Al martin a sports reporter and anchor for wkr tv and radio i am the current president of zeta phi beta sorority incorporated the phi gamma chapter also known as that zebra chapter afia was the very first african-american greek letter organization in america they were founded on december 4th 1906
Founded here september 15 1969 it actually started you know not even as a fraternity not even as a greek letter organization it started as a study group what the founder saw was that there was a dire need for african americans to lean on one another and support one another academically what the founder
Started to see was that as they looked around campus the caucasian fraternities and sororities had a very very cool bind that was special and different from any other realm on campus and they decided you know what if we made this this thing a fraternity it would provide a legacy that could be
Built upon and possibly trickle over to other universities and could expand and that’s what they did the reason why i decided to pledge um alpha phi alpha was uh it really stems you know to a personal connection for me stemming all the way back to my brother i became involved because i really
Wanted a family but i saw a change it was almost like an entirely different person being an out of state student you don’t necessarily get to know people as well as you can on this campus he was more responsible he was more disciplined he was more focused he
Was more driven and i’m sitting there saying what in the world happened to you you know what i mean i loved not only that that we are about scholarship and service but also that we have families yes the bond is unbreakable it’s a lifelong commitment at least in our
Council the reason why many brothers pledge is to connect and to find support for one another so it helps me to literally have a family so that wherever i go i know i can call a sore or um frat and they will be able to help
Me out a lot of the brothers within my fraternity i mean if you ask them you know their reasons why they pledge alpha alpha is because a lot of them grew up without having that connection to uh another african-american male it’s very very strong and you know it’s one that
That that i cherish every single day every single day mphc is historically comprised of black sororities and fraternities it was established at howard university where a lot of the mphc organizations were founded mphc really stands for scholarship and service that’s really big it was honestly created just because
We weren’t necessarily allowed to join other sororities and fraternities that we party that all we do is party drink and have fun and stuff but that’s not true from fraternity perspective i saw that alpha phi alpha they were so ingrained in the black community here at michigan state university my sorority
Last year we actually won first place at regionals for doing the most events and attending the most events they were putting on programs that educated that inspired and they were just cool guys to be around a lot of people don’t see the business aspect of sororities and fraternities so i knew
That i wanted to be a part of that and i knew that this was going to be something that would impact my life in a positive way as well
source
