Oh Oh Oh the llama Corey Shelton tell of the wondrous story considered a journal street where the shona be here in o4 we will meet the wondrous or be force in Oberon she wanna be jeez you they kind of understand why I was founded yes I’m standing where was
Founded and so it was founded in upstate New York at Cornell University by seven black men the founders as we like to call them other jewels and those are dr. Hillary optic Ellis Charles Terry Chapman you Jenko jones George Biddle Kelly Nathaniel and Mary Robert Harrell
Oh go when Burton wasn’t Andy was the first black intercollegiate fraternity founded for african-american males and they paved the way for a lot of different organizations to come through and follow behind us such as the African officer incorporated that circle of theta will make a sci-fi because we were
Founded at Cornell University because we saw a need for the educational uplift and black Americans as well as a social gathering for us because we were at credit University back in 1906 of course you know that was a time just just not too far route from slavery and of course
Black Americans were I really acceptance of America as as we ought to be and so the fraternity was really founded based on a lot of those racial issues and discrimination acts that we were facing back in those days and alpha has pretty much taking lead at overcoming all those
Racial optos racial biases and everything all through the civil rights until today as well organization was first a literary society it was it was pretty much a group that was made or formed at Cornell University to help african-american men stay in college on one they met a secret because it was
Banned for African American males to gather together at any point in time this is two generations after slavery right in fact I’m one of them one of you jinqiu jones favorite professors was a civil war veteran so we’re talking about less than two generations removed from slavery so we’re talking about seven
Black men at Ivy League institution far from home so what do they do they have to band together right to survive I mean if you go to universities now you have organizations for different minority groups to help them sort of coalesce and understanding and get through the rigors
Of academic institutions even now in 2012 so imagine the pressure they had being black men at an Ivy League college in 1906 Sumner programs never go to high school go to college which is a program where we talk to high school students and pretty much it’s empower them on you
Know going to college you know the importance of going to college you know you really try to give back more so to areas where you find people that don’t really have like you know that motivation to go to college or the they don’t really feel the need do you
Have a project alpha NBK which is my brother’s keeper which I feel like will bring promising results for a lot of these young kids this tradition of manly deeds scholarship and love for all mankind and though even though that mantra is our fraternity mantra those same ideas are embodied in the my
Brother’s keeper program that the mentors that we have here have been really dedicated towards you know servicing these young black males many of them who are at risk in Detroit the relationship between the fraternity here at Michigan State University which was established by me and three other graduate students in 1998 is really
Significant in the sense that this was Zeta Delta’s first community service program that young men who were either alphas or really interested and you know learning more about Alpha would join joined for those reasons first right but then once they start interacting with the kids it became something more than
Just a sort of fraternity requirement of all those people as a hopeless people where we encouraged people to vote yeah I personally the one of the ones I was the biggest fan of as well as people hopeless people this because personally I believe that too many people died for
Our right to vote literally people shed their blood so that african-americans vote if you have no say-so at the ballot then you have no hope which is why voters peoples are hopeless people if you look at the list of noble members of our Final Four no one comes close no
One even no one comes close to the list of members the pedigree that we have notable members she I mean well probably the most notable dr. Martin Luther King jr. from Sigma chapter in Boston University Martin Luther King jr. a lot of people don’t know that he was he’s not an honorary member
You know he was he was initiated Sigma chapter he was heavily involved in eternity fields our history book you’ll see produces a man at nationals you see pictures him with other thirty brothers brother King another one that it’s really notable me doing the MLK conference this past this year this was
You know a year for me to see all of his works from community service to the people that he’s met Thurgood Marshall he’s a brother from a new chapter I believe he’s originally crossed at home Lincoln University so here’s the thing right a lot of organizations have noble
Members and some of the other organizations they’re noble membership is involved more and entertainment sports which is not not there’s a lot of great members of other organizations you know image Smith is a sigma or Michael Jordan is accused Shaquille O’Neal’s like the cutest of all cues right and
There’s a lot of Penny Hardaway Zacapa Callen Colin Kaepernick QB for San Francisco he’s a capital there’s nothing wrong with that and we have some sports members too but I think what sets us apart for everybody else is the level of involvement and politics and world
Affairs if you look at the list of alphas who are congressmen who were mayor’s who are senators who are ambassadors the list reads like a who’s who all right and so you’re looking at noble men who had on an effect platen effect and continue to have an effect not just
On state local but national world affairs our aims are mainly DS scholarship from afar mankind and our motto is first of all servants of all we shall transcend all and our model it really means to me is it’s telling you that first of all we’re servants to others we’re serving
The community that’s we’re really based on certain community and helping uplift others around us especially in the african-american community because we’re not only so solely focused on you know one race one particular gender group or type we focus on humanity as a whole so love for mankind to me and for my
Organization it’s pretty much the service to the world like we’re a global organization so we focus on things that go into Africa Haiti you know Japan and the United States becoming an alpha you know you represent more than just yourself so people tend to be like you know like if you’re just
Kind of like oh just like you know doing all this stuff people will be like oh like knows alphas are like wow and that’s not something that you know you really want your auric to represent you know you want people to view your org on a on a higher pedestal of greatness you
Got to have outstanding character in many of work because if your integrity is is tarnished then what do you have you have nothing so office really that’s something still in every new newly initiated member gesture and checking your brand is everything whether it’s on social media whether it’s organizational
Work whether it should work within chapter you have to have a good integrity to just be a better person in life stepping originated from an African group called the gumboot the gumboot dancers the gumbo steppers they were like they use these boots gumboots they were like working in the mines and
They used it to communicate to each other because they couldn’t talk for I can’t remember the exact reason but for whatever was going on at the time they couldn’t talk why they were in the mines they couldn’t speak to each other so they would step and use like the busine
