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Episode #2116
Alpha Phi Alpha Celebrates 100
Lewis: Alpha Phi Alpha, Incorporated bears the distinction of America's first African-American Greek letter collegiate fraternity. This year it celebrates its 100th birthday. A new PBS documentary highlights men in this organization who have made a difference in America from past to present. Today we will talk to members of the organization about their influence in North Carolina, the African-American community, and the nation at large and how it can sustain that impact for another 100 years. That is next on Black Issues Forum.
Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by UNC-TV members.
Lewis: Hello everyone and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I am Mitchell Lewis. Today there are nine international Greek letter sororities and fraternities, but it all began about 100 years ago with the founding of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in 1906. A new PBS documentary highlights men in this organization who played a leadership role in bringing about change in America over the years. Today we will meet the national president of Alpha Phi Alpha and members in North Carolina who are continuing to follow in the footsteps of the organization's founders. We will talk with them in just a moment, but first let's take a brief look at a clip from the PBS documentary Alpha Phi Alpha: A Century of Leadership.
M: A century ago seven young men founded a brotherhood committed to the cause of freedom. Today over 125,000 members strong, the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha continue this fight. WEB Duboise, Jesse Owens, Duke Ellington, Edward Brook, Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are among the countless Alpha men who have dedicated their lives to scholarship, manly deeds, and the love for all mankind. The history of these men is the history of America and their place in the vanguard of African-American progress is unparalleled. This is the story of Alpha Phi Alpha's century of leadership.
Lewis: And here to talk with us more about Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity are today's guests. I'd like to welcome Darrell R. Matthews, Sr., the general president for the national Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Also Edward Ward, a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina and the southern regional vice president of Alpha Phi Alpha as well as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha's national board of directors. And Howard Clement, III, who is a 52-year member of Alpha Phi Alpha and a 23-year member of the Durham City Council. And to the three of you gentlemen welcome to Black Issues Forum.
Matthews: Thank you very much.
Lewis: President Matthews I'll start off with you. Looking back at the history of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, what were the issues surrounding the formation of this fraternity?
Matthews: In the year 1904-1905, all of the black students that enrolled in Cornell University failed to come back the following year, actually 0% retention rate. The founders of Alpha Phi Alpha said we must do something to make sure that African-Americans and blacks graduate with degrees from Cornell. And thus they banded together to form a brotherhood which subsequently became Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Lewis: Vice President Ward you are the southern regional vice president of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. What areas do you cover?
Ward: Our southern region is composed of seven states in the southeastern part of the United States; we start from North Carolina, move to South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee and we comprise all of the alumni chapters and college chapters within the southern region.
Lewis: And Councilman Clement you have been a member for 52 years. What lead you to become a part of Alpha Phi Alpha?
Clement: Well the greatest influence in my life was my father, Alpha John Howard Clement, Jr. He pledged Alpha in 1926 at Johnson C. Smith University. And when I enrolled at Howard University in 1951, my father said to me, "When you pledge Alpha" he didn't give me an option. He said, "When you pledge Alpha I'll help you." And that is what I did, I pledged Alpha and he was there when we crossed the burning sands. And up until the date of his death in 1987 he remained an annual payment dues; he had all of his pass cards from 1926 until 1987. That made a profound impact on me. And I said I am going to surpass my father in terms of tenure in this great organization and in the meantime my brother pledged Alpha, I have two brothers-in-law who are Alphas, I have several cousins who are Alpha. In fact there are enough Alphas in my family to form a chapter. You only need seven and I've counted 12 Alpha's in my family, who if we banded together as a society we would be legally titled a chapter in Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. And I never regretted these 52 years that I have been a member.
Lewis: President Matthews, being the national president of this organization, how has the organization shaped you as far as your thinking, your being as a person?
