbara Lee (CA); John Lewis (GA); Jim McDermott (WA); James P. McGovern (MA); Gregory W. Meeks (NY); Juanita Millender-McDonald (CA); Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC); Major R. Owens (NY); Donald M. Payne (NJ); David E. Price (NY); Charles B. Rangel (NY); Mike Ross (AR); David Scott (GA); Robert C. Scott (VA); Vic Snyder (AR); Bennie G. Thompson (MS); Chris Van Hollen (MD); Maxine Waters (CA); Robert Wexler (FL).

The Concurrent Resolution passed by the 109th Congress reads as follows: Whereas the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was founded on December 4, 1906, by seven young men, respectfully known as the Seven Jewels, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York;

Whereas Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy, the founders of the Fraternity, recognized the need for a strong bond of brotherhood among African descendants in this country; Whereas the aims of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity are manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind; Whereas for 100 years, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity has played a fundamental role in the positive development of the character and education of more than 175,000 men; Whereas the Brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha have shared countless friendships and a common belief in the founding ideals of the Fraternity; Whereas alumni from Alpha Phi Alpha include many noteworthy leaders in the areas of government, business, entertainment, science, and higher education; Whereas the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity has 350 college campus chapters and 350 alumni chapters in 44 States, the District of Columbia, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe; and Whereas the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity continues to enrich the lives of its members who, in turn, carry out in their communities a commitment to service and the uplifting of humanity: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress— (1) Recognizes and honors the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; (2) Commends all Alpha Phi Alpha Brothers, past and present, for their bond of friendship, common ideals and beliefs, and service to community; and (3) Expresses its best wishes for the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s continued success and growth.

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Centennial Celebration Travels to Nation’s Capital for 100th Anniversary Convention

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lpha Phi Alpha’s Centennial Celebration, which began in the fall 2005 with its Centennial Pilgrimage to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York—birthplace of the Fraternity, arrived in Washington, D.C. last July where the organization held its 100th Anniversary Convention. The District of Columbia is home to the Fraternity’s second chapter, which was established at Howard University.

More than 10,000 members of the Fraternity along with their families and guests attended the 100th Anniversary Convention, held July 25-30, 2006. The Wardman Park Marriott served as the

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Convention’s Headquarters Hotel with other program venues being the Omni Shoreham Hotel; Washington, D.C. Convention Center; John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the Capitol Building; Cannon House Office Building; Rayburn House Office Building; University of the District of Columbia; and Howard University.

Foregoing usual business, Fraternity General President Darryl R. Matthews, Sr. stated at the event’s opening that the Centennial Convention would celebrate the organization’s 100 years of leadership and service; and look to the future. “This week, we remember

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Opening Plenary Session. Photo by Jeff Lewis

our founders and our legacy with love and adulation, while we renew the endearing bond of brotherhood,” the 32nd General President said.

Nearly four years of planning went into the Centennial Celebration, which was patterned on traditions set at the Fraternity’s 50th Anniversary Convention, held in 1956 in Buffalo, New York. The Fraternity’s 29th General President and 2006 Centennial Convention Chair Milton C. Davis stated that the organizers of the Fraternity’s 50th Anniversary Convention left a blueprint in their writings for how the organization should operate during

the second half of its first century; as well as how Alpha Phi Alpha should celebrate the Centennial Anniversary and move into its second century. The year-long Centennial Celebration was planned using that blueprint, Brother Davis stated.

Scholarly Projects Commissioned In his overview of the Centennial Convention at the Opening Plenary Session, Brother Davis reviewed the activities and events planned for the 100th Anniversary Celebration and discussed the music and literary projects that had been commissioned. Among

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Above: 2006 Centennial Chair Milton C. Davis receives thunderous applause from the Alpha Brothers.

At Left: Local Centennial Chair Vincent Orange and Local Co-chair Levonia Wiggins.

the items scheduled was the Centennial Symposium were noted and respected authorities would address issues involving the African American male; 100-member Alpha Chorus singing original music composed for the convention; a special presentation by the Fraternity to Howard University; a black-tie gala concert featuring world renowned singer Brother Lionel Richie; and a magnificent Ecumenical Worship Service.

“The purpose of our Centennial Convention—and indeed the entire Centennial Era—these events and activities have been executed to one end—that of inspiring and reinvigorating our

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Brothers to higher and nobler manly deeds; to heightened levels of scholarship and a more profound and enduring love for humankind wherever they may be,” Brother Davis stated. “Toward that end we rekindle in the lives of the people—today and tomorrow—hope and courage.” Brother Davis then presented the General President with the first published copy of the Centennial Book of Essays and Letters.

Retired U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke served as the 2006 Centennial Honorary Chairman with Brother Matthews as Ex Officio to the Centennial Committee. Other members included former

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䊳Centennial Dedication Ceremony Conducted

at Site of MLK National Memorial lpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s officers and leaders laid a wreath at the site of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial and observed a moment of silence in honor of the organization’s founders during a special Centennial Dedication Ceremony.

The dedication ceremony was conducted as a precursor to the MLK Memorial Groundbreaking that was scheduled four months later—on November 13, 2006.

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young,who is also former Ambassador to the United Nations and co-chair of the MLK Memorial Foundation, and former New Orleans Mayor and current President and CEO of the National Urban League Marc H. Morial were featured speakers at the ceremony.

“We’re here not about bricks and mortar,” Brother Young told listeners. “We’re here about Fraternity leaders place a wreath next to a dedicatory plaque at the MLK National Memorial site. Pictured are (l-r): Brothers Harry continuing the powerful spirit and vision of our Johnson, Milton Davis, Charles Teamer, Andrew Young, Henry Ponder, Darryl Matthews, Marc Morial and James Williams.

Brother, Martin Luther King.” will raise the necessary funds and make this memorial a reality,” Brother Matthews said.

In his presentation, General President Darryl R. Matthews, Sr. said the Fraternity’s Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity won congressional approval in 1996 to erect the Centennial Celebration should serve as a reminder to Alpha Phi Alpha members and othmemorial to Brother King. ers of the importance of a national memorial to preserve Dr. King’s legacy.“Our purpose The four-acre tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. will sit on the northwest corner of here today is to reconnect,” Brother Matthews said. “To be reconnected and rededicatthe Tidal Basin, across from the Jefferson Memorial and north of the memorial to fored to The Man, The Dream, The Message.” mer President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Brother Harry E. Johnson, Sr., President of the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther Conceived by the San Francisco-based Roma Design Group, the Memorial will King, Jr. Project Foundation, said the organization needed to have raised $66 million by feature a 30-foot likeness of Dr. King—called the “Stone of Hope”—as its centerNovember in order to obtain building permits for the site. At the time of the Centennial piece, and it will include a crescent-shaped stone wall inscribed with excerpts of Dedication Ceremony, they were about $5.7 million short of the goal.A total $100 milBrother King’s speeches. lion is needed for construction of the Memorial. The bulk of the Memorial’s funding has At the time of the Centennial Dedication Ceremony, a contractor had not been come from large corporate sponsors. selected to build the memorial. Construction of the Memorial is expected to be Brother Matthews said the Fraternity’s Centennial Celebration should generate completed in 2008. more chapter donations.“We have the momentum now and we expect in short order we

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General Presidents James R. Williams; Ozell Sutton; Charles C. Teamer, Sr.; Henry Ponder; Adrian L. Wallace; Harry E. Johnson, Sr.; and Brothers Willard C. Hall, Jr.; Robert Harris; A. Brian Parker; Jonathan C. Augustine; Bobby Austin; James B. Blanton, III; Howard C. Burton; Horace G. Dawson, Jr.; Alex DeJarnett; Peter L. Felder; Joseph E. Heyward; John J. Johnson, III; William D. Lyle; Herman “Skip” Mason; Walter Mathis; Thomas D. Pawley, III; Huel D. Perkins; William Pickard; Al Franklin Rutherford; Jimmie N. Varnado; Seaton J. White, III; Iva Williams, Jr.; Christopher Womack; and Roberto Young.

Brother Vincent Orange served as Local Chairman for the Centennial Convention and Brother Levonia Wiggins served as Local Co-chair. Dr. Janette Hoston Harris and Ms. Johnetta B. Hardy served as the Ladies Activities Chair and Co-chair, respectively.

As part of its 100th Anniversary Celebration and Convention planning, the Centennial Committee commissioned several intellectual and scholarly works; exhibit presentations; lectures; artwork and musical expositions; and film and video presentations.

Alpha Phi Alpha Men: A Century of Leadership, a historicalfilm documentary on Alpha Phi Alpha’s century of leadership and

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Photos Above: All eight of the Fraternity’s living General Presidents assembled for the signing of the Centennial Book of Essays and Letters, which was prepared especially for the 100th Anniversary Convention.

At Right: Sphinx statues— commissioned for the Centennial Celebration—were awarded at the Public Program.

service, was developed and premiered in February 2006 on PBS as part of the year’s Black History Month theme, “Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Social and Civic Institutions.”

Also, the Centennial Book of Essays and Letters: Excerpts from the Brotherhood of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., a 728-page collection of historical and scholarly Fraternity documents over the past 100 years, was published as part of the Centennial observance; as was The Centenary Report of the Alpha Phi Alpha World Policy Council. The fifth report of the

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World Policy Council addressed five separate issues of national or international import, including the Millennium Challenge, Hurricane Katrina and Extraordinary Rendition, the World House and the Black Fraternity.

In addition, The House of Alpha: Centennial Exhibit of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. debuted at the Convention. The featured materials in the exhibit were part of the records of Alpha Phi Alpha’s general organization, local chapters and the personal collection of Fraternity members. The exhibit, which was curated by Fraternity Historical Commission Chairman

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䊳U.S. Congress Honors Alpha Phi Alpha’s Century

of Leadership during Capitol Ceremony lpha Phi Alpha was honored by members of Congress for “100 years of civil service and social progress” during a special ceremony held at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the Fraternity’s 100th Anniversary Convention. The Fraternity was recognized for its paramount leadership in the efforts to advance civil rights and enhance the socio-economic status of all Americans. The Capitol Ceremony and Reception was lead by the Fraternity’s members in Congress—Al Green (D-TX), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Chaka Fattah (D-PA), David Scott (D-GA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Danny Davis (D-IL)—who also served as Co-chairs of the Centennial Convention.

Several other legislators recognized the Fraternity’s leadership during the ceremony and reception, including Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) who had earlier introduced legislation honoring the Fraternity; Congresswoman Diane E. Watson (D-CA); Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI); Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX); and former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Edward W. Brooke who served as Honorary Chairman of the Centennial Convention.

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Inset: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s members in Congress include (l-r): Brothers Al Green, Bobby Scott, Charlie Rangel, Emanuel Cleaver, Chaka Fattah, David Scott, Gregory Meeks and Danny Davis.

Herman “Skip” Mason, opened at Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library following the Convention and was scheduled for other viewings.

Capitol Hill Kick-off The Centennial Convention events kicked off on July 25 with the Board of Directors’ and Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation meetings in the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill. Those events were followed by the official opening of the Centennial Exhibit the same evening.

The next day began with the Opening Plenary Session where General President Matthews presented his Centennial Address. The session was followed by the Centennial Fraternal Luncheon where former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young gave the keynote address. In lieu of the Belford V. Lawson Oratorical Contest usually presented during the occasion, representatives from each region delivered a Centennial Oratorical address. Competition and judging of the oratorical presentations and other competition—with the exception of the Collegiate Scholars Bowl—was suspended for the Centennial Celebration.

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“The purpose of our Centennial Convention —and indeed the entire Centennial Era—has been that of inspiring and reinvigorating our Brothers to higher and nobler manly deeds; to heightened levels of scholarship and a more profound and enduring love for humankind wherever they may be. Toward that end, we rekindle in the lives of the people—today and tomorrow—hope and courage.”

—Milton C. Davis, 2006 Centennial Chair

Twenty-ninth General President Milton Carver Davis.

Following the Luncheon, the Capitol Ceremony/Congressional Reception was held on Capitol Hill. Later that day the Centennial Celebration Opening Reception was held at the Omni Hotel and the Step Show Exhibition was held at the University of the District of Columbia.

Congressman and Fraternity Brother David Scott had earlier announced the Convention Celebration in Congress, stating to the House of Representatives, “This week men from every discipline and geographic location convene to chart and plan for the Fraternity’s future, celebrate its 100th Anniversary and

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reinvigorate its founding principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity.”

The House of Representatives passed House Concurrent Resolution 384, by a 422-0 vote, which recognized and honored Alpha Phi Alpha as the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans; and acknowledged its accomplishments and historic milestone.

Also while in Washington, D.C., Fraternity members such as National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial, the Alpha Brothers who serve in Congress and others were among the

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Above: Brother Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, was the keynote speaker for the Centennial Exhibit opening.

At Left: Centennial Exhibit designer and curator Brother Herman “Skip” Mason.

600 guests, lawmakers, prominent African American leaders and civil rights veterans who witnessed the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by President George W. Bush, in a signing ceremony at the White House on July 27, 2006.

