Zeta Mu Lambda

The Founders of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. were no ordinary achievers. Given the racial attitudes in 1905-06, their accomplishments were monumental but by no means an easy task. Founder Henry Arthur Callis euphemistically stated that, "because the half dozen African American students at Cornell University during the school year 1904-05 did not return to campus the following year, the incoming students of the next semester were determined to bind themselves together to ensure that each would survive in the racially hostile environment." With this brave act of coming together, they heralded by decades the emergence of such on campus programs as affirmative action, upward bound and remedial assistance. The collaborative scholastic effort and solidified camaraderie of otherwise unacquainted collegiate African American men was seen as ground breaking not only on the campus of Cornell but in Black America as well. The students set outstanding examples of scholarship and success that sometimes exceeded even the efforts of the NAACP and similar civil rights organization. The Fraternity was founded Tuesday, December 4, 1906 at Cornell University.

After Cornell, the founders pursued careers that would continue to further their Alpha cause.

Henry Author Callis, a practicing physician, became a Professor of Medicine at Howard University.
Charles Henry Chapman became a Professor of Agriculture at Florida A&M University.
Eugene Kinckle Jones pioneered as the first executive secretary of the National Urban League.
George Biddle Kelley soon became the first African American engineer registered in the state of New York.
Nathaniel Allison Murray taught in the Washington D.C. public school system.
Robert Harold Ogle served as a professional staff member to the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Vertner Woodson Tandy the first registered African American architect in the state of New York.

Activists

Martin Luther King, Jr. - Civil rights activist
Julius L. Chambers - NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Lester Granger - National Urban League
Frederick Douglass - Anti-slavery activist
W.E.B. DuBois - Writer, historian, civil rights activist
Adam Clayton Powell, jr. - Civil Rights Activist
Thurgood Marshall - Civil rights activist, supreme court justice
Paul Robeson - Activist, scholar, singer, football player
Dick Gregory - Activist
William Gray - United Negro College Fund, businessman
Franklin Williams - Phelps-Stokes Fund

Education/Scholarship

James Check - Howard University
Dr. Ronald J. Temple - Chancellor, City Colleges of Chicago
John Hope Franklin - Historian
E. Franklin Frazier - Sociologist
Dennis Kimbro - Author
Fredrick Patterson - Founder, UNCF
Cornell West - Author

Military

Roscoe Cartwright - General, AUS
Samuel Gravely - Admiral, USN
Edward Honor - Major General, AUS
Brig. Gen. Fred A. Gorden
Adm. Samuel Gravely
Rear Adm. Benjamin Hacker
Maj. Gen. Edward Honor
Maj. Gen. James McCall
Com. Winston Scott

Science/Medicine

Dr. Lessall D. Leffall - President American College of Surgeons
James Comer - Psychologist
Garrett Morgan - Inventor, Traffic Signal
Louis Sullivan - Secretary of Health and Education

Government/Politics

Ronald Brown - Former Secretary of Commerce
David Dinkins - Former mayor of New York
Willie Brown - Mayor of San Francisco
Ernest Finney - South Carolina Supreme Court Justice
Earnest "Dutch" Morial - 1st Black Mayor of New Orleans
Marc Morial - Present Mayor of New Orleans
Maynard Jackson - Former Mayor of Atlanta
Andrew Young - Former mayor of Atlanta
Marion Barry - Mayor of Washington, D.C.
Chaka Fattah - Pennsylvania Congressman

Business

Johnson H. Johnson - Entrepreneur
Doug Bush - Entrepreneur

Entertainment

Duke Ellington - Jazz musician
Quincy Jones - Producer, Musician
Tony Brown - Journalist/Producer
Countee Cullen - Poet
Donny Hathaway - Musician
Eugene Jackson - National Black Network
Chuck Stone - Philadelphia Daily News
Keenan Ivory Wayans - Comedian, producer
Daryl Bell - Actor
Lionel Richie - Singer
Stuart Scott - Sportscenter Anchorman

Sports

Jackie Robinson - First Black Man in Major League Baseball
Jesse Owens - Olympic gold medalist
Eddie Robinson - Winningest coach in college football history
Lenny Wilkens - Winningest coach in NBA history
Rosie Greer - NFL Player
Art Shell - NFL Coach
Charles Haley - NFL Player
Todd Day - NBA Player
John "Hot Rod" Williams - NBA Player
Wes Chandler - San Diego Chargers
Fritz Pollard (First Black Head Coach in NFL history)
Gene Upshaw - President of NFL Players Association
Reggie Williams - Cincinatti Bengals
Quinn Buckner - Former NBA Player and Coach
Wes Unseld - Former NBA Coach