Matthews: First I think that, or I feel that this is one of the greatest honors that could ever be bestowed upon an individual, the opportunity to be a servant leader for a group of intelligent men whose mantra is to strive for excellence, leadership through excellence. And every day I wake up and I pinch myself and say, "Is this real?" It just-to receive-the way the Brothers receive you wherever you go-you have members of Congress when you walk in the halls of Congress who will stop what they are doing to come over and greet their general president. That is a great feeling.
Lewis: Vice President Ward, now President Matthews talked about leadership. As you look at Alpha Phi Alpha as an organization focusing on leadership, what are some of the things the organization is doing to try and develop leadership skills, not only in its members but as well as perhaps the African-American community and beyond?
Ward: Well leadership is Mitch the foundation of our fraternity. When we were founded in 1906 it was around the motto of "Scholarship, leadership, and service." So from the existence of our organization or members and our founders knew that we had an obligation, not only to ourselves but to the entire community to provide leadership and we have continued that legacy and under General President Matthews it will go beyond our centennial celebration. To that end we have two approaches to leadership; we have an internal approach as well as an external. Our external approach is that we sponsor leadership academies and leadership training seminars and activities for high school students and college students, both men and women, and internally we sponsor for our own members leadership training. Under General President Matthews we now have what we call "College Life to Professional Life," which is a real responsibility. Our members are encouraged to be very involved in the community. As college men it is an obligation and a responsibility for membership in this organization to be involved in the student and government association, to be involved in other public service-types of activities. Brother Clement is a prime example of alumni brothers who served in elected official positions across this region and across this country. Leadership is the defining characteristic of Alpha Phi Alpha and we, the men of Alpha, see that as our continuing hallmark and the one issue, the one defining characteristic that defines all men of Alpha no matter where they are.
Lewis: Thank you gentlemen. We will get back to you in just a moment but social, economic, and political events affected great changes in America and as we will see in this next clip from the PBS documentary Alpha Phi Alpha: A Century of Leadership. These events also affected the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
M: But the men of Alpha persisted in their leadership and service. Their undying commitment was aptly described by Brother Bernard Young, editor of the Sphinx magazine: "Any brother who has fraternity spirit and love worthy of the name, we see that old man depression gets a lickin' from Alpha Phi Alpha." In 1933 the fraternity established the Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation. Headed by Brother Raeford W. Logan, the Education Foundation comprised a structure of scholarships and grants for African-American students. In addition they created Foundation Publishing to create financial support and fellowship for writers addressing African-American issues. A young John Hoke Franklin was among the first recipients of assistance from Foundation Publishing. Additionally a Committee of Public Policy was organized to give Alpha a voice for or against national government policies. The men of Alpha recognized the alarmingly disproportionate appropriations for education of black and white citizens in many states. The Committee of Public Policy was intended to address such problems.
Individually and as an organization they worked to eliminate and overcome the barriers of segregation and prejudice, obstacles to African-American development.
Lewis: And we are back and our discussion is dealing with the 100th anniversary of Alpha Phi Alpha and some of the accomplishments of the fraternity. Councilman Clement I'll start with you because it seems like education has been a very important part of Alpha Phi Alpha and when you think of education you can't help but think about Civil Rights. What can you recall, especially North Carolina's involvement? Well Alpha Phi Alpha's involvement in Civil Rights here in North Carolina?
Clement: The leadership of the Civil Rights movement in North Carolina was peppered with men of Alpha along with men from other organizations. But let me just say this to emphasize I was-and am still attracted-to working with Alpha Phi Alpha. Our motto, "First of all, servants of all, this transcends all," that is a powerful statement of Alpha's position. I like what General President Matthews-he describes himself as a "servant leader;" the emphasis in my opinion on "servant." "First of all, servants of all, this transcends all," and certainly in the area of leading the forces that broke down the walls of segregation, discrimination, prejudice, and bigotry. Alpha men took the lead. Just look at the names, Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court Justice who was my loop court judge when I was in law school at Howard University many years ago. John Hoke Franklin who helped prepare the brief that was argued before the Supreme Court in 1954; he was my faculty advisor at Howard University. Raeford Logan who was the head of the history department, a past general president of Alpha Phi Alpha. I had wonderful role models, including my father, and the men I just named, Alpha men who provided leadership in all phases of community endeavor-economics, political, Civil Rights, housing, recreation, you name it Alpha was there. And continues to be there in positions of servant leadership which I think is so important.
