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Alpha Phi Alpha (ΑΦΑ) is a fraternity that was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the founders are collectively known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha is the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established by African Americans. It uses motifs and artifacts from Ancient Egypt to represent itself and its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
The fraternity expanded when additional chapters were chartered at Howard University and Virginia Union University in 1907. From 1908, Alpha Phi Alpha became the prototype for other Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The fraternity has over 185,000 members and has been open to men of all races since 1940. Today there are over 680 active chapters in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Caribbean, and Asia.
Alpha Phi Alpha evolved into a primarily service organization and provided leadership and service during the Great Depression, World Wars, and Civil Rights Movements, and addresses social issues such as apartheid, AIDS, urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues affecting people of color. The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial and World Policy Council are programs of Alpha Phi Alpha, and it jointly leads philanthropic programming initiatives with March of Dimes, Head Start, Boy Scouts of America and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
Members of Alpha Phi Alpha include Jamaican Prime Minister Norman Manley, Nobel Prize winner Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Olympian Jesse Owens, Justice Thurgood Marshall, United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, and Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. Numerous other American leaders are among the men who have adopted the fraternity’s principles—manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind.
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