Alpha Phi Alpha, is the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American Men, founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1906. By seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of brotherhood among African descendants in this country. The visionary founders, known as the “Jewels” of the fraternity, are Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy.
The fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell. The Jewel founders and early leaders of the fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha’s principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity.
Since its founding on December 4, 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African Americans and people of color around the world.
The objectives of this fraternity shall be:
- to stimulate the ambition of its members
- to prepare them for the greatest usefulness in the causes of humanity, freedom, and dignity of the individual
- to encourage the highest and noblest form of manhood; and to aid downtrodden humanity in its efforts to achieve higher social, economic and intellectual status.
Alpha Xi Chapter was originally chartered in Marquette University in 1923 before being moved to the University of Washington in 1939.
Please contact us at aphia@uw.edu
University of Washington NPHC 