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 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.

"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...Alpha 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...."

"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..."

"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."

"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. ....."

"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..."

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.

"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.

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 classes 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......"

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"

Powell's 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"