|
Bro. Christopher Darden
"Finding the Good and Praising It"
How Alpha is portrayed in current literature.
By Skip Mason
Over the past five years there has been a wealth of books written on the African-American
experience including biographies, autobiographies, fiction and nonfiction books. As an avid reader
and book collector, I am always curious to to see how Alpha is presented in books written by
Brothers and books dealing with organizational history. I usually turn to the Index of these books
to see if Alpha is included. I have accumulated and briefly annotated a few titles below which
discusses the fraternity in some aspect. I have listed those titles where the fraternity is not
mentioned at all. This is not a complete list but a sampling of titles.
Title: Our Kind of People (Inside America's Black Upper Class) Harper
Collins, 1998 by Lawrence Otis Graham
A book recently published giving insight to the black upper class.
Chapter 5 "The Right Fraternities and Sororites"
"But as the presence of Alpha Phi Alpha and the other seven black organizations grew on black
campuses during the early 1900s, they were each known for building their popularity by seeking
out certain desirable student candidates(.e.g. smart, popular, accomplished, affluent.) and turning
down
others...Apha Phi Alpha, it is the one to which most of my friends belong.... Quickly identifying
themselves with programs that emphasized scholarship rather than mere social interaction...."
Graham devotes three pages to Alpha but throughout the book makes it clear that Alpha was "the"
fraternity to join to be accepted in the status quo.
Title: Thurgood Marshall/American Revolutionary (Times Books, c. 1998) by Juan Williams
A biography of this Civil Rights icon and American legend.
Chapter 4 "Waking Up"
"Thurgood traveled to Lincoln with Aubrey Marshall (his brother)...There were 285 men at
Lincoln that year. Aubrey had pledged a fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha... Thurgood, meanwhile was
at the heart of campus life. He took part in two rituals of young male college society. First he
joined Alpha Phi Alpha, an elite fraternity of mostly light skinned boys. Although the fraternity was
at the top of campus society, its hazing was rough...Once he became an Alpha, Thurgood
delighted in the nasty tricks fraternity brothers would play on each other and on rival frats...
Marshall' s life at Howard also included some fraternity run-ins. Half the class was made up of
Alpha Phi Alpha, his fraternity...Marshall represented the Alphas as the competed with the
Omegas...The Alphas thought they could run the class..."
Williams devotes about three pages to Thurgood's college days. He does not however, mention
Thurgood's involvement with the fraternity's era of civil rights in the 1940s and desegregating law
schools, one of the greatest periods in the history of the fraternity.
Title: Thurgood Marshall: Warrior of the Bar, Rebel on the Bench by Michael
Davis & Hunter Clark (Birch Lane Press, 1992)
"Chapter Seven "An Ethiop Among the Aryans"
"As Marshall impatiently waited for Houston's answer, Belford V. Lawson, Jr., turned his attention
to the University of Maryland. Lawson served as counsel of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Many of
the national fraternity's members, like members of the Washington and Baltimore branches of the
NAACP, were light skinned and held coveted government jobs or were professionals who came
from privileged families. The fraternity had a reputation for using the "paper bag" test for admitting
members, an unwritten rule that a prospective member whose skin shade was darker than a paper
bag would not be allowed to pledge. The fraternity also had a reputation for holding some of the
most popular and best attended social affairs in black Washington."
Skip's note- More discussion of Thurgood's account of his pledging days at Lincoln's Nu Chapter
will be used in an article that I am working on on "The Origins of Pledging"
Title: A Way Out of No Way: The Spiritual Memoirs of Andrew Young (Nelson, 1994)
>From former Congressman, Ambassador and Civil Rights legend who marched with Dr. King
Chapter One "A Time for Decision"
"In concession to my father, I joined his fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha. The Alphas were the oldest
black fraternity in the country. My pledgemaster was David Dinkins, a marine veteran a year
ahead of me at Howard and future Mayor of New City. The Alphas gave me a sense of belonging
and I was quite proud when the chapter elected me chaplain in my senior year-perhaps because I
was one of the few brothers who didn't smoke or drink. The challenge of pledging and completing
probation to the fraternity was something of a rite of passage to manhood. ....."
Title: Andrew Young: An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the
Transformation of America by Andrew Young (Harper Collins, 1996)
Chapter 5: Serving Bethany"
"The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity chapter at Talledega in Alabama provided my first opportunity to
meet Martin Luther King....I accepted the invitation in the spring of 197 to speak for the Alpha Phi
Alpha annual program...When I arrived I discovered I was one of two speakers. Martin King was
the other. I look forward to hearing him speak and to meeting him with great
anticipation..."
Skip's Note: (Brother Andrew Young has written the foreword for my book "The Talented Tenth:
The Founders and General Presidents. Brother Young will celebrate 50 years in Alpha next year.
He is a friend, a brother and calls on me to pinch hit for him at some speaking engagements when
he has overbooked or cannot attend. I thank God for him and his support!)