User signs to communicate with each other so that’s kind of how the whole idea is stepping kind of originated from just from the gumboot steppers that’s a black Greek I feel that stepping is another besides the strong historical roots that our organizations have scuse me what’s stepping is another another
Thing that kind of revitalizes the African is that we have and that’s what we try to learn really keep hold to there’s something good besides just because you can read a book all the time but like just physically doing something that your ancestors did it’s kind of um
It’s great you know because you could like okay my ass is something that I can relate to or something sustainable that people my predecessors did in the past its heritage because it’s something that is rooted deep with like in african-american history and when black Greek letter organizations came about I
Feel like it was brought in to kind of like just pay homage and now it’s kind of turned into a more social thing so a lot of people really don’t know like where it started or why we still do it and now it’s just like a tradition the black Greek community we’re often
Perceived as gangs because like most gangs you know they have colors they rep hands hand signs and things of that nature but within the black community is it’s not like that yeah you probably have a lot of men who are aggressive and I feel like that’s just in our nature to
Be you know alpha males not just Alpha Phi Alpha in general but just males in general just be that via alpha male just be aggressive but from the outside you might look like that but if you look within we’re much more than especially with alpha alpha we are a well-rounded
Organization we don’t just step we don’t just do community service we do everything the community service we do stuff we do social things because you need that that’s all in especially in college life you need all those different types of items to to do well in life you just can’t be one one-sided
Because that’s just not how like works you need to be well-rounded as possible to reach out to more people and to be a better representation of yourself in the organization that you might represent I you know I think particularly the misconceptions and stereotypes come from the non black community I think that
Like historically black colleges and universities I think the black Greek community has always faced a significant challenge in reaching the non black community and truly creating awareness among that community about what we truly do and how valuable our organizations are to all mankind but particular to
Communities of color so in my eyes I think that’s really one of the challenges you ask you know what may be the future for alpha I really think that we have to take a lead on that issue and really making us a concerted effort and reaching out to communities that are
Less aware of what we do because ultimately I think that the more support we have the more educated others are about what we do the more impact we’re going to be able to have in our programs and our service I thank God for my 80 oh you see it
Now Jessica I think that alphas maintained the level of excellence over the years I think the challenge for alpha as is the challenge for any organization is how to stay relevant in an ever-changing world we have a generation of humans who are growing up unlike any other generation ever we have
A generation of humans who now I think it studies show the other day that if people don’t get their information in five seconds or less you’ve lost their interest you know you have it first you have this group of Millennials you have this group of people who are being educating different
Ways you have a group of people who who are born and the only thing they know it’s a black president you have a group people who were born in the world has shrunk you know if I want to know what’s going on in France I can find out in 30
Seconds if I want to talk to somebody in China I can talk to mine under 30 seconds and if I want to listen to Ethiopian folk music I can do it in probably 45 seconds with YouTube right and so you have a challenge not to say how do we stay relevant and ever
Changing ever shrinking world the world is so small now the world YouTube has made the world tiny Facebook has made the world even smaller and so how do we maintain our relevance and our superiority and our excellence and an increasingly digital increasingly small increasingly concentrated world how do
We do that and I think that’s going to be the challenge for alpha going on the rest of the century I see us continuing to be prominent figures in social justice issues and fight fighting for the civil rights that we’re currently up against you know I really hope that
Alpha will maintain his commitment to supporting our communities the economic development of our communities providing advocacy for those who don’t have a voice and and really attacking the issues that we may not have had to address as much in the past but are becoming more prominent issues now so if
You look over the years what alfalfa has done within the black community whether it’s mentoring whether it’s scholarships whether it’s whether it’s programming whether it’s voting whether it’s politics whether it’s representation in Congress whether it’s representation at the local and state level everything they’ve done I
Think their main the main role of our falfa is to help better the betterment of the black community and I think they’ve done a phenomenal job of that I would argue that all the organizations of Black Creek organizations their their main goal is for the uplift of the black community Brotherhood
There’s nothing like it there’s something comforting knowing that no matter where I go in the United States as long as I’m somewhere close to a college or university I know I’m gonna be okay not think I know I’ll be okay the most significant part of Brotherhood is that you have
People that you can lean on you have people in the ER you’re in trouble there’s someone I can say before you blame them they’re always there for you these are some pieces your family here away from home and that’s well as well when you get home there’s to your family
Didn’t we invite them into our own home so we have dinners with everything together Brotherhood to media it’s a big problem I’ve had brothers before I didn’t have brothers so I can’t say comes with attorney our person my first goal is not to find a brotherhood but through
Joining us returning I have found it with the sin of my lying brothers as well as the rest of my chapter I wish it for everybody because they could that’s a great feeling I can’t I can’t wait for my son and I’m counting down the days my brother became enough my brother
During the organization I was six it was a beautiful to see my brother become my brother you know it’s just that it’s that other connection it’s also the thing Bar None the greatest thing about this the Brotherhood you know there’s the great networking networking opportunities the great mentoring our mentorship
Opportunities this great opportunity to give back to the community but at the end of the day no it’s that Brotherhood that sets us apart from everything else and I could join the n-double-a-cp and get back to you you know I can you know I’m working on on a third year PhD
Program I can network with my professional organizations and have great networking opportunities you know put a ER a CRT conference at great networking opportunities you know but there’s something like a brother I haven’t seen anything else that exists then be GMOs records organizations and specifically an Alpha Phi Alpha that’s a beautiful Oh
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