Centennial Symposium and Luncheons On July 27 and 28, the Centennial Convention looked at topics involving the survival and welfare of African American boys and men in a three-part Symposium designed to spark discussion among members. The Alpha Phi Alpha Centennial Symposium brought

together a number of noted authorities on the topic of the African American community, including Brother Ambassador Andrew Young; former National Urban League President Brother Hugh Price, who served as the Symposium Luncheon keynote speaker; Xavier University of Louisiana President Dr. Norman C. Francis; prominent African American author and scholar Brother Dr. Cornel West; Congressman Danny Davis; Congressman Bobby Scott; and Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor Lou Gossett, Jr. The first Symposium began the morning of July 27 with the topic: The Future of African American Men: The Mind, Body

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At Right: Brother Dr. Cornel West.

Below: Brothers Zollie Stevenson and Syl Shannon were among those on the dais during the Opening Plenary Session.

and Soul. Several dynamic speakers addressed the theme.

During the Symposium Luncheon, Brother Price continued the discussion, looking at the issue: “Literacy: The Foundation for Future Progress.” Brother Norman Francis, who in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has served as Chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, spoke about the Fraternity’s role in the continuing efforts to restore the region. Also Brother Harry Johnson gave an update on the MLK, Jr. Memorial Project during the luncheon and was presented with a check from Exxon Mobil for $1 million.

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The second Symposium had several topics in various rooms throughout the hotel, including: The Legacy of Black Men in the 21st Century: Values and Ethics; Black Men and Making of Cultural Legacy/Cultural Future; The Character of African Americans in the 20th Century; and 21st Century Military Model—The Tuskegee Airman.

The final Symposium on July 28 included these topics: The Black Man in America Today; Choosing a Vision, Creating the Future; Building the Social Infrastructure; Dialog with Policy Makers; and Where in the World is the African American Male?

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Left Top: Brother Congressman Danny Davis Left Middle: Brother Congressman Bobby Scott Left Bottom: Award-winning actor Lou Gossett, Jr. Above: (l-r) Centennial Chair Milton C. Davis, Honorary Centennial Chair Edward W. Brooke and General President Darryl R. Matthews, Sr.

The Symposium concluded with a Grande Dialogue with Regional Town Meetings, looking at Innovative Strategies for the Future.

Highlights of the 21st Century Luncheon, which followed the Symposium closing, including Brother Ozell Sutton’s presentation of a check to the MLK Memorial Project Foundation for $65,000 from fundraisers given in his honor; and an announcement by Judy Vredenburgh, BBBSA President and CEO, that Fraternity Brother Sylvester Fulton had been named the organization’s 2006 National Big Brother of the Year. Brother Fulton and his Little Brother

Jeremy—who had just come from meeting President George W. Bush—appeared on stage with Ms. Vredenburgh following the announcement.

Brother Matthews delivered his Call to Go Forward into the New Millennium Address, saying the Centennial Symposium validated what we already know—that many young black boys and men are not in trouble. “Therefore it becomes incumbent upon us to grasp the mantle of leadership and help those who have lost their way,” he said. “We must build an institution to sustain us not from day-to-day but for yet another century.”

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Far Left Top: Centennial Symposium Luncheon.

Far Left Bottom: Brother Ambassador Andrew Young.

Left Top: Brother Dr. Norman C. Francis.

Left Middle: BBBSA President and CEO Judy Vredenburgh gives hug to organization’s National Big Brother of the Year and Fraternity member Sylvester Fulton.

Left Bottom: Centennial Symposium Luncheon keynote speaker Brother Hugh Price.

Above: Exxon Mobil Foundation presents the $1 million check to the MLK Memorial Fund.

Right Middle: Brother Ozell Sutton presents $65,000 check to MLK Memorial Fund from monies raised during salute to the former General President.

Right Bottom: Executive Director Willard Hall pins General President Darryl Matthews with newly designed General President’s emblem.

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Left Top: Brother John C. Rawls received Centennial Award.

At Left: Brother Dr. John Hope Franklin’s Centennial Award was received by Dr. Joseph E. Harris, personal friend and colleague of Brother Franklin.

Above: Centennial Award recipient Brother Sen. Edward W. Brooke.

Public Program The Centennial Convention Public Program was held the evening between Parts II and III of the Symposium. The event, which was open to the public, attracted several thousand people.

The original music commissioned for the Convention—Hymn To The Founders, Grand Processional for a New Century and Centennial Fanfare—was presented at the Public Program.

Hymn to the Founders, which was based on a poem by Dr. Thomas D. Pawley, III and composed by Dr. Uzee Brown, Jr. was presented for the first time ever during the Public Program; and

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was sung by the Centennial Alpha Chorus with Brother Henry Goodgame as soloist and Brother David Oliver as accompanist.

A 16-piece orchestra was on hand to help perform the other original music, Grand Processional for a New Century (For Brass Ensemble, Percussion and Organ), which was debuted during the Grand Opening Plenary Session of the Centennial Convention and performed again during the Public Program. The musical composition was written by Brother Brown. Brother William T. McDaniel, Jr. conducted the Centennial Brass and Percussion Ensemble performance and Brother Oliver accompanied.

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Centennial Fanfare (For Brass Ensemble), another original music composition, was composed by Brother McDaniel and performed at the Public Program by the Centennial Brass Ensemble.

The debut performance of the music also had been presented at the Grand Opening Plenary Session.

During the program, MLK Memorial Board Chairman Brother Roderick D. Gillum reported on fundraising for the memorial and plans for the November 2006 Ceremonial Groundbreaking. He sated that about $61 million of the $100 million needed to build the memorial had been raised at that time. Also, greetings and a proclamation were presented by Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Grand Polemarch and Chairman of the Council of Presidents Samuel C. Hamilton who also presented another installment on the pledge by the Pan-Hellenic Council member organizations to donate $100,000 to the MLK Memorial. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Supreme Basileus Barbara McKenzie presented Brother Matthews with flowers and an installment on her organization’s pledge to raise $120,000 for the memorial. Other dignitaries were recognized, including Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity International President Paul L. Griffin, Jr.; Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Executive Director Richard Snow; Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Executive Director Lois Sylver; National Pan-Hellenic Council President Dr. Michael Bowie; Mark Katz, National President of the North-American Interfraternity Conference, Inc.; Big Brothers Big Sisters of America President and CEO Judy Vredenburgh; and 2006 National Big Brother of the Year and Alpha Brother Sylvester Fulton.

Limited edition Sphinx statues, designed especially for the Centennial Celebration by Ron McDowell, were presented to the Centennial Convention Honorees by General President Matthews. In addition to the statues presented as Centennial Awards, individual statues had been designed in honor of the Fraternity’s Seven Jewels and 32 General Presidents. The statues sold for $1,000 and above.

Centennial Award Recipients Brother Matthews conferred the Special Centennial Honors upon Retired U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke, author and scholar Dr. John Hope Franklin (who received his award in absentia), and the Fraternity’s Life Member No. 21 Dr. John C. Rawls.

Centennial Chairman Milton C. Davis introduced Public Program Speaker Senator Edward W. Brooke, recounting in the introduction that Brother Brooke was mentored by non-less than the serving Fraternity General President Charles H. Wesley while he attended Howard University and served as president of Beta Chapter.

Former Massachusetts Senator Ed Brooke delivered the Public Program Address, entitled “Tribute to the Jewel Founders.” In his address, he urged the Fraternity to encourage

Above Top: Kappa Alpha Psi Polemarch and Chairman of the Council of Presidents Samuel C. Hamilton presents proclamation to Brother Matthews.

Above Middle: Brother Lionel Richie made a surprise appearance at the Public Program.

At Right: AKA Sorority Supreme Basileus Barbara McKenzie.

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Brother Lionel Richie. Photo by Jeff Lewis.

and sponsor—through various means—the education and training of African American male teachers who would go into inner-city and rural communities to teach young African American students.

Brother Brooke outlined a program that would offer incentives and rewards to African American males who entered the teaching field.

He stated that there is an immediate need to help African American males to end current frightening conditions that threaten the population and to serve a pressing need in the country.

Brother Brooke, who served as the first chairman of the Alpha Phi Alpha World Policy Council, in the past had received the Fraternity’s highest award bestowed upon a member—the Alpha Award of Merit. In addition, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2004.

Brother John Hope Franklin was unable to attend the Public Program and requested that close personal friend Dr. Joseph E. Harris, Distinguished Professor (Emeritus), Department of History at Howard University stand in as a proxy to receive the Centennial Award. The scholarship of Brother Franklin has earned him more than a 100 honorary doctorate degrees. His extensive list of publications includes more than 12 books and he has served on the faculties of a number of different institutions of higher education.

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Brother Franklin received the Alpha Award of Merit in 1995; and the same year, receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Bill Clinton.

Brother John C. Rawls purchased his Life Membership in 1949 and has supported the program fully by encouraging Brothers to become “Alpha for Life”. He has been a guest speaker at regional Life Member functions, and has served as Chairman of the Life Membership program for four years. He is the first Brother to receive a 50 Year Life Membership medallion. Brother Rawls served as District Director in Florida under four different Regional Vice Presidents for a total of 11 years—the longest period of time in which a Director has served in Florida.

World Renowned Performer Internationally recognized singer and songwriter Lionel Richie made a surprise appearance at the Public Program, the evening before his scheduled concert performance. In his address, Brother Richie remembered his father and how the senior Brother Richie took his family to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s General Conventions each year. The recording artist said he grew up in an Alpha home where Fraternity members frequently visited; and stated that he

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䊳CENTENNIAL CONVENTION ENTERTAINMENT 1

ntertainment activities at the 100th Anniversary Convention included the Ladies Fashion Show and Luncheon, the Step Show Contest and Centennial Concert Gala, among other exciting events. Clockwise from Top Left: (1) First Lady Allison Paige Matthews and Centennial Convention Ladies Activities Chair Janette Hoston Harris are pictured at the Fashion Show and Luncheon; (2) Step Show audience member; (3) Fashion Show model; (4) Alpha Step Teams; (5) General President Darryl Matthews and former “Good Times” television sitcom star Bern Nadette Stanis at the Centennial Black & Gold Banquet; (6) The reigning National Miss Black & Gold and regional winners are (l-r) 2005-06 queen Abeo Jackson; Jacqueine Mishawn Echols,Western; Shayna Yvonne Rudd,Eastern; Ciji Dodds,Southern; Rhonda Allen,Southwestern; and Nkechi Odum, Midwestern.

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䊳CONVENTION SCENES

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Convention officials are pictured at Public Program, Ecumenical Worship Service and Centennial Concert Gala.

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1. Ecumenical Worship Service Preacher Brother Philip R. Cousins, Sr.

5. Brother Darryl Matthews’ wife, First Lady Allison Paige Matthews, and sons, Darryl, Jr. and Blake, are pictured.

2. GP Chief of Staff Al Rutherford and Mrs. Rutherford.

6. Executive Director Willard C. Hall, Jr. was on hand despite injury.

3.The Ecumenical Service attracted an unprecedented number of worshippers.

4.Brother Matthews is presented with flowers and gifts by AKA Supreme Basileus Barbara McKenzie and Sorority leadership; along with Kappa Alpha Psi Polemarch Samuel Hamilton.

grew up as one of the youth involved in the Convention’s youth programs. The singer later attended Tuskegee Institute where he and some of his schoolmates formed what later became the successful

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7. Sen. Ed Brooke and wife; GP Administrative Assistant Lover High, Jr. and wife; along with Brother and Mrs. Matthews at Kennedy Center Concert Gala.

Motown recording and performing act, The Commodores. He has since enjoyed a successful solo career as a recording artist and songwriter. Brother Richie stated that despite his professional suc-

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The following evening Lionel Richie was the headliner for the Convention’s black-tie Centennial Concert Gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The performance was entitled “An Evening with Lionel Richie Live”. Along with his band, Brother Richie performed his chart-topping hits and songs from his recently released CD, which also went to the top of the charts.

Brother Richie, who performed the concert as a benefit to the Fraternity, was chosen as the Centennial Convention’s featured music artist—following the tradition set at the 50th Anniversary Convention. At the Convention in Buffalo, New York in 1956, the world renowned Brother Duke Ellington was the featured performer. With his world-wide appeal, Brother Richie was considered to be the artist of today who best compares to Duke Ellington.

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cess and accomplishments, it was only after his initiation into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity that his mother swelled with pride and said to him, “Boy, now you are making something of yourself.”

Final Plenary at Howard University Convention activities on July 29 began at 6:30 a.m. on the Howard University campus where Brothers began assembling at Greene Stadium for the official Centennial photograph. Brothers were requested to wear black suits and gold ties. Following the photo session, the Convention’s Final Plenary Session was held at the University’s Cramton Auditorium.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Howard University’s historical relationship was recognized during the Final Plenary Session.

In a special tribute, the Fraternity unveiled a dedicatory plaque, which was presented to Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert, denoting the Fraternity’s intertwining history with the school. The plaque, which will be displayed on the campus, recognized Howard University as the site of Beta Chapter’s founding in 1907; the Fraternity’s First General Convention in 1908; the establishment of the Fraternity Archives and World Policy Council in 1996; and the Centennial Convention’s Closing Session in 2006.