Title: The Young Paul Robeson by Lloyd Brown (Westview Books)
An easy reader on the life of an American legend. \
p.111 " Robeson joined Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Lincoln....."
Title: The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol. II Rediscovering Precious
Values July 1951-November 1955 edited by Clayborn Carson
The voluminous second volume of his papers held at Boston University. The third volume is in
production and will feature letters referencing King's involvement with the fraternity. Due out in
December.
There are several pages referencing King's involvement with Alpha p. 39-"June 22, 1952 King is
initiated into Boston's Sigma Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha social fraternity"
p. 560- "King gives the benediction at a June Citizenship Rally sponsored by
local Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha in Montgomery, Alabama."
"W.H. Coston writes a letter to King to speak at the Southern Region Convention in 1955"
King's Shingle is pictured in the book. It is signed by Chapter officers, but the date is not included
on it. It is in the M.L. King papers at Boston University.
Skip's Note: A recent autobiography actually compiled by Clayborn Carson does not make any
mention of King's affiliation with Alpha.
Title: Beyond the Timberline by T.M. Alexander
A fascinating account of the life of pioneer Insurance executive in Atlanta and the first man to run
for public office in Atlanta since reconstruction.
"In 1939, while in New York, I attended a meeting of my national fraternity, Alpha Phi
Alpha...Members came from all over the country. Speakers outlined their problems and what they
had attempted to do to solve them....he bemoaned the plight of the brothers in the South and the
need for the organization to give leadership and help its southern members..."
*Brother T.M. Alexander served as president of Eta Lambda Chapter. He was initiated into
Alpha Rho Chapter at Morehouse in 1930. His son (now deceased) and grandson were also
Alpha Rho initiates. He just recently celebrated his 90th birthday.
Title: Christopher Darden, In Contempt
(Regan Books/Harper Collins, 1996) by Brother Christopher Darden A personal account of the
life of the LA County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in the "trial of the century" the O. J. Simpson
Case.
p. 57... "Here I was, just two semester from graduating, and I still didn't
feel as if I'd gotten the full college experience.....I was a chronic introvert so driven by some
intense desire to succeed that I wasn't enjoying the things I was working hard to achieve....I could
join a fraternity....One of the guys I met in my Afro American studies classes...was a member of
Alpha Phi Alpha. I went to smoker for Alpha Phi Alpha during the first week of classses in
January 1977....In some ways, the entire purpose of pledging a fraternity is the initiation. There are
lessons-pride in your history, brotherhood and discipline......We were called pledges or line
brothers, and as a "line" we had to wear similar haircuts and absolutely no jewelry, to dress all in
black and gold. We could never wear colors associated with another frat... We had
to wear a four inch Sphinxhead......"
Darden devotes five pages to his experience pledging Alpha.
*The Western Region honored Darden two years ago at its regional convention. I had a chance to
meet him. He was very thrilled that his own organization did not turn its back on him as he felt the
public did. Skip
Title: King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
(Houghton Mifflin, c. 1993)
p. 12 "Powell got himself initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha, the renowned fraternity for young black
men. There was no Alpha Phi Alpha chapter at Colgate, which never had enough black students
to organize one. Walking by Powell's room...noticed an Alpha insignia, which he had
conspicuously affixed to his door at eye level...The three were perplexed, and also quite
impressed. "How he became an Alpha I'll never know, said Crosby" Powells senior picture shows
him in a three piece pin striped suit, silk tie, collar closed by a stickpin....There was nothing
beneath Powell's picture but the Alpha Phi Alpha insignia, a distinction none of his classmates
enjoyed"
I have compiled a brief list of books published about Alpha men, where I assumed Alpha would
be included but is not:
Title: Suceeding Against The Odds by John Johnson with Lerone Bennett
*Founder and Publisher of Ebony, Jet and Tan was initiated into Theta Chapter. A powerful and
inspiring account of the rise of the most successful African-American publisher in the world
Title : Bearing The Cross Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow (Morrow Books, 1986)
Title: W. E. B. DuBois Biography of a Race 1868-1919 by David Levering Lewis.
*There is no mention of DuBois becoming an Honorary Member of Alpha at Epsilon Chapter at
the University of Michigan in 1909. The author David Levering Lewis won a Pulitzer prize for the
book. He is the son of Dr. John H. Lewis, a graduate of Yale and a 1913 initiate of Zeta Chapter
along with Charles Harris Wesley. John Lewis served as president of Morris Brown College.
Title: Jesse Owens An American Life by William J. Faulkner (Free Press, 1986)
The 1936 Olympic Track star's life story.
In the chapter dealing with his days at Ohio State University, there is no mention of his joining
Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
Nigger: Autobiography of Dick Gregory
A candid and vivid account of this former track star and comedian's life and his involvement in the
Civil Rights struggle. No mention of his joining Alpha Phi Alpha.
*If there are books that you are have read or aware of, please share the titles with me for future
editions.
|
Linear Mode
