Michael Robinson started thinking about pledging a college fraternity when he was in high school.
He found that many of the men he admired were members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Learning that 90 percent of the presidents of historically black colleges were Alphas sealed his choice.
“That was very impressive to me,” said Robinson, now a Fort Lauderdale attorney. “We have a great Alpha in Martin [Luther King Jr.]. But Paul Robeson and W.E. B. DuBois do us proud, too.”
Robinson, who joined in the early 1970s, will be among the Alpha brothers dressed in black and gold on Sunday at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in West Palm Beach for a celebration of the fraternity’s founding 100 years ago.
Alphas and their families from Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties will fill the pews for the 10 a.m. service to honor the fraternity’s seven founders and celebrate the 11th anniversary of Tabernacle’s minister, the Rev. Gerald Kisner, also an Alpha.
The nation’s oldest black Greek organization, Alpha Phi Alpha throughout its existence has carried the reputation as a thinking man’s fraternity.
Members include civil rights leader King, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and black intellectuals DuBois and Cornel West.
“We do have a who’s who,” said Charles White, an administrator at Polo Park Middle School in Wellington. “But what makes me proud is the groundbreaking on the King Memorial several weeks ago. I can’t wait until 2008, when it will be finished and unveiled. I plan to be there.”
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, a dream for the fraternity since King’s assassination in 1968, is finally coming to fruition. He will be the first African-American to be individually honored on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
With more than 700 college and graduate chapters in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe, the fraternity is involved in numerous community projects, including voter education and registration and mentoring. It also holds seminars for young men and women on safe sex practices and college preparation.
Seven black students started Alpha Phi Alpha at Cornell University on Dec. 4, 1906. They bonded to help each other survive the racially hostile atmosphere that kept a half-dozen African-American students away from school the previous year. The seven founders are known as jewels. One of the fraternity’s founders, Charles Henry Chapman, became an agriculture professor at Florida A&M; University.
The fraternity’s founding preceded by decades on-campus programs such as affirmative action, Upward Bound and remedial assistance. The students set examples of scholarship, leadership and success, ahead of the NAACP and other civil rights organizations.
It is among nine black fraternities and sororities that have served as training grounds for black America’s business, social and political elite.
They include Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, started at Howard University in 1908, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, also started there in 1908. Both Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity at Indiana University and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity at Howard University began in 1911. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed in 1909.
Former state Rep. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale will be at Tabernacle with his brothers from Broward County. The South Florida alumni chapters meet annually for a service to honor the jewels, rotating the event between Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
Smith’s role models growing up were members of Alpha Phi Alpha, even though he had relatives in rival Kappa Alpha Psi.
“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer,” he said. “I grew up watching W. George Allen, Ben Lampkins, Raleigh Rawls and Michael Robinson. They were all Alphas. So when I went to school, I naturally gravitated to the Alphas although I come from a long line of Kappas.”
Other famous Alphas include jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, a founder of the Broward alumni chapter, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, Olympian Jesse Owens and Ebony magazine founder John H. Johnson.
The fraternity no longer has on-campus pledges in South Florida. Instead, alumni members and undergraduate leaders choose fraternity members through a regional program that emphasizes the organization’s history and rituals, said Rick Riley, president of the Broward alumni chapter.
“It keeps control of the process,” Riley said.
Earlier this year, the Alphas vowed to become more politically active and influential in local communities, nationally and internationally.
“We want to leave a legacy,” said Robinson.
Gregory Lewis can be reached at or 954-356-4203.