Lewis: Vice President Ward can you think of other Alpha men who have been involved in say shaping not only North Carolina but the country as a whole?
Ward: Well I think the list is kind of countless but let me just mention a few. One for example is Floyd McKissick who was a pioneer here in North Carolina and then went on to become the national director of CORE and was working hand-in-hand with Brother Martin Luther Kind during the Civil Rights Movement. Adam Clayton Powell, we all know of Congressman Powell's contributions and what he did for education as chairman of a major committee in the United States House of Representatives. So the list goes on and on and countless college and university presidents who give of themselves on a day-to-day basis but I think it is wonderful to celebrate our past leaders but we the men of Alpha believe that we also must stay vigilant and celebrate those leaders who are serving presently and be in the business of cultivating and training a new vanguard of African-American leaders for the future. And that is what our next 100 years is all about; we are in the business now of training the next Andrew Young and the next Martin Luther King and that is what we are in the business in Alpha to do now.
Lewis: President Matthews we've been talking about preparing people for leadership and other roles being I guess a positive impact-making a positive impact here, well wherever you go, whether in North Carolina or beyond. But there are stereotypes and there are some stigmas that are connected with fraternities and one of the things that you hear about when you talk about fraternities, you hear about hazing and you hear other issues about well why do fraternities, why do some of the African-American fraternities haze? And it is not necessarily an African-American fraternity situation but I wanted you to talk about that a little bit and how Alpha Phi Alpha has decided to address that particular issue as well as other issues that sort of bring negativity towards fraternities.
Matthews: Someone once said that you never get into an argument with people who buy their ink by the barrel. I mean you don't control the media; you don't control the image that is portrayed of you. There are some illegal activities that go on in our broader society. We have hazing that goes on with ROTC units, with bands, with athletics. Now that doesn't mean that it is right, but it seems that African-American fraternities and hazing or any other disreputable act makes headlines. Now having said that, we have strict zero tolerance policies and procedures in place. But I can no more tell you why an individual chooses to violate these policies any more than I can tell you why an individual chooses to commit a crime against society at large. I can tell you that it will not be tolerated in Alpha Phi Alpha. We are an organization of principled, disciplined men. If you have someone coming in who is going to tear that down then you've got to get this person out of your organization. We are an organization for men who are seeking excellence in all endeavors in their personal and professional lives. So those are some things that happen but that is not all what we are about, that is not what we want people to know us-we want them to focus on the valuable contributions that we've made and the personal sacrifices that we've made in order that this might be a better community for all of America, not just for black folks.
Lewis: One other thing and I am through with this issue but you also deal with the issue of some of the, I guess as far as stepping is concerned, some of the other traditional things that go on with a fraternity. How did that come about and how does Alpha Phi Alpha look upon that as say on a value issue? Is it valued?
Matthews: I can no more tell you-stepping evolved. Stepping seems to coincide with whatever the popular music is of the day. When I was in school we were almost doo-wopping with the Temptations and that was our music. And prior to that time older Brothers tell me they were stepping to the Impressions and so and today's youth have a different, they have their own music. Now stepping is something that our young members do on campus but it is not the essence of our program. It is a recreational activity and they have a lot of fun with it, but we encourage them and urge them to remember that our programs, our mentoring of youth and our involvement with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, our involvement with Boy Scouts of America, and we say if you are not involved with young people then you are really not involved with the spirit and with the mission of Alpha Phi Alpha. So we applaud our college brothers but our job is to also help them become alumni brothers as soon as they are able. There is a time and a place to be a young man; as the Bible says, "When I was a child." But stepping is not what we are all about.