Following the plenary session, the Collegiate Scholars Bowl Final was held in Cramton Auditorium and later that afternoon a cookout was held on the campus for the youth, ladies and Brothers.

The Ladies Fashion Show & Luncheon, which is always a favorite activity of the ladies program, was hosted that afternoon in the Marriott Ballroom by Fraternity First Lady Allison Paige Matthews with Ladies Chair Janette Hoston Harris serving as Mistress of Ceremonies. The reigning national queen and regional winners of the Miss Black & Gold competitions were among the fashion show participants, including 2005-06 Miss Black & Gold Abeo Jackson; Shayna Yvonne Rudd, Eastern; Nkechi Odum, Midwestern; Ciji Dodds, Southern; Rhonda Allen, Southwestern; and Jacqueine Mishawn Echols, Western.

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Above: Alpha Phi Alpha members attending the Fraternity’s Centennial Convention in Washington, D.C. gathered at Howard University for a panoramic photo. More than 10,000 Fraternity members attended the Centennial Convention where the groundwork was laid for another 100 years of leadership and service. Photo by Jeff Lewis Below: The Fraternity presented Howard University with a dedicatory plaque, recognizing the historical relationship between the organization and school, during the Convention’s closing session. Pictured left-to-right: Brothers Herman “Skip” Mason, Charles Teamer, Ozell Sutton, Milton Davis, Earl Richardson Fitzhugh and Darryl Matthews; Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert; Brothers Henry Ponder, James Williams, Adrian Wallace, Harry Johnson, Horace Dawson and Richard A. English.

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Left: General President Matthews delivers Convention closing remarks and presents awards to the outgoing Assistant Regional Vice Presidents (Above).

Black & Gold Banquet The black-tie Centennial Black & Gold Reception and Banquet were held later that evening at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. More than 5,000 people attended the event where Brother Clifton Johnson, Chairman of the Awards and Achievement Committee announced the winners of the 2006 Fraternity awards and special awards presented by March of Dimes of America. Former General President Adrian L. Wallace installed newly elected Assistant Regional Vice Presidents Jamaal Richardson, Eastern; Emmanuel T. Brown, Midwestern; John

White, Southern; Maurice D. Gipson, Southwestern; and Ronnie Versher, Western. Also, General President Darryl Matthews gave a special award to outgoing Assistant Region Vice Presidents K. Chase Patterson, Eastern; Christopher Rembert, Midwestern; Leland Ivy, Southern; Tyrone Haynes, Southwestern; and Nnamdi I. Okafor, Western.

The 2006 Centennial Convention Chairman Milton C. Davis was given a rousing and standing ovation in recognition of his work in planning and delivering the Fraternity’s largest and most successful Convention to date. In recognizing Brother Davis’

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䊳2006 CENTENNIAL CONVENTION AWARD WINNERS Competition between the regional representatives was suspended during the 2006 Centennial Convention, except for the Collegiate Scholars Bowl contest.

CENTENNIAL AWARDS College Brothers of the Year:

Collegiate Scholars Bowl:

Earl Fitzhugh, Beta Chapter—Eastern Region Muvirimi T. Kupara, Iota Xi Chapter—Midwestern Region Leland M. Ivy, Alpha Rho Chapter—Southern Region Kaku Barkoh, Pi Omicron Chapter—Southwestern Region Jonathan Aluko, Epsilon Mu Chapter—Western Region

District of Louisiana—Southwestern Region

Alumni Brothers of the Year: Jerome Offord, Jr., Pi Upsilon Lambda Chapter—Eastern Region J.T. White, Theta Mu Lambda Chapter—Midwestern Region Carl R. Clark, Gamma Gamma Lambda Chapter—Southern Region John L. Colbert, Omicron Zeta Lambda Chapter—Southwestern Region Wilburt Mays, Eta Pi Lambda Chapter—Western Region

College Chapters of the Year: Epsilon Pi Chapter, Norfolk State University—Eastern Region Theta Tau Chapter, University of Michigan—Midwestern Region Alpha Rho Chapter, Morehouse College—Southern Region Pi Omicron Chapter, Texas A&M Univ.—Southwestern Region Gamma Xi Chapter, UCLA—Western Region

Alumni Chapters of the Year: Zeta Lambda Chapter, Newport News, VA—Eastern Region Theta Mu Lambda Chapter, Joliet, IL—Midwestern Region Beta Beta Lambda Chapter, Miami, FL—Southern Region Alpha Sigma Lambda Chapter, Dallas, TX—Southwestern Region Eta Pi Lambda Chapter, Pasadena, CA—Western Region

Former General President Adrian L. Wallace installs the incoming Assistant Regional Vice Presidents.

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Belford V. Lawson Oratorical: K. Chase Patterson/Andrew McRae, Omicron/Gamma Iota Chapters —Eastern Region Christopher Tooley, Epsilon Chi Chapter—Midwestern Region Aaron Letcher, Beta Xi Chapter—Southern Region Alajahwon Ridgeway, Delta Sigma Chapter—Southwestern Region Chika Okafor, Nu Sigma Chapter—Western Region

Step Show: Epsilon Pi Chapter, Norfolk State University—Eastern Region Delta Xi Chapter, Central State University—Midwestern Region Beta Delta Chapter, South Carolina State University—Southern Region Eta Gamma Chapter, Prairie View A&M Univ.—Southwestern Region Eta Pi Lambda, Pasadena, CA—Western Region

Miss Black & Gold Shayna Rudd, Beta Chapter—Eastern Region Ciji Dodds, Mu Zeta Chapter—Southern Region Nkechi Odum, Alpha Psi Chapter—Midwestern Region Rhonda Allen, Kappa Kappa Chapter—Southwestern Region Jacqueine Mishawn Echols, Alpha Xi—Western Region

General President Matthews (center) pictured at Black & Gold Banquet with Brothers in the military

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SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS

SPIRIT AWARDS

Charles H. Wesley Award:

Oldest Registered Brother:

Zeta Lambda/Kappa Pi Chapters—Eastern Region Newport News/College of Wm & Mary Epsilon Upsilon Lambda/Theta Tau Chapters—Midwestern Region Flint/University of Michigan Nu Mu Lambda/Mu Alpha—Southern Region Decatur/Emory University Omicron Zeta Lambda/Kappa Kappa—Southwestern Region Fayetteville/University of Arkansas Eta Pi Lambda/Iota Psi—Western Region Pasadena/CA Polytechnic University

Robert F. Short, 77-year Alpha Brother Beta Lambda Chapter, Kansas City, MO

Traveled Greatest Distance: College: Alpha Xi Chapter, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Alumni: Theta Theta Lambda Chapter, Frankfurt, Germany

College Brothers with Highest GPA: Michael A. Cooper, Delta Nu Chapter—Eastern Region John William Crawford, Kappa Alpha Chapter—Southern Region Dontario Marzett, Beta Kappa Chapter—Southwestern Region Jeffrey T. Wallace, Gamma Xi Chapter—Western Region

College Chapters with Highest GPA: Delta Nu Chapter, UMES—Eastern Region Alpha Rho Chapter, Morehouse College—Southern Region Eta Gamma Chapter, Prairie View A&M Univ.—Southwestern Region Gamma Xi Chapter, UCLA—Western Region

work as Convention Chairman, Brother Matthews stated that he along with the other General Presidents “enriched our lives and stirred our emotions and brought us to a mandate” to be loyal to the Fraternity.

Brother Matthews also recognized the many others who worked to make the Convention a success. “We all knew that in coming to this Centennial Convention we would enjoy the company of Brotherhood; we would Rekindle the Spirits; we would make new acquaintances,” Brother Matthews said. “And we also knew that in coming here we would be chartering the course for the next

100 years.” The Fraternity established a “well conceived plan of action” at the Convention and now has documentation to support the organization’s mission, Brother Matthews said.

The Ecumenical Worship Service on the following day served as the closing event for the Centennial Convention. The Centennial Sermon was given by Brother Bishop Philip R. Cousins, Sr., Presiding Prelate, Fourth Episcopal District of the A.M.E. Church Brothers Jeffrey J. Johnson and Zollie Stevenson contributed to this article.

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Revisiting Our Roots in the Centennial Era

By Brother Kenneth I. Clarke, Sr.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following address was presented on December 2, 2006 during the New York State Association of Chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha Conference Meeting on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

The address, which has been edited for publication, was presented in the Statler Hotel Ballroom on the campus as part of the Fraternity’s Centennial Commemoration Closing Ceremonies.

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s we culminate the Centennial era of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.—beginning with the historic pilgrimage to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on November 19, 2005 and ending on the Cornell campus on December 4, 2006—there are three historic emphases in Fraternity life that we must draw upon to face the challenges of these days. I want to talk about these in relation to the theme “Revisiting Our Roots in the Centennial Era.” These emphases address: (1) Scholarship; (2) Social Purpose and Social Action; and (3) Spirituality.

Scholarship One of the significant roots of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity is scholarship. Our foundations are grounded in the social study club that first met at 421 N. Albany Street in Ithaca, a short drive from this hotel. It was there, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Newton, where nine African American male Cornell University students—including six of the Seven Jewels—met. Charles Harris Wesley, in his History of Alpha Phi Alpha, tells us that at the

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Norton home these men developed a program of study for the year 1905-06. They focused on aspects of American life, the study of language and issues affecting black life in America.

Many of us here know the rest of the story: the social study group evolved into a society, then into a fraternity, consolidated, expanded, examined itself, widened its program and developed a militant liberalism, and so forth. There was heated debate between those who wanted a social study club and those who wanted a fraternity. Through it all scholarship remained an emphasis. In Wesley’s book, Henry Arthur Callis: Life and Legacy, Jewel Callis is cited among those interested in a fraternity with social study programs.

Scholarship was influential in the very naming of the Fraternity itself. At a time when European and American societies defined Africa negatively, while plundering its natural resources, Jewels Callis and Eugene Kinckle Jones sought a name for their organization that reflected positively on Africa. Gloria Harper Dickinson, writing in the book African American Fraternities and Sororities (co-edited by my Chapter Brother Gregory Parks), tells us that these Jewels, after fashioning Greek letters for the organization,

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could not find a Latin equivalent “for what the Greeks called Africans.” But, wrote Wesley in the Callis book, a Cornell professor of Greek gave Jewel Callis a name Greeks used for Africans: Aetheopians (as in Ethiopians). Aetheopians symbolizes the second Alpha in our name and connects us to Africa. These forwardthinking young men selected symbols of North African civilization, especially Egypt, such as the Sphinx. By these choices the founders reclaimed what racism distorted and redefined it for themselves.

This scholarly pursuit, Dickinson writes, is significant because it occurred amidst Cornell’s various Egyptian-named secret societies and white Greek-letter fraternities. This is significant, as Brother Robert Harris has noted, because the Jewels may have been influenced by the writings of Frederick Douglass and Martin Delaney about the impact of Egypt on the rest of the world—particularly Greece and Rome.

The Jewels’ scholarship is also significant because it occurred in a national context, which our Past General President Rayford Logan called the nadir: the low point of Black American history; the era of legal segregation; the wholesale lynching of black men; and the period of publication of books such as The Negro: A Menace to American Civilization by “respected” intellectuals. Despite these assaults on African-American life, the Jewels forged forward. They were propelled by what Jessica Harris and Bro. Vernon Mitchell have called “a heritage of resistance and perseverance,” a heritage that led to the founding of multiple “civic and benevolent societies dedicated to racial uplift” from the beginnings of the Republic. It was this same spirit, wrote Harris and Mitchell that led to the founding of Alpha and other black Greek organizations. Jewel Callis emphasized that the fraternity “had a serious concern for stimulating our people in education first from the beginning.”

The Alpha legacy of scholarship is perhaps more important in 2006 than it was in 1906. There exists a misguided, mistaken perception within our communities that to be scholarly, to be intellectually-minded, to be smart, is to be in “self (or race) denial.” Last

year, I read the moving story of a young man who struggled to make it in such an academic and social environment. Cedric Jennings attended one of the poorest, crime-ridden high schools in SE Washington, D.C. in the 1990s. The book that tells his story is called A Hope in the Unseen, written by journalist Ron Suskind.

It was a loving mother, deep faith and church community that enabled Cedric to survive the drugs, gangs and violence of his neighborhood, to graduate from Brown University and earn Master’s degrees from Harvard and Michigan. The book not only tells of his triumph. It tells of his struggles to survive in a youth culture that did not value academic excellence.

I think it is more urgent than ever that Alpha Phi Alpha play a role, as it always has, to find and support the Cedric Jennings—and his female counterparts—from the abysmal contexts of underachievement and despair and guide them to pinnacles of academic excellence and professional achievement. Since 1919, we have motivated and supported such young men and women through our national program Go-to-High School, Go-to- College. Local chapters have engaged in creative educational efforts to address the specific needs of the communities, which they serve. At the landmark Centennial Pilgrimage, scholarships were given to 11 Cornell students to support their academic endeavors. Through these actions, as Jewel Charles Henry Chapman said in 1929, we are involved in the greatest joy of organizational and personal existence—the transformation of humanity and the making of better men and women. We do so because education is the key that unlocks the door to opportunity.

