Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Alpha Gamma chapter records (AMS.1S.2023.004)

Biographical/Historical Note

Alpha Phi Alpha is the first American fraternity founded by African American men. Students at Cornell University established the fraternity in 1906. A group of Black Brown University students, initially gathered as a debate club, proposed a chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. The University administration rejected the proposal on the basis of race. The chapter was founded instead as the city of Providence chapter, Alpha Gamma, on February 2, 1921. Its founding president was Louis L. Redding '23. Brown did not officially acknowledge the Alpha Gamma chapter until 1974.

The activity of the Alpha Gamma chapter has varied over the decades, including a hiatus during the Second World War. The fraternity has created a brotherhood of distinguished students, participated specifically in Black college traditions such as step dancing, and affiliated with other Greek organizations for people of color on campus through the Pan-Hellenic Council (in association with the National Panhellenic Council). In addition to the social and fraternal aspects of Alpha life, the fraternity holds the tenets of academic scholarship and community service. Alphas have held events for alumni of color, encouraged academic excellence for Black students in Providence through competitions and events, and enlisted in Big Brothers of Rhode Island.

In keeping with its Providence base, Alphas been students from colleges and universities other than Brown, such as Johnson and Wales, Providence College, the Rhode Island School of Design, UMass Dartmouth, Bridgewater State University, and the University of Rhode Island. The chapter has also initiated honorary members from the Providence community. Members of the Alpha Gamma chapter have included Fritz Pollard '19, the first African American professional football coach and an entrepeneur; blues music producer and early National Football League player Jay Mayo Williams '21; J. Saunders Redding '28 MA'32, the first Black professor appointed to the Brown University faculty; Griffin Rodgers '76 MMSc'79 MD'79, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and Rodney Robinson '90, who wrote the fraternity's history in 1990.