George Biddle Kelley

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (ΑΦΑ) is the first African-American, intercollegiate Greek-lettered fraternity. The individuals recognized by the fraternity as founders are known as the Seven Jewels, who were Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York. The group later evolved into a fraternity with a founding date of December 4, 1906, at Cornell. It employs an icon from Ancient Egypt, the Great Sphinx of Giza, as its symbol. Its aims are "Manly deeds, Scholarship, and Love For All Mankind," and its motto is First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All. Its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

Chapters were chartered at Howard University and Virginia Union University in 1907. The fraternity has over 290,000 members and has been open to men of all races since 1940. Currently, there are more than 730 active chapters in the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Alpha Phi Alpha is a social organization with a service organization mission and provided leadership and service during the Great Depression, World Wars, and Civil Rights Movement. The fraternity addresses social issues such as apartheid, AIDS, urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues of interest to people of color. National Programs and Initiatives of the Fraternity include A Voteless People Is a Hopeless People, My Brother's Keeper, Go To High School, Go To College, Project Alpha, and the World Policy Council. It also conducts philanthropic programming initiatives with the March of Dimes, Head Start, the Boy Scouts of America, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Members of this prestigious Fraternity include many Historical Civil Rights Leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., NAACP Founder W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, and Dick Gregory. Other world renowned Members include Political Activist Cornel West, Legendary Musicians Duke Ellington and Lionel Richie, NBA Legend Walt Frazier, Jamaican Prime Minister Norman Manley, Olympic Gold Medalist Jesse Owens, Justice Thurgood Marshall, United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, Academy Award winning Director Barry Jenkins, as well as ESPN Sportscasters Stuart Scott and Jay Harris.

Alpha Phi Alpha was directly responsible for the conception, funding, and construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial next to the National Mall in Washington D.C.