There is yet another important reason to revisit the roots of scholarship. We now live within a wider American culture that, as our Brother Cornel West has noted, is drenched by the torrential rains of anti-intellectualism, the opposite of scholarship. The antiintellectualism we see in our own communities is only a microcosm of what is at work in American society at large. The late media critic Neil Postman has characterized this anti- intellectualism in his

AT A TIME WHEN EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SOCIETIES DEFINED AFRICA NEGATIVELY…JEWELS HENRY ARTHUR CALLIS AND EUGENE KINCKLE JONES SOUGHT A NAME FOR THEIR ORGANIZATION THAT REFLECTED POSITIVELY ON AFRICA.

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1984 book Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Written as if he foresaw the current era of data and video saturation in which we now live, Postman addressed the way in which video media has impacted American society. He coined a phrase, “video epistemology,” to capture how we access information from television, movies, ads, and now computers, cell phones, MP3, Blackberry and other types of screens. As a result, video media has shortened our attention spans and our capacity to listen to, absorb and interpret information.

Let me explain anti-intellectualism another way, by contrasting it with what it means to be an intellectual. Malcolm X perhaps provides for us the most basic explication of an intellectual: one who is able to see for oneself, listen for oneself and think for oneself.

One does not have to possess a doctorate to be an intellectual. One does not have to work in higher education to be an intellectual. One does not have to have an IQ that is, in the words of today’s college students, “off the hook” to be an intellectual. All of us can see, listen and think for ourselves.

If we, as Servants of All, do not cultivate boys into men and girls into women who can see, listen and think for themselves, we will, as Malcolm said, have people walking west when they think they’re going east. We—Alphas and the rest of us—need to promote scholarship because it promotes critical thinking. Critical thinking keeps us informed. Information is to a democracy what oxygen is to human beings—both are necessary for survival. In the 21st century our efforts must be linked to those in our communities that address the inequalities that hinder educational achievement—58 percent of African American students earn high school diplomas, compared to 76 percent of whites; nearly 800,000 black men are in prison while a little over 600,000 are enrolled in colleges and universities; 35 percent of black males enrolled in colleges and universities graduate in six years.

When we can think critically we can assess what is going on in our environment and take appropriate action. Our founders did it; now the torch has been passed to us and we must do it.

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Rev. Brother Kenneth I. Clarke, Sr. That leads to my second point: we must revisit the roots of social purpose and social action.

Social Purpose and Social Action In 1969, Jewel Callis wrote that in the early 20th century American society had narrowly circumscribed opportunity for African Americans and provided no security. “Out of our need,” he wrote, “our Fraternity brought social purpose and social action.”

Decades before the National Council of Black Studies, the major

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academic association for teachers of Africana Studies in higher education, claimed as its motto, “Academic Excellence and Social Responsibility,” Alpha Phi Alpha put it into action.

The original Social Study Club created by the Jewels and their colleagues in 1905 came into being as a support group for the small group of African American male students, enabling them to survive in a less than welcoming environment. These students were likely influenced by the Niagara Conference held that same year in Niagara Falls, New York and led by their future Fraternity brother W.E.B. DuBois. The Niagara Conference’s program for full constitutional rights for blacks led to the founding of the NAACP four years later. All this occurred in a national context in which 3,000 lynchings of black people had occurred within the previous 25 years. Slavery had ended 40 years earlier; and Reconstruction had prematurely ended less than 30 years before. Not only were the students interested in scholarship, they were interested in applying their scholarship to address segregation and discrimination and to prepare for engagement in the struggle for justice and citizenship.

Perhaps no one more vociferously and eloquently affirmed the social purpose and social action that shaped the Fraternity’s origins and its ongoing mission than Henry Arthur Callis. Called “the philosopher of the Founders,” Jewel Callis said Alpha was born on the heels of slavery and in the lap of discrimination. “Let no one deceive you about our origins,” he said. “We were organized for leadership in the struggle for American citizenship.”

Jewel Callis, whose childhood home was frequently visited by Frederick Douglass—a relative of his mother—and Harriet Tubman, relentlessly held the light of social purpose and social action high in the firmament of the Fraternity for its first 68 years.

In 1949, the philosopher Jewel wrote that the “chief significance” of our brotherhood was the stimulation, education and establishment of intelligent, educated leadership “in the unending

fight for freedom, equality and fraternity.” He warned in 1956, on the eve of Alpha Phi Alpha’s Golden Anniversary, that the dangers to freedom that lay ahead were the selfishness and prosperity bred by success. Put another way by Gardner Taylor when he spoke at Cornell in 2003, when a group, people or nation ignore the hazards of supremacy, it can commit the “suicide of success.” Callis, paraphrasing Frederick Douglass, wrote that our obligation as citizens is to jealously guard complete freedom for all Americans.

The remarkable legacy of this Fraternity is found in the freedom fighters who have been its members—DuBois; Jesse Owens; Hamilton Holmes, who with Charlayne Hunter-Gault desegregated the University of Georgia; historian John Hope Franklin; sociologist E. Franklin Frazier; Africanist scholar William Leo Hansberry, uncle of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who with DuBois and others laid the intellectual groundwork for Africana Studies; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Paul Robeson, Whitney Young; and Andrew Young, among others.

We cannot forget that the rock of despair from which Alpha was hewn was what Langston Hughes called the white racial mountain, the mountain of racial injustice and inequality. Alpha, to paraphrase Brother King, is a stone of hope. It is unlike the stony road trod from slavery, Jim Crow segregation and the subtleties of contemporary racism. From this stone, a translucent prism through which light has been refracted has emitted the light of hope. Even in the days when hope unborn had died, our national social programs like Project Alpha, A Voteless People Is A Hopeless People and the Sankofa Project have kept shining the light.

With this stone of hope, we must follow in the footsteps of the biblical King David. Its rays of light must shine so brightly that it will slay the Goliaths of our day: the Goliath of under-funded urban schools; the Goliath of intergenerational poverty; the Goliath of gang violence; the Goliath of police brutality; the Goliath of wars

EVEN IN THE DAYS WHEN HOPE UNBORN HAD DIED, OUR NATIONAL SOCIAL PROGRAMS LIKE PROJECT ALPHA, A VOTELESS PEOPLE IS A HOPELESS PEOPLE AND THE SANKOFA PROJECT HAVE KEPT SHINING THE LIGHT.

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fought with guided missiles and misguided leadership. We must stand up to these Goliaths, in the tradition of Callis and Chapman, Jones and Kelly, Murray, Ogle and Tandy, DuBois and King, Dellums and Brooke, so that the stone of hope will slay the giant.

Spirituality The stirring call to social purpose and social action in the secular realm is what is called prophetic in the spiritual realm. It is the prophet in the Judeo-Christian tradition who is God’s mouthpiece, who speaks truth to power, who discerns the times to see where the times will lead. The late Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg said in a sermon at Cornell two years ago that the true test of one’s spirituality is related to what one does for the dispossessed. Prophetic leadership, enlightened by scholarship, engaged in social purpose and social action, is rooted in a spirituality that is about transforming lives and transforming society. This ties in to my last point: Alpha Phi Alpha’s emphasis on spirituality.

According to Brothers Gregory Parks and Said Sewell, the founders of Alpha Phi Alpha were influenced by the spirituality of their families and the secret societies to which family members belonged. They were also influenced by their observations of religious symbolism in the fraternity houses of the white Greek-letter organizations, where several of them worked as students. These influences tethered the fledgling organization to principles that established its reason for being, the ideals it espoused and “the standard to which all plans, decision, and actions are measured.”

These, write Parks and Sewell, not only strengthen the bonds of brotherhood, they give meaning to the organization.

Our organization’s commitment to brotherhood and service has been guided by biblical texts such as Ruth 1:16 (King James Version): “wither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God.” We end the singing of our fraternal hymn in prayer, aspiring to live out the highest values of the Fraternity by the power of God. The intent within our motto to be “Servants to All” and our aim to show love for all humankind are the essence of spirituality.

Spirituality refers to values and ideals guided by a relationship with God that give one a sense of identity and orientation, gives life meaning and purpose, and determines how one is connected to others and the world around us. Spirituality shapes our character.

Character is what the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said is the person we are when no one else is looking. But spirituality also moves us outside of ourselves, in service to all, out of love for all humankind.

Some of our great brothers have been inspired by this kind of spirituality. St. Clair Drake, the pioneering sociologist, wrote

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Brother Martin Luther King, Jr. at the height of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956 to commend him as one of a “small group of prophetic figures who have tried to teach the world how to fight for justice with the weapons of the spirit.” Brother King understood that social plagues such as racism, economic injustice, militarism and imperialism in America were cancers of the spirit eating away at the nation’s vital organs. He said in his famous anti-war speech, “Beyond Vietnam” on April 4, 1967— exactly one year to the day of his assassination—that a nation that spends more on its military than for programs of social uplift is a nation approaching spiritual death.

Our challenge in 2006 and beyond is to bring to bear the full weight of the spiritual heritage invoked by our legacy, prayers, values, aspirations and faith communities in our organizational work. We are not a church, mosque, temple or ashram. We are a Fraternity. But we are guided by principles and values of a spiritual nature. We all do not adhere to the same faith traditions in our personal lives; we are bound by brotherhood and a commitment to be Servants of All. I encourage us to drink deeply from the well that is our fraternal prayer, written by our former national Chaplain, A. Wayman Ward— that “the true spirit of fraternity rule our hearts, guide our thoughts and control our lives, so that we may become, through God, servants of all.” This spirituality points us toward the source of strength that can sustain us as a body and can empower us to accomplish great things.

As the Centennial Era concludes, we are challenged to hew from the jagged rock of our contemporary circumstances a vision for 2056, our sesquicentennial. Revisiting the past is not just a trip down memory lane. To use biblical terms, it is an act of remembrance, bringing the past into the present with new meaning. The past is prologue to the present and precipitates the future. Revisiting the roots of our history will shape the future vision and action for our communities and for the nation.

Rev. Brother Kenneth I. Clarke, Sr. is a member of Iota Iota Lambda Chapter in Ithaca, New York where he currently resides and is Director of Cornell United Religious Work. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Brother Clarke earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Morgan State University. He then received his Master of Divinity Degree from Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York.

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Centennial Celebration Closing Ceremony Held Founders’ Weekend at Cornell University

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losing ceremonies for the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Centennial Celebration were held at the place where the 100th Anniversary Observance was launched a year earlier—Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, the birthplace of the organization.

Brothers gathered at Cornell for the Founders’ Weekend closing ceremonies in conjunction with the New York District Conference, which was held December 1-4, 2006 at the University.

Fraternity National Historian Dr. Robert L. Harris, Jr., who presented the Charles H. Wesley Memorial Lecture during the Centennial Pilgrimage Convocation, was a featured speaker at the Conference’s Breakfast/Public Program. Representatives from Ithaca-area Pan-Hellenic Council organizations brought greetings at the program; and Brother Rev. Kenneth Clarke, Director of Cornell United Religious Work, served as the keynote speaker.

Brother Clarke had given the invocation and benediction during the Centennial Pilgrimage Fraternal Luncheon.

The weekend also witnessed a recreation of the First Banquet; and Sunday worship service at St. James Church where Rev. Brother Clarke delivered the sermon. New York District Director Leyde St. Leger presented a check for $777.00 to the church on behalf of the District. A repast was held after the church service, which was attended by more than 50 Brothers, followed by tours

(l-r) Eastern Regional V.P. Dennis Kemp and National Historian Dr. Robert Harris.

of significant Fraternity sites in Ithaca. Also a Black & Gold Banquet was held where featured remarks were given by National Historian Brother Harris, Eastern Regional Vice President Dennis Kemp and Brother Julian Wilson, grandson of Jewel Robert H. Ogle. Immediate Past Eastern Regional Vice President Darren Morton gave a moving keynote address. Metal bookmarks, reflecting the history of Cornell University and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, were given to Brothers as keepsakes.

At midnight—at the moment when time changed and the pages of the calendar turned to December 4, 2006—Brothers were gathered in prayer on the Cornell campus, reflecting on Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Century of Leadership and Service. The prayer was followed by a champagne toast to the Seven Jewels and the Fraternity; and a joyous celebration occurred.

During the daylight hours that December 4th morning, the Brothers who sojourned to Cornell for the Centennial Celebration closing returned to the Centennial Memorial on the campus for a wreath laying ceremony. Brother Dennis Kemp presented remarks and Brother Darren Morton offered a prayer, which was following by the singing of the Fraternity Hymn.

There was a dusting of snow on the Cornell campus that morning—just enough to allow the wind to be seen; and to show that same spirit that blew over Ithaca 100 years ago.

The Fraternity Hymn was sung as part of the Centennial Closing Ceremony.