Lewis: Okay, moving forward now. And I will talk-and I will ask you because it seemed like you were about to add something?
Ward: Well I did want to add one thing, Mitch. I think too often it is framed that stepping and the pledge component is a major part of the fraternity. It is only a small percentage. I tell the story very often of a chapter that stepped one night for a fundraiser to help a non-profit organization. And the very next morning these same college men were having a tutorial session at 8:00 in the morning to help some young people to learn algebra and trig. That is where we want the media to be; tell the whole story. Don't just show these young men stepping at 12:00 at night but show them at 8:00 a.m. in the morning helping young people with trig and algebra and being the young scholars that we know that they are. Stepping is just one component. But if you visit the total college experience with these young able brothers you will see them as student body presidents leading calculus with the highest GPAs on the campus, and oh by the way they will have a step show at 6:00 in the afternoon but show that total college man.
Matthews: If I could just follow-up on something that Brother Ward said-I find it interesting that whatever we seem to be involved in as a people, we get marginalized down to the entertainment aspect or the athletic aspect. And so while we are not saying that stepping is a negative experience, we are saying that we do so much more but you never see the media out covering any of our mentoring programs, you never see them covering our Project Alpha which is a program to help mentor young men on fatherhood, on pre-teen pregnancy from the male perspective, on pre-marital pregnancy from the male perspective. So let's tell the whole story. And since they won't then we have to. And that is why we produced and funded the documentary.
Clement: And I'd like to add, too, Alpha has been the lead in terms of "Go to college, go to high school, go to college"-that remains a constant theme of this organization. A voteless people is a hopeless people. Alpha has been in the lead in getting people registered but you don't hear about it, those phases, those components of our organization that really maintains my affiliation with the fraternity. Every Wednesday morning in the local public schools in Durham I tutor third and fourth grade young black men. None of these young men whom I have tutored over ten years is aware of the identity of their father. I think that is a tragedy. Alpha men must step in as mentors because I think young black males in particular need adult black male role models and I'd like to see my organization Alpha take the lead in building a cadre of mentors to go into the public schools as it has been my privilege over ten years to tutor third and fourth graders. That is where criminal activity begins-the mindset. Not in high school, not in middle school, but in those early grades when these young men lacking a black male role model in their family look on other outlets, gangs, crime, as their raison d'etre. And Alpha has a wonderful opportunity in the next 100 years to turn this thing around.
Lewis: Now we are down to about one minute and I am trying to get this-well a two-fold question for you President Matthews. Alpha Phi Alpha is spearheading a project to bring an MLK monument to Washington, D.C. Talk about that and how do you see the future of Alpha Phi Alpha evolving?
Matthews: Well first Alpha Phi Alpha conceptualized and initiated this memorial. But it is the people's memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King and we want everyone to embrace it. Yes we financed the initial phases of it, but Dr. King, his contributions were much larger than just his membership to Alpha. In the next 100 years I would like for the Brothers who are in the organization at that time to say that in the year 2006 the groundwork was laid for the Alphas were engaged in economic empowerment, that they went to the community and taught financial literacy, that we expanded our focus from Civil Rights to Silver Rights, that w were engaged in developing our own community and that we built hotels and office buildings and that we were a major player in every aspect of black life in America.
Lewis: And we will have to stop it here. Gentlemen thank you so very much for joining us and continued success to all of you. If you would like to learn more about the Alpha Phi Alpha documentary or obtain a transcript of today's program visit us online at www.unctv.org/bif. When you visit be sure to give us your comments and program suggestions. You can also call us on the BIF line at 919-549-7167. Please continue to watch as we present to you more stimulating discussions that impact the African-American community and beyond. For Black Issues Forum, I am Mitchell Lewis. Thanks for joining us.
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Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by UNC-TV members.
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