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BOOK REVIEW

Bridging The Divide: My Life Written by Senator Edward W. Brooke New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007 Reviewed by Brother Joseph T. Durham

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he life of Edward W. Brooke is full of surprises. How could a black man—a Republican no less—be elected as a Senator from Massachusetts, a Democratic state where the African American population is only about 2 percent? Neither President Lyndon Johnson nor President Richard Nixon understood it. Perhaps Brother Brooke himself did not understand it but he was, and is, an indefatigable campaigner. Before he became a Senator, Edward Brooke was the first African American to become Attorney General of the state of Massachusetts. He won the state-wide office by campaigning throughout the state of Massachusetts. He won a second term to the office. Thus, when he decided to run for Senator, he was well known in the state.

Edward Brooke was born in Washington, D.C. into what he described as a “cocoon” (p. l).

Even though the District was segregated, Brother Brooke lived a peaceful life in the LeDroit area of the city. His father was a government attorney and his mother was a homemaker. Young Brooke went to Dunbar High School which was reported to be the best high school

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in America. Many of the faculty, but for segregation, would have been on the faculty of some outstanding college or university.

Family always had a prominent place in Brother Brooke’s life. He was close to his sister and her husband. During the summers when he was growing up, he visited with his relatives who lived in Virginia. His first wife was an Italian young lady whom he met when he served in the armed forces. He had two daughters from his first marriage. His second wife was from the Caribbean, and they had a son, Edward W. Brooke IV. Despite his political success, the first marriage to Remigia grew increasingly difficult over time and the Brookes decided to obtain a divorce. The Senator thought that it would be a quiet divorce but he was wrong. It became quite a public matter. His two daughters accused him of deserting their mother, who was ill. The divorce proceedings became more and more raucous.

There were charges that one of Brother Brooke’s relatives, to qualify for Medicaid coverage, had hidden her assets with him. There were further claims that Brother Brooke had improperly claimed his daugh-

ters as exemptions on his federal income tax returns from 1971 to 1975. All of these charges were eventually proven false when they were reviewed by the Senate Committee on Ethics; however, the damage was done. Senator Brooke agreed on a settlement which was quite favorable to Remigia. Under the arrangement, she would own the houses in Newton and St. Martin, two cars and all the furniture in both houses. In addition, Remigia would receive $18,000 a year in alimony. Senator Brooke also pledged to pay all her future medical and dental bills and to maintain a life insurance policy, payable to her in the event of his death. He further agreed to pay $190,000 in mortgage debt on the properties in Newton and St. Martin. Remigia got these properties free and clear.

The divorce proceedings came during Brother Brooke’s bid for reelection as a Senator. The campaign sputtered along, but the accusations still stuck. There were a few bright spots during the waning days of the campaign. Senator Brooke said of these days. “Many mornings I simply did not want to go out and campaign—and I had not felt like that before. I was embarrassed by the allegations against me. I had always run as an honest man—a reformer.

I felt that people looked at me differently and I hated it” (p. 22). In the end, Brother Brooke lost, and his political career was over.

After graduating from Dunbar High School, Brother Brooke entered Howard University where he pledged Alpha Phi Alpha and was inducted through Beta Chapter. Of

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his Alpha experience, he said, “Alpha was full of talented, ambitious young men; if you could advance in its politics, you could do well in politics anywhere. Entering Howard, Brother Brooke first decided to enroll in pre-med in preparation for becoming a doctor.

It became clear that he wanted the doctor’s prestige but not the doctor’s responsibilities. He did not do well in organic chemistry, a prerequisite for medical school. He decided to switch to the social sciences focusing on political science and history. He did much better and so the seeds of a future career in politics were sown.

He graduated from Howard in 1941 and soon found himself in the Army due to the entry of America into World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the Army, he met hard-core prejudice for the first time. Even though he was a young officer, he was severely discriminated against as were all black officers.

They were not only separately housed, but were denied entrance to the Post Exchange and the allwhite officers club. They were not permitted to use the base swimming pool or the tennis courts. “In every regard, we were treated as second class soldiers, if not worse, and we were angry. I felt a personal frustration and bitterness I had not known before in my life” (p. 22).

Brother Brooke spent five years as an officer in the segregated 366th Infantry Regiment and saw combat in Italy. Even overseas, black officers and enlisted men were not highly regarded. Several white officers deliberately sent black troops into combat just to see

BOOK REVIEW

if they would fight. Brother Brooke came out of the Army disgusted.

“War is dirty, gruesome, and horrible. Most puzzling to me is to hear

those who claim to have fought this or that war in the name of God. I do not think God ever sanctioned any war. God must weep to see the folly

and cruelty carried out in His name” ( p. 31).

Following his discharge from the Army, Brother Brooke entered

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Boston University School of Law. He attended on the GI bill. He was one of seven blacks in a class of more than 300 students. He studied hard and had little difficulty with his studies. He was on the Law Review.

During law school, Brother Brooke married Remigia and they had their first daughter, Remi Cynthia.

After law school, Brother Brooke set up his private practice of law. At first he had few clients, mostly criminal and real estate cases. Then he moved his office from Roxbury to downtown Boston. But he was never satisfied with the practice of law. He longed for contact with people and to work with them on their problems. “Most of all,” he wrote, “I love people and politics is even more of a people business than law” (p. 53).

Eventually, Brother Brooke, with the urging of his friends, threw his hat into the political ring for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, but he lost. He then made two more attempts for office, including a race for the Secretary of State office, but he fell short in both races. To his dismay, the Communist Party endorsed him in both races, even though he was not a Communist. (The Party endorsed all Negro candidates.)

Even though he was defeated several times, Brother Brooke was determined to obtain an elected public office. He saw his defeats as sowing seeds, which would yield a later harvest. From 1962-62, Brother Brooke was Chairman of the Finance Committee of Boston.

In this job, he attacked endemic corruption in Boston. Contractors and others who did business with

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BOOK REVIEW the state often bribed legislators and pay-offs were made to state officials. The police department was implicated in a scandal and eventually the chief of police resigned. His work on the Finance Committee cleared out Boston corruption and he said, “I was able to wield power for the public good” (p. 77).

Because of his work on the Finance Committee, he was approached by the Republican Party about running for the office of Lieutenant Governor, but he told them he did not want that office. He wanted the office of Attorney General, the second highest office in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

On January 16, 1963, Edward Brooke was sworn as the 35th Attorney General of the state. He lost no time in making it clear that a new order of business was going to prevail. He outlawed an illegal dinner between members of the insurance industry and its regulatory commissioner. He fought for increased salaries for the members of his department so that they could devote their full time to their jobs.

He took on the state’s practice of taking property away from citizens through the use of eminent domain.

He enforced the law that outlawed daily Bible reading in the public schools, much to the dismay of the black citizens of Boston. Brother Brooke worked hard as Attorney General and the long hours that he put in took a toll on his marriage.

But he enjoyed what he was doing and was re-elected for a second term in 1964.

In 1965, Brother Brooke announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Up to that time, no

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African American had been elected to the Senate by popular vote. With the civil rights movement at a high pitch, his nomination became national news. He campaigned hard and on Election Day, he won 61 percent of the total vote. In his acceptance speech, he vowed to “go to Washington to bring people together, to work for peace, and to bring an end to the war” (p 143). Coming to the Senate, Brother Brooke and his wife, Remigia, were extended many dinner and party engagements. Both Time and Newsweek put him on their covers.

He bought an apartment in the new Tiber Island complex and settled in. The amenities of the Senate were open to him and he reported when “I came to the Senate, I did not intend to thrust myself on anyone, but I certainly intended to use all the services provided for all members. I planned to treat my colleagues with respect, and I expected to be treated with respect in return.

And I was” (p. 149).

He was assigned to the Banking and Currency Committee and the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee. He was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people who wanted to see him. He vowed not to represent black interests, but instead, the interests of all people.

In his role as a Senator, he was called by Mary McGrory, the Washington Star newspaper columnist “the freest man in the Senate” because he approached whatever issue that came before him, not from an ideological perspective but with a clear, uncommitted and independent judgment.

Brother Brooke served in the

Senate for twelve years from January 3, 1967 to January 3, 1979.

During these 12 years, he was engaged by numerous causes and issues. He once remarked, “Once elected, a Senator has many choices: there are far more issues and demands on his time than can possibly be addressed. I had to choose my issues carefully. Some I picked because I cared deeply about them; others I became involved with because they deeply affected the welfare of the people of Massachusetts” (p. 213).

One of the causes that the Senator addressed was the fundamental question of the rights of women, particularly the right to choose to have an abortion. During his second term, the famous Roe v.

Wade decision was handed down by the Supreme Court. He supported the right of a woman to make her own decision about continuing or terminating her pregnancy. This put him in opposition to those who dictated reproductive policy. Senator Brooke did battle with Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois and finally the two reached a compromise, which said that Medicaid abortions should be permitted “in case of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is endangered.” That language still exists today.

Another issue was the fight over the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In support of the bill, Brother Brooke did battle with Senator John Stennis of Mississippi.

Senator Brooke motioned to table the Stennis Admendment, which would have required all states to submit all changes in their electoral

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laws and procedures to the U.S. Attorney General, thus creating unconstitutional intrusions into state and local affairs. The motion carried, and the next day, the Senate voted 77-12 in favor of extending the Voting Rights Act. Senator Brooke was against smoking. It was incomprehensible, he said, that the U.S. government spent $65 million to subsidize the cultivation and sale of tobacco and only $8 million a year on research on the hazards of tobacco. Events in Massachusetts also engaged Senator Brooke’s attention. For example, the Boston schools, under Louise Day Hicks, claimed that the Brown v. Board of Education had no relevance to Boston schools. Brother Brooke took the position that busing of Boston students was not forced, but necessary to desegregate the Boston schools. With the aid of the U.S. Department of Justice, busing was upheld and the Boston schools were desegregated.

Senator Brooke was often accused of certain “eccentricities”.

One was his prohibition against smoking. He forbade the women on his staff to wear pantsuits. He enforced a strict dress code for men, requiring them to wear coats and ties in the office. But through all these “eccentricities,” Brother Brooke was a committed Senator.

He fought to preserve the Legal Services Program. He made visits to Haiti and the Soviet Union, and he made reports on these trips to the full Senate. In January 1978, Senator Brooke was invited to speak to the faculty and student body of Brigham Young University in Utah. He spoke on Africa, but

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE My Life Senator Edward W. Brooke “Edward Brooke has blazed a lot of political trails. He was the first African American nominated for a constitutional office in Massachusetts (secretary of state, 1960), the first elected attorney general of any state (1962), the first in the nation popularly elected to the US Senate (1966), and still the only one to win reelection as a senator (1972) . . . Brooke has written a readable, tempered autobiography.�—Kenneth Cooper, The Boston Globe “Read about Ed Brooke—who in a just world, would have been President—and see the kindness, wisdom and courage the country missed. Join his friends and constituents who are inspired and enlarged by knowing him.�—Gloria Steinem, cofounder Ms. Magazine and National Women’s Political Caucus “In an eloquent and forthright style, Senator Ed Brooke leads us through the extraordinary story of his life-from the grandson of a slave to the first popularly elected African American senator. It is a story that does honor to both the senator and the country he served for so many years.� —Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm President Lyndon Johnson never understood it. Neither did President Richard Nixon. How could a black man, a Republican no less, be elected to the United States Senate from liberal, Democratic Massachusetts—a state with an African American population of only 2 percent? . . . And he wasn’t even Catholic.

In this autobiography, Brooke details the challenges that confronted African American men of his generation and reveals his desire to be measured not as a black man in a white society but as an individual in a multiracial society. Chided by some in the white community as being “too black to be white� and in the black community as “too white to be black,� Brooke sought only to represent the people of Massachusetts and the national interest.

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BOOK REVIEW concluded his speech with an appeal for closer cooperation of Mormon and African Americans. He also echoed these same thoughts to the leaders of the church, which six months later announced that the Mormon Church was striking down its 148-year-old church policy stating that blacks would be denied membership in the priesthood of the Mormon Church. Brother Brooke believed that his speech had some effect on this policy.

Reading Brother Brooke’s account of his two terms in the Senate gives one a perspective on this exclusive club, which is modeled on the Roman Senate.

Through Senator Brooke’s eyes one gets a picture of personalities like Ted Kennedy and Joseph Biden, who are still in the Senate today. One gets an inkling as to how compromises are made and how deals are struck on certain pieces of legislation. Brother Brooke’s account of his years in the Senate provides a picture of a dedicated public servant who only wanted to make a difference in the lives of his constituents.

Senator Brooke ran for a third term, but the contentious divorce proceedings took their toll on his popularity. He lost his bid for a third term to a Democrat, Paul Tsongas.

He became a law partner in a Washington law firm and he was happy to be practicing law again. He was even asked to consider being appointed to the Supreme Court but he turned down the offer.

Now retired and happily remarried, Senator Brooke lives on a farm in Warrenton, Virginia. In 1996, he became the first chairman

Brooke Autobiography Discussed During Howard University Lecture

Senator Edward W. Brooke presented the Patricia Roberts Harris Lecture in the Ira Aldridge Theater at Howard University where he discussed his book, Bridging the Divide: My Life. Following the lecture, a reception was held in the Fine Arts Building on the Howard University campus where Brother Brooke signed copies of the book.

Photo by Bryan J.A. Kelly

of the Alpha Phi Alpha World Policy Council, a think tank whose purpose is to expand the Fraternity’s involvement in politics and social policy both of concern to America and the world. Brother Brooke also served as honorary chairman of the Centennial Committee for the Fraternity in 2006. In 2004, Brother Brooke was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

Edward W. Brooke has written

a compelling history of his life.

The style of writing involves telling a story, and he tells it superbly. In the closing chapter of this forthright autobiography, Brother Brooke says: “I have been blessed with much joy and sorrow, more than I could have ever thought possible. In this book I have written about both, because I believe that both are integral to the formation

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of a full character and a full life… I have shared my life in this book as I have lived it—fully, honestly, and gratefully. I hope that this last legacy, may inspire some readers, may save some from error, may give comfort and courage to those who have tried and failed and will live to try again, and may give hope and pleasure to all who read it (p. 307).

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OMEGA CHAPTER

OMEGA

State Supreme Court Justice Won Landmark Desegregation Case During Civil Rights Era

B

rother Judge Jawn Ardin Sandifer was a lawyer, civil rights activist and New York Supreme Court justice who helped win a landmark desegregation case before the U.S. Supreme Court four years before the historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka struck down school segregation in 1954. Brother Sandifer was a member of Alpha Gamma Lambda Chapter and a resident of Sarasota, Sag Harbor, New York. He was born June 6, 1914 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He graduated in 1935 from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina where he was the first freshman on the varsity debate team. He received a scholarship to attend law school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. where he graduated in 1938. After serving in the criminal investigation unit of the Army Air Force during World War II, Brother Sandifer worked as a lawyer for the NAACP. In 1949, he was elected president of the New York branch of the NAACP where he worked closely with fellow lawyer Thurgood Marshall, who went on to become the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Brother Sandifer was one of two NAACP lawyers Judge Jawn Ardin Sandifer who persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court in 1950 that dining cars on railroads that operate across state lines could not bar passengers from eating because of their race. The 8-0 Supreme Court ruling in the Henderson v. United States case was considered a significant victory in breaking down racial barriers that led to the high court’s ruling on school desegregation four years later. Brother Sandifer’s judicial career began in 1964 when the mayor of New York City appointed him to the civil court bench. Four years later, he was elected to the state’s Supreme Court, a post he held until he retired in 1992. In 2005, he was recognized by the New York State Bar Association in a tribute to New York lawyers who made legal history during the civil rights era. He also received the Justice Award from the NAACP for his lifelong dedication to promoting equal opportunity for all people. In addition to his successful legal career, Brother Sandifer co-authored and edited several books, including The AfroAmerican in United States History and Minorities USA, which were used in the New York school system for many years. One of those works reflects the prejudice and Jim Crow segregationist laws that Brother Sandifer and other minorities faced in the past century.

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rother Alvin Allen was a member of Beta Omicron Lambda Chapter in Mobile, Alabama where he served as Recording Secretary for more than 40 years. A retired postal clerk, he was a member of the Hope Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church where he was a member of the Stewart Board, Trustee Board, class leader, Chancel Choir, Sons of Varick, Sunday School and served as church treasurer. He was a 1951 graduate of Central High School and a 1955 graduate of Dillard University. Brother Allen also served in the United States Army from 1956-58 and received an honorable discharge. He was last employed with the Johnson-Allen Mortuary.

B

rother Frederick Winfield Black, Jr. served twice as the president of Beta Gamma Lambda Chapter in Richmond, Virginia—from1958-60 and 1977-79. He also served as Financial Secretary and chair of several committees, including the Reclamation and Life Membership. Brother Black was a life member of the organization who was initiated at Gamma Chapter in 1943. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and graduated from Armstrong High School, Virginia Union University and New York University. He served briefly in the U.S. Army. He began his professional career at Booker T. Washington High School in Culpeper, Virginia. His 40-year career as a teacher, counselor and administrator continued at Richmond Public Schools’ Benjamin Graves Junior High School, Maggie L. Walker High School and Huguenot High School. He later worked in the school system’s central office as Administrator of Student information Systems. Following his retirement, he continued working and volunteering at George Wythe and John Marshall High schools for several years.

B

rother Booker Taliaferro Blackwell, Sr. was a life member of the Fraternity who was initiated through Tau Chapter in 1925. He was born in Massas County, Illinois in 1904 and graduated from Dunbar High School in Metropolis, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign and graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931. Brother Blackwell received his Master of Science degree in school administration from the University of Illinois in 1944. After returning from the war in 1946, he left the field of teaching to become district manager of the Unity Mutual Life Insurance Company where he served for 14 years. He returned to teaching in 1960 and six years later became principal of Golden Garden and Grahman Elementary Schools. He remained principal of both schools until his retirement in 1970. While principal in the East St. Louis School District, he attended St. Louis University where he studied in the field of business and finance. In 1966, he received a scholarship from the University of Illinois where he studied in the field of education. Brother Blackwell was a charter member of the Delta Epsilon Lambda Chapter in East St. Louis, which was founded in 1947. Prior to chartering Delta Epsilon Lambda, he was a financial member of Epsilon Lambda Chapter in St. Louis where he served as vice president. Brother Blackwell was one of the Fraternity’s longest living members. He had the pleasure of meeting three of the Jewels during a train ride to the 50th Anniversary Convention.

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OMEGA CHAPTER

B

rother Albert “Donnie” Eugene Bolan, Jr. was a life member of the Fraternity. He was initiated and was a member of Iota Theta Lambda Chapter in Endicott, New York.

Brother Bolan was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He served in the United States Air Force and graduated from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio with a degree in engineering. Most of his professional life was spent with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and IBM in Endicott, New York.

B

rother William C. Bryant was a life member of the Fraternity who was initiated through Alpha Xi Lambda Chapter in 1948 while a student at the University of Toledo where he received his Bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Early in his career, he worked for the U.S. Post Office, Rossford Ordnance, Erie Ordnance and EOPA. He served as Director of Big Brothers of Northwest Ohio from 1969-72; Executive Director of Comprehensive Employment Training Programs, Inc. (CETA) 1972-1980; was founder and Director of Linques Neighborhood Center for 10 years, Director of Education on the Job Training Pilot program for the U.S. Department of Labor; and served as Executive Director of Alpha Towers Community Programs, Inc. He remained involved in public service following his retirement. He was a member at Third Baptist Church for more than 65 years. He served on the Trustee Board was church historian and taught Sunday School there.

B

rother James O. Bryson was initiated into the Fraternity through Gamma Iota Chapter and was last a member of Beta Delta Lambda Chapter in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was once a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Although he never fought overseas, he completed training as a fighter pilot when he was age 19 for the Tuskegee Airmen shortly after the war ended on September 7, 1945. Brother Bryson gave speeches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Daytona Beach Community College about his experience, which was often referred to as the “Tuskegee Experiment.” In 1988, he published a speech-givers’ guide to telling the airmen’s story. The guide was given throughout Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., a national

organization whose mission is to perpetuate the memory of the African Americans who participated in the air crew, ground crew and operations support training in the Army Corps during World War II. After serving in the military from 1944-46, Brother Bryson received his Bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia; and his Master’s degree in civil engineering from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. During that time, he began his 35-year career working for the Bureau of Standards, a part of the Department of Commerce. He retired from there in 1982. Brother Bryson was a partner in his own civil engineering consulting company, BKLB in Rockville, Maryland, and later served as vice president of United Design Engineers, another consulting firm.

B

rother William M. Clark, Sr. was initiated at Beta Alpha Chapter at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1955. He was a life member of the Fraternity and charter member of Iota Alpha Lambda Chapter in Aberdeen, Maryland. Brother Clark was born in Danville, Virginia where he attended public schools and graduated from Langston High School. He received a football scholarship to Virginia State University in Petersburg but suffered a knee injury. After leaving VSU, he was drafted in the U.S. Army where he served in the Korean War and received a Battle Star, Presidential Unit Citation and Korean Service Medal. Following his discharge, he entered Morgan State University and graduated in 1956 with a B.S. degree in health and physical education. He received a Master of Education degree in secondary administration from Towson State University in 1978. He began his teaching career in Harford County in 1956 as a health and physical education teacher and athletic coach at Havre de Grace Consolidated School.

During his coaching career, he led the track and field team to the Maryland State Championship for six consecutive years. He was transferred to Edgewood Middle School in 1965 where he taught for six years prior to becoming an assistant principal at Edgewood High School in 1971. He retired from Harford County Public Schools after 31 years of service.

He was inducted into the Harford County Public Schools Educators Hall of Fame in 2002.

B

rother E. Donald Congo was a life member of the Fraternity who was initiated in 1940 at Beta Gamma Chapter, Virginia State University. He was last a member of Zeta Omicron Lambda Chapter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Brother Congo was born in Saddlertown, New Jersey. He was educated in Haddonfield, New Jersey and upon graduation, attended Virginia State University and Virginia Union University. World War II interrupted his studies and he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served in France with the unit known as the Buffalo Soldiers and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After returning from the war, he received a B.A. degree in accounting from LaSalle University. He then worked with the IRS for 30 years. He was a life member of the VFW and was a Mason.

B

rother James H. East was initiated at Psi Chapter and was last a member of Zeta Omicron Lambda Chapter. He was a graduate of the Overbrook High School and attended Cheyney State University where he received his B.S. degree. He received graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Sorbonne University of Paris. Brother East had a distinguished career as a teacher and mentor. He was an In-Service instructor of Philadelphia teachers and guest lecturer at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania on “The Techniques of Choral Speaking”. After 32 years of teaching, he retired in 1982 from the Belmont Elementary School. During World War II, he served in the Army in France, Italy and other parts of Europe and ended his military career as a corporal. He served on the Board of Opera North, Inc.; Settlement Music School; Young Audiences; Parkside YMCA; Pro Arts Society; Mount Carmel Baptist Church; the W. Russell Johnson Music Guild, the Philharmonic Men’s Chorus and the Philadelphia Seminar.

B

rother Byron D. Freeman was a 1998 initiate of Epsilon Theta Chapter at Bowling Green State University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in psychology and telecommunications and a Master’s degree in rehabilitation psychology from Bowling Green. He had begun doctoral studies at the University of Iowa at the time of his death. At Bowling Green, Brother Freeman served as president of the Black Student Union and as a counselor with the University’s Upward Bound program. He also held numerous offices

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OMEGA CHAPTER in Epsilon Theta Chapter, including president and treasurer. Two Bowling Green State University Foundation scholarships are named in his honor—the Byron D. Freeman Upward Bound Scholarship and the Byron D. Freeman Scholarship. Brother Freeman and his biological brother, Brother Tyson W. Freeman, operated Image Imperial, LLC, a photography, engraving and design company in Toledo, which they founded in 2002. A Columbus, Ohio native, Brother Freeman graduated from Toledo’s Jesup W. Scott High School. He was a life-long member of Mays Chapel United Holy Church of America where his late father was the pastor.

B

rother Dr. Morris M. Hawkins, Jr. was a life member of the Fraternity, earning the “Brother of the Year” honor twice. A member of Mu Lambda Chapter in Washington, D.C., he was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in a Christian home where he was the youngest of three boys. After attending Booker T. Washington High School, Brother Hawkins entered Southern University in Baton Rogue, Louisiana where he received his M.S. degree in zoology in 1965. After spending time as an instructor of biology at Southern University, Brother Hawkins moved to Washington, D.C. where he attended Howard University for his post graduate studies. At Howard, he received a M.S. degree in Genetics and his Doctor of Philosophy degree. Brother Hawkins then embarked on postdoctoral and advanced studies at several institutions, including Yale University School of Medicine and West Virginia University Medical School. Dr. Hawkins joined the faculty at Howard University College of Medicine as an assistant professor in 1978. He authored several articles, abstracts and research support documents, in addition to serving as dissertation advisor to several Ph.D. candidates. When Brother Hawkins entered Omega Chapter, he was serving as Faculty Athletic Advisor, Chairman of the Integrated Academic Information Management Systems (IAIMS) Task Force, Coordinator of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) Accreditation Task Force and Special Assistant to the Dean, College of Medicine. He was a long-time member of Shiloh Baptist Church in the Washington, D.C. and he served on the Board of Family Life Center Foundation.

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rother Rev. Dr. Horace E. Hill, Sr. was a member of Beta Delta Lambda Chapter.

Brother Hill was born in Clearwater, Florida and received his early education in Pinellas County.

He received his B.S. degree from Bethune Cookman College; Juries Doctorate from Howard University; and Doctor of Divinity from B.F. Lee Theological Seminary. He served in the U.S. Army before opening the Horace E. Hill, Sr. Law Firm in Volusia and Orange counties. He was a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement and an attorney for the Eleventh Episcopal District. Brother Hill was pastor and presiding elder of the Central Florida Conference, Ocala District.

B

rother Roy E. Hodge, Sr. was a 1953 initiate of Alpha Xi Lambda Chapter where he was an active member. A graduate of the University of Toledo, he played football for the Rockets. He served the community as an administrator in the Toledo Public Schools for more than 25 years. After retiring, he moved to Dallas, Texas where he was a substitute teacher and community liaison at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Learning Center. Brother Hodge attended Boys High School in New York City where he excelled in football, boxing, baseball and track. After graduation from college, he had a short stint in professional football before serving in the United States Army.

B

rother Oscar E. Jones was a life member of the Fraternity. He was initiated and was last a member of Zeta Kappa Lambda Chapter. Brother Jones was born in Centerville, Iowa and graduated from Centerville High School in 1939. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942-45. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Iowa in 1949 and Law degree from Drake University in 1952.

He was admitted to the Iowa State Bar; admitted to practice before the Iowa Supreme Court; and admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa the same year he graduated. In 1968, he received a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Drake University; and was admitted to practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1979. He began his association in General Practice of Law with W. Lawrence Oliver in 1952.

He practiced law in partnership with Ted W. Rockwell from 1957-83, which was the first interracial law firm in the state of Iowa. He later associated in General Practice of Law with

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Charles D. Funaro until his retirement in 1998.

He also drafted bills for the Iowa Legislature from 1957-63. He was elected to serve on the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association Board of Governors from 1994-95, being the first African American lawyer elected. He was re-elected to serve the 1995-96 term.

B

rother Cordell D. Meeks, Jr. was initiated through Upsilon Chapter at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1962. He earned his B.A. degree in political science from the University of Kansas in 1964. A distinguished judge, he was inducted into the Sachem Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa and was chapter president of the Fraternity’s Upsilon Chapter. In law school, Brother Meeks was chairman of the Honor Committee and was elected president of his senior class. In 1968, he was federally activated with the 69th Brigade of the Kansas Army National Guard and served on active duty for 19 months.

He served as Judge Advocate General and retired as a Senior Military Judge for the Kansas Army National Guard where he attained the rank of full Colonel. In 1981, Brother Meeks graduated from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1997, he graduated from the U.S. Army College where he was vice president of his class. He was a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Command and General Staff College Foundation and was a faculty member of the National Institute for Trail Advocacy, which trains newly licensed lawyers on the techniques of trying jury trials. He was past Sire-Archon of Theta Boule Chapter of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.

B

rother Arthur E. Pullam, Jr. was initiated through Upsilon Chapter at Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas in 1933. He was last a member of Beta Zeta Lambda Chapter. Brother Pullam was a life member of the Fraternity. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri and was educated in the city’s public school system. He received a Fraternity scholarship to Kansas University where he received a B.A. degree in biological science in 1931. His Master’s degree in micro-biology was received in 1932.

He was inducted into the Phi Sigma Honorary Fraternity for persons in biological professions the same year. His first teaching position in biology was at Miles Memorial College in

OMEGA CHAPTER Montgomery, Alabama. In 1939, he was hired to teach biological science at Lincoln University. After 28 years in the classroom, he was named to the Office of Administrative Affairs. He continued in the capacity for 20 years until his retirement in 1985.

B

rother Nelson W. Ray, Jr. was a member of Zeta Omicron Lambda Chapter where he served as Secretary. He was born in Auburn, New York and attended Alma College where he graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor’s degree in math and a minor in chemistry, German and history. He served on the Board of Directors of Bryn Mawr Hospital; and was president of the Adrmore Housing for the Elderly, Inc.; former treasurer of the Ardmore Avenue Community Center; United States Army Veteran; former president and vice president of the Lower Merion School Board.

B

rother Earl Roberson, Sr. was a member of Beta Omicron Lambda Chapter. He was a native of Troy, Alabama and a long-time resident of Mobile, Alabama. He graduated valedictorian of his class in 1950 at Academy High School in Troy. In 1954, he earned a B.S. degree in industrial arts; and in 1962, he earned a M.S. degree in trade and industrial education from Alabama A&M University in Normal. He served in the U.S. Army from 195456 and received an honorable discharge. In 1962, Brother Roberson moved to Mobile and accepted the position as Assistant Director of Carver State Technical School. In 1976, he was appointed as President of Carver State Technical College. He remained in that position until his appointment as provost of the consolidated Bishop State Community College in 1991. He retired in 1993 after 40 years of service with the Alabama School System. Following his retirement, he served as Interim President of Trenholm Technical College in Montgomery.

Brother Roberson was an extension Vocational Education instructor for Alabama A&M University from 1962-1976. He also was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters by the Alabama Interdenominational Seminary. Brother Roberson served as Sunday School Superintendent of First Baptist Church of Troy where he earlier was a member. He later joined State Street AME Zion Church where he served in the Cathedral Choir and as chairman of the Board of Trustees.

B

rother Andrew George Sadler, Sr. was initiated at Beta Lambda Chapter and was last a member of Gamma Omicron Lambda Chapter.

He was a life member of the Fraternity. He was born in Gordon, Georgia in 1911 and graduated from Hudson and Industrial School and Ballard Normal High School in Macon, Georgia. He received his B.S. degree in Agriculture from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro in 1939. He received Master of Agriculture, Biological Science and Natural Science degrees from Tuskegee Institute.

He completed significant doctorial studies in the field of agriculture at the University of Georgia in Athens and Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College in Tifton, Georgia. Brother Sadler served for 39 years in the field of Agricultural education. He taught for over 30 years in the Worth County School system. In 1949, he became supervising teacher over 75 counties in the Veterans Farm Training Program. He taught at J.W. Holly School and Worth County High School until he retired in 1976.

B

rother Carl North Smith was a life member of the Fraternity. He was last a member of Beta Zeta Lambda Chapter in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Brother Smith was born in Sherman, Texas. He attended elementary schools in Missouri where his father was principal—Wheatley in Poplar Bluff; Douglass in Columbia; and Washington in Jefferson City. He attended Lincoln University Laboratory High School where his mother was his English teacher. He developed his theatrical talent in high school and later attended Lincoln University where he graduated with a B.S. degree in biology in 1956. He later attended the University of Missouri where he received a M.S. degree before returning to Lincoln University where he earned a M.A. degree in education.

Following graduation, he worked at Memorial Hospital, which later became Capital Region Medical Center. For several years, he held a second job as a teacher at the Missouri Department of Corrections and as a counselor at the Jefferson City Juvenile Correction Center, which is now Prenger Family Center. He worked 49 years as a lab technician and later as a microbiologist at the medical center. Brother Smith was a 20-year member of the United States Army Reserves and a member of the

Fraternity for 52 years, having been initiated while at Lincoln University.

B

rother Hiram A. Stith was initiated through Beta Gamma Chapter at Virginia State University in 1946 and was a member of Zeta Omicron Lambda Chapter. He was born in Franklin, Virginia and received his education in Virginia’s Southampton County School District before attending Virginia State University. His education at Virginia State was interrupted when he went into the military to serve in World War II. After serving in the South Pacific and following an honorable discharge from the military, he returned to VSU to resume his academic interests as a physics major. He later moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he earned his B.S. degree in electronic engineering from Drexel University. Brother Stith began his career in the science lab of Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot; however, he spent the majority of his career as an engineer for the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia. He retired from the U.S. Department of Defense, Picatiny Arsenal, New Jersey in 1982. Prior to his 1982 retirement, he retired from the Army Reserves with the rank of Major. Shortly thereafter, he substituted with the Philadelphia Public School System, teaching math until his wife joined him in retirement.

B

rother Troilus Clarence “T.C.” Warren was a life member of the Fraternity. He was initiated through Upsilon Chapter and was last affiliated with Beta Lambda Chapter in Kansas City, Missouri.

Brother Warren was born in Beaumont, Texas.

He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and later earned a B.S. degree in education from the University of Kansas and a M.A. in public administration from Central Michigan University. As a young professional, he worked for the YMCA and was a public school teacher. He worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for 20 years before retiring in 1991. He continued his professional career as a training specialist for GEHA for 10 years. He also was an adjunct professor for Upper Iowa University and National American University.

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OMEGA CHAPTER Brother Ike D. Adams Kappa Nu

Brother Roderick Claire Zeta Zeta Lambda

Brother Selvin L. Gordon Gamma Nu / Omicron Delta Lambda

Brother Victor R. Adebimpe Alpha Omicron Lambda Brother Andrew B. Coleman, Jr. Upsilon Lambda Brother Ashley Aiken Iota Eta Lambda Brother Richard H. Crawford Eta Zeta Lambda Brother George Allen Alpha Gamma Lambda / Beta Psi Lambda Brother Cecil M. Andrews Beta / Zeta Theta Lambda Brother James Baker Beta Lambda / Zeta Zeta Lambda Brother Wilmoth Henry Baker, Jr. Xi / Gamma Mu Lambda

Brother Herbert Baldwin Beta Rho / Zeta Zeta Lambda

Brother James Beard Mu / Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother James W. Becknell Beta Delta / Eta Beta Lambda

Brother Othello H. Curry Eta Beta Lambda

Brother Stephen Davis Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother Harrison F. DeShields, Jr. Xi / Alpha Upsilon Lambda

Brother Artis Grant Alpha Delta / Beta Psi Lambda Brother Dr. Edward Harned Hale Alpha Omicron Lambda

Brother Allen Hancock Mu Eta Lambda

Brother Raymond O. Hatcher Nu / Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother Napolean Helm Beta Phi / Delta Gamma Lambda Brother Theodore Hemingway Gamma Mu Lambda

Brother Oscar E. Desper, Jr. Zeta Pi Lambda

Brother Rufus DeWitt Beta Eta / Zeta Sigma Lambda

Brother Samuel F. Favors Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother John Herod Alpha Delta / Beta Psi Lambda Brother E. Stanley Herring Zeta Theta Lambda Brother Oswald V. Hicks Gamma Gamma Lambda / Zeta Theta Lambda

Brother Dr. Robert Lloyd Bragg Beta Nu Brother Roy C. Breedlove Nu Psi Lambda Brother Samuel Brookins Alpha Beta / Beta Psi Lambda Brother Isham Buchanan Alpha Rho / Gamma Chi Lambda

Brother Benjamin Folk Delta Pi / Rho Brother Archie Jackson Franklin Alpha Tau Lambda / Beta Psi Lambda

Brother Michael A. Childs Kappa Nu

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Brother Arthur C. Hill Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother Edward M. Gardner Zeta Alpha Lambda Brother Asby Gaskins Kappa Lambda / Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother Harry L. Budd Omicron / Alpha Omicron Lambda

Brother Harry Hightower Delta Tau / Nu Psi Lambda

Brother Akinyemi B. George Kappa Upsilon / Upsilon Lambda Brother Ernest Gibson Delta Rho Lambda / Rho Kappa Lambda

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Brother William O. Hunter Alpha Epsilon / Gamma Chi Lambda

Brother John T. Jackson Delta Gamma Lambda Don Ellwood Jennings, Sr. Gamma Upsilon / Xi Zeta Lambda

OMEGA CHAPTER Brother David Johnson Delta Chi Lambda

Brother Dr. T.W. Northcross Beta Omicron / Alpha Delta Lambda

Brother Henry Thomas Alpha Gamma Lambda / Beta Psi Lambda

Brother John W. Johnson, Jr. Delta Mu / Eta Beta Lambda Brother Johnny L. Johnson Delta Eta / Gamma Xi Lambda Brother Matthew U. Johnson Beta Theta / Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother Joseph O. Manker, Jr. Omicron / Alpha Omicron Lambda

Brother Clinton L. Minnis Gamma Delta / Beta Psi Lambda

Brother Bishop Rhymes H. Moncure, Jr. Beta Zeta Lambda Brother Major (Retired) Henry E. Montgomery Kappa Zeta Lambda / Omicron Phi Lambda

Brother Charles L. Montjoy Epsilon Eta Lambda / Gamma Xi Lambda Brother Clayton R. Moore Gamma Xi / Beta Psi Lambda

Brother Elarryo E. Mukes Epsilon Epsilon / Eta Beta Lambda

Brother Jerome Newsom Beta Sigma Lambda / Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother Lawrence Thomas Eta Theta Lambda / Zeta Zeta Lambda

Brother Perry C. Parks, Jr. Alpha Sigma / Beta Psi Lambda

Brother Leroy Patrick Nu / Alpha Omicron Lambda

Brother Harry Thompson Beta Xi / Alpha Delta Lambda

Brother George Towns Delta Omicron / Gamma Chi Lambda

Brother Lloyd Perkins Beta Psi Lambda Brother Thaddeus H. Phillips Phi Lambda / Zeta Theta Lambda

Brother Archie Watkins Nu Psi Lambda

Brother Michael James Player Eta Kappa / Xi Kappa Lambda

Brother Dr. Thomas Watkins Rho

Brother Marion L. Poole Alpha Omicron Lambda

Brother Frederick R. Watson Alpha Alpha / Delta Gamma Lambda

Brother Dr. Louis H. Pratt Delta Eta / Gamma Mu Lambda

Brother Raymond L. Welch Eta Beta Lambda

Brother Forest Pritchett Gamma /Gamma Chi Lambda

Brother Harry A. Wheatley, Jr. Beta Phi / Alpha Omicron Lambda

Brother Rev. Dr. Jerry A. Quick Alpha Omicron / Beta Mu Lambda

Brother Arnold White Eta / Zeta Zeta Lambda

Brother Charles F. Rogers Alpha Psi / Gamma Xi Lambda

Brother Roland Wilburn Xi Mu / Alpha Omicron Lambda

Brother J. Merrill Spenser Epsilon Upsilon Lambda

Brother Victor Nickerson Alpha Delta / Beta Psi Lambda Brother August N. Swain Delta / Gamma Eta Lambda Brother Waldanese C. Nixon Beta Nu / Gamma Chi Lambda Brother Charles W. Taylor Alpha Zeta / Gamma Chi Lambda

Brother Wallace Wilburn, Jr. Beta Xi / Alpha Delta Lambda Brother James T. Wordlaw Alpha Rho / Gamma Xi Lambda

Key:

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= Life Member

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157

CORPORATE C O R P O R AT E D I R E C T O RY

The Seven Jewels Henry A. Callis

Charles H. Chapman

Eugene K. Jones

GENERAL OFFICERS General President Immediate Past General President Executive Director General Treasurer Comptroller General Counsel Director of General Conventions Historian Chief Parliamentarian

Darryl R. Matthews, Sr., 5075 Red Robin Ridge, Alpharetta, Georgia, 30022 Harry E. Johnson, Sr., 7457 Harwin Drive, Houston, TX 77036 Willard C. Hall, Jr., 2313 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 George N. Reaves, 1417 Kinross Street, Flossmoor, IL 32312 Frank A. Jenkins, III, 529 South Perry Street, Ste.16, Montgomery, AL 60422 Michael D. Pegues, 3800 Lincoln Plaza, 500 N. Akard St., Dallas, TX 75202 A. Brian Parker, 9115 Lake Fischer Blvd., Gotha, FL 34734 Robert L. Harris, Jr., 102 Burleigh Drive, Ithaca, NY 14850 John M. Williams, 7075 Colesbrooke Drive, Hudson, OH 44236

VICE PRESIDENTS Eastern Midwestern Southern Southwestern Western

Dennis G. Kemp, Sr., PO Box 3056, Laurel, MD 20709 Darryl A. Peal, 660 Culpepper Drive, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 Everette Ward, 3112 Falconhurst Drive, Wake Forest, NC 27587 Arthur McDade, III, 1124 Peyton Street, Little Rock, AK 72204 Ryan Williams, 1465 65th Street, Apt. 434, Emeryville, CA 80015

ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENTS Eastern Midwestern Southern Southwestern Western

Jamaal Richardson, 2601 Corprew Ave., 4040A, Norfolk, VA 23504 Emmanuel T. Brown, 3110 E. Livingston Ave., Apt. 2, Columbus, OH 43227 John White, 830 Westview Drive, SW, Box Unit 42296, Atlanta, GA 30314 Maurice D. Gipson, Louisiana State University, PO Box 12131, Baton Rouge, LA 70894 Ronnie Versher, 340 Grenadine Way, Hercules, CA 94547

LIVING PAST GENERAL PRESIDENTS 25th General President 26th General President 27th General President 28th General President 29th General President 30th General President 31th General President

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James R. Williams, 1733 Brookwood Drive, Akron, OH 44313 Ozell Sutton, 1640 Loch Lomond Trail, SW, Atlanta, GA 30331 Charles C. Teamer, Sr., 282 English Turn Drive, New Orleans, LA 70131 Henry Ponder, 3 Covington Court, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928 Milton C. Davis, 304 N. Main Street, Tuskegee, AL 36083 Adrian L. Wallace, 281 Debra Lane, Lake Charles, LA 70611 Harry E. Johnson, Sr., 7457 Harwin Drive, Houston, TX 77036

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DIRECTORY

C O R P O R AT E D I R E C T O RY

George B. Kelley

Nathaniel A. Murray

Robert H. Ogle

Vertner W. Tandy

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS TO THE GENERAL PRESIDENT Political Affairs Development Liaison to Entertainment and Sports Industries Technology and Info Management

Leon C. Buck, Jr., 2704 Accent Court Bowie, MD 20716 John M. Williams, 7075 Colesbrooke Drive, Hudson, OH 44236 Darrell Miller, 9720 Wilsher Blvd., Suite 700, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 Lover High, Jr., 881 Creekdale Drive, Atlanta, GA 30021

DEPUTY ASSISTANTS TO THE GENERAL PRESIDENT Marketing/Branding Organizational Effectiveness College Brother Development Social Responsibility Health/Healthcare Awareness Commerce and Economic Policy Liason to the Broadcast Media

John C. Hannah, 600 Wynbrook Parkway, Stone Mountain, GA 30087 Kermit H. Boston, 138 Everson Street, San Francisco, CA 94131 Roderick L. Smothers, PO Box 17701, Baton Rouge, LA 70893 Dr. John H. Jackson, Esq., 4805 Mount Hope Drive, Baltimore, MD 21215 Pierre N. Vigilance, M.D., 10795 Symphony Wave, Columbia, MD 21045 Bobby McDonald, 6255 Camino Manzano, Anaheim Hills, CA 92807 Victor L. Carter, 8316 Governor Thomas Lane, Ellicott City, MD 21043

SPECIAL ASSISTANTS TO THE GENERAL PRESIDENT Logistics Protocol Aide Senior Advisor Chief of Staff Administrative Assistant

Donald Woods, 9045 S. Bennett, Chicago, IL 60617 OPEN David Brown, 4502 Pageant Way, Orlando, FL 32808 Bob A. Willis, 130 Old Fairburn Close, Atlanta, GA 30331 Al F. Rutherford, 2732 Gull Lake Drive, Plano, TX 75025 Joseph E. Heyward, Sr., PO Box 384, Florence, SC 29503

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159

L E A D E R S H I P D I R E C T O RY ALPHA PHI ALPHA WORLD POLICY COUNCIL

Chairman Horace G. Dawson, Jr., 1601 Kalmia Road, NW, Washington, DC 20037 Chairman Emeritus Edward W. Brooke, 6437 Blantyre Road, Warrenton, VA 20187 Members Charles Rangle, 2354 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 Huel D. Perkins, 1923–79th Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70807 Henry Ponder, 3 Covington Court, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928 Vinton R. Anderson, AME Church Finance Office, 1134–11th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001 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 22314 Cornel West, 220 Boylston Street, 1010, Boston, MA 02116 Ron Dellums, 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20004

NATIONAL COMMITTEE/COMMISSION CHAIRMEN Alpha Collegiate Scholars Awards & Achievement Belford V. Lawson Oratorical Big Brothers & Big Sisters Black & Gold Pageant Boy Scouts Building Foundation Budget and Finance Business & Economic Development Foundation College Brothers Affairs Commission Constitution Director of General Conventions Director of Housing Activities Education Foundation Elections General Headquarters – Facility Management Grievance & Discipline Higher Education Historical Commission Human Resources Internal Auditing International Brothers: Caribbean Leadership Development Life Membership Management Information Systems March of Dimes Liaison MLK Memorial Project Mediation and Arbitration Medical Advisory Board Military Brothers Liaison National Sergeant at Arms Organization Effectiveness Political Action Publications Project Alpha Protocol Racial Justice & Public Policy Reclamation Rituals & Ceremonies Senior Alpha Affairs Training and Development (Alpha University) Walk America–March of Dimes

Steven M. Clark, 2898 Bentbrook Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45251 Clifton Johnson, 3559 Fuller Street, Columbus, GA 31907 Lynwood Randolph, 3000 Fairhill Ct.; Suitland, MD 20746 Dale Long, 1614 Dorado Street, Garland, TX 75040 Alvin J. Cavalier, 413-C Longwood Court, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 George Randall, 8705 Saranac Trail, Fortworth, TX 76118 R. (Bob) Leandras Jones, II, 1045 Audubon Circle, SW, Atlanta, GA 30311 Frank A. Humphrey, 6918 Park Edge Drive, Madison, WI 53719 Steve Sims, 2508 Dysart Road, Cleveland, OH 44118 Mike A. Blake, 405 S. Butler Blvd, Apt. 3, Lansing, MI 48915 Lloyd A. Givens, 6050 Canaan Woods Drive, Atlanta, GA 30331 Brian Parker, 9115 Lake Fischer Blvd., Gotha, FL 34734 Thomas A. Tatum, 2266 Canterbury Circle, Akron, OH 44319 Ralph E. Johnson, 9241 Sealed Message Road, Columbia, MD 21045 Russell C. Campbell, Sr., 4212 Sugar Pine Court, Burtonsville, MD 20866 Ola O. Aluko, 14951 S.W. 157th CT, Miami, FL 33196 William A. Crutchfield, 631 Spring Street, Herndon, VA 20170 Thomas Cole, 4825 Regency Trace, Atlanta, GA 30331 Herman “Skip” Mason, 4233 Ivy Run, Ellenwood, GA 30294 Chad D. Simmons, 520 East 41st Street, Chicago, IL 60653 Hyacinth Ahuruonye, 595 Market Street #2160, San Francisco, CA 94105 Ricardo P. Deveaux, P.O. Box N-4511, Nassau, Bahamas Alex Dejarnett, 1126 South Horseshoe Road, Durham, NC 27703 Roger R. Gregory, 2516 Carver Street, Durham, NC 27705 Josh O. Williams, 1006 Elmira Ave, New Orleans, LA 70114 Wilbur E. Jackson, Jr., 6716 Indian Springs Court, San Jose, CA 95120 Frank Russell, Jr., 3314 Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, GA 30339 Keith A. Bishop, 1802 MLK Jr. Parkway, Suite 105, Durham, NC 27707 Anton C. Bizzell, 821 Braeburn Drive, Fort Washington, MD 20744 Ralph Harris, 7371 Hunters Oak Court, Springfield, VA 22150 Ron Russell, 700 Cedar Ridge Lane, Richton Park, IL 60471 Zollie J. Stevenson, Jr., 806 Falls Lake Drive, Mitchellville, MD 20721 Kobi Little, Post Office Box 1082, Selma, AL 36701 R. Vann Graves, 206 W. 132nd Street #3F, New York, NY 10027 Craig F. Reed, 315 Forest Grove Avenue, Jacksonville, NC 28540 Larry Henderson, 2641 Foundry Way, 302, Alexandria, VA 22314 Cleveland E. Beckett, Jr., 1849 Sedgwick Avenue, # 10E, Bronx, NY 10453 Harry Evans, III, 7575 Weatherworn Way, Columbia, MD 21046 Russell E. Flye, 6211 Devon Court, Pasco, WA 99337 Elliott McKinney, PO Box 942, E. St. Louis, IL 62203 A. L. Mackey, 6801 Willamette Drive, Austin, TX 78723 Wilbert L. Brown, 6216 Rime Village Drive # 102, Huntsville, AL 35806

ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC. 2313 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-5211 CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS Phone: (410) 554-0040; Fax: (410) 554-0054

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013R Rope Chain 10K . . $75.00 SS. . . $20.00 GF. . . $20.00

102 Crown Pearl Badge 14K. . . . $120.00 10K. . . . $90.00 GP . . . . $60.00

Snake Chain 10K. . . . $75.00 SS . . . . $20.00 013R Rope Chain 10K . . $75.00 SS. . . $20.00 GF. . . $20.00

7972 Lavaliere with diamond 14K . . $70.00 SS. . . $40.00 (Chain sold separately.)

103 Crown Pearl Badge with onyx stones GP . . . . $65.00

0040 Sweetheart Onyx Pendant with cubic zirconias 14K . . $245.00 (Chain sold separately.)

100 Diamond Badge 14K. . . . $325.00

2724 Crest Lapel Button 14K . . $60.00 10K . . $50.00

101 Diamond Badge 10K. . . . $275.00 (Shown larger than actual size to enhance detail.)

2045 A.T. Cross Pen and Pencil Set GF. . . $75.00

0600 Monogram Recognition Pin 14K . . $40.00 10K . . $20.00 2025 Money Clip GP . . $25.00

L2647 Lavaliere 10K . . $32.00 SS. . . $22.00

0027 Sweetheart Pendant with diamonds 14K . . $1,545.00 0028 Sweetheart Pendant with cubic zirconias 14K . . $325.00 Vermeil $175.00 (Chain sold separately.)

4044 Official Ring 14K . . $390.00 10K . . $328.00

3252 Classic Ring 14K . . $388.00 10K . . $338.00 10KW $338.00

7200 Oval Cufflinks 14K . . $420.00 GF. . . $70.00 1425 Formal Shirt Stud Set 14K . . $296.00 GF. . . $96.00

935 Founders Cufflinks with cubic zirconias GF. . . . . $120.00 933 Founders Pin with cubic zirconias GF. . . . . $30.00 934 Founders Pin with diamonds 10K. . . . $195.00 GF. . . . . $120.00

1146 Signet Ring 14K . . $349.00 10K . . $250.00

7000 Black and Gold Cufflinks 14K . . $410.00 GF. . . $90.00 0050 Centennial Paperweight Bronze $35.00

0336 Black and Gold Lapel Button 14K . . $180.00 10K . . $120.00 GF. . . $40.00

1404 Filigree Border Cufflinks 14K . . $400.00 GF. . . $65.00

3326 Oval Onyx Ring with encrusted letters 14K . . $400.00 10K . . $300.00

To order, visit

www.HJGreek.com or call 1-800-422-4348