Three years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Accra, Ghana and spend some time at the home of W.E.B. DuBois. As I knelt down by his grave, I gave thanks to God for this awesome opportunity to be so close to the spirit of a man who was literally the "guiding spirit" in the establishment of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

The life of DuBois is widely known and very much accessible, however his fraternal involvement is not generally known. Questions arise was he active with the fraternity or just another "Exalted Honorary member." Did he renounce the fraternity in later years? Did he know the founders, attend conventions, sing the fraternity hymn?

Let's explore briefly W.E.B. DuBois' s involvement with  Alpha Phi Alpha.

When W.E.B. DuBois convened the Niagara Conference in 1905, the predecessor  to the NAACP, there were several men who would be later inducted as Alphas  including Alonzo Herndon(exalted honorary in 1920) and his son Norris Herndon(Sigma Chapter, 1921), who was then a teenager at time. Alonzo Herndon 
established Atlanta Life Insurance Company and became Atlanta's first black  millionaire. His wife was a teacher at Atlanta University with DuBois. They lived in a magnificent mansion which was the site of many Alpha functions for the brothers in Atlanta.

Any brother who has read Wesley book on Callis recalls that Callis often spoke about the work of DuBois as an inspiration. He talked about the  convening of the Niagara Conference  as being one of the major influences in his life. (Wesley, p. 16.) When Callis and Eugene Kinckle Jones were researching African history at Cornell's library they were not aware that DuBouis had written in 1906 a pamphlet entitled "Old African Civilization" while he was on the faculty of Atlanta University(my Alma mater :-)   )Cornell's library did not have that document. One of the professors at 
Cornell William F. Willcox, who taught Sociology often quoted DuBois according to Callis. (Wesley, p. 27) Callis later remarked about DuBois "W.E.B. DuBois was challenging the right of our Nation to limit education and social opportunity to any group of its citizens."

As the the Alpha Phi Alpha Society engaged in activities in Ithaca, on November 13, 1906, at the AMEZion Church,  several of the members of Alpha Phi Alpha Society participated in a program which contained a literary section and an article by DuBois in the World Today was read. DuBois had published between 1905 and 1906, an illustrated weekly called "The Moon" 

A few weeks after the Epsilon Chapter had been established with eight charter  members by Henry Arthur Callis on April 10, 1909. Callis, in his final year at Cornell was president of Alpha Chapter at the time. Each chapter was allowed to admit two honorary members.  DuBois allegedly was visiting the campus at the time. Ironically, a massive Pulitzer prize biography of DuBois by David Levering Lewis makes no mention of DuBois affiliation with Alpha. In 1909, at the time DuBois became a member, he was still on the faculty at Atlanta University conducting the annual conferences which examined various aspects of African-American life and culture. That same month as Epsilon was founded, DuBois sent out letters concerning his plan for the book "Encyclopdia Africana, " which was to be a "multivolume study covering significant points in history anthe condition of the Negro race." Jewel 
Nathaniel Allison Murray's father Daniel, the assistant to the Library of  Congress had previously helped DuBois on another book and was an important  element in his research. DuBois also published a magazine The Horizon.

Callis recalled that Dr. DuBois had learned about the fraternity at the University of Michigan. He approved wiht his blessing and joined as an honorary. It almost likely that DuBois did not experienced the initiationas several honorary members had not. 
In 1912, General President Charles Garvin wrote DuBois, then editor of the Crisis. and asked him to allow a small space for an article of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. President Garvin said 

"Alpha Phi Alpha fulfills in a large way a great need in bringing Negro College men together and has done a great deal of good in inspiring them to think of the highest in life, yet its existence is hardly known by a large number of our fold."

In that letter, DuBois was extended an invitation to the 5th Annual Convention and Alumni Reunion at Ohio State University in 1912. DuBois had responded and asked the Alpha's to send an article and a photograph in. He also expressed his regrets that he would be unable to attend and deliver the address to the Alumni.  Joseph Fugett, then General Secretary, wrote DuBois again in November and said "Now the convention is nearer at hand and I wish to beg that you reconsider the matter....Of course it means for you the making of a sacrifice yet I feel confident that you would not regret it but on the contrary would feel well repaid. Please try to favor us with your presence and I will see that you enjoy every minute." 

When the "Go to High School-Go to College" movement was introduced by the  fraternity in 1916, it served as idea platform for W.E.B. DuBois involvement with the fraternity. He was a sought after speaker throughout the country. At the 17th General Convention in New York, DuBois was present along with 
Jewels George B. Kelley and Eugene Kinckle Jones(later to become a Jewel).  The following year DuBois wrote an article for the Sphinx "Alpha Phi Alpha and Fisk University. Known to raise "hell" if necessary. DuBois had been invited to be the guest speaker at the Fisk Commencement and turned the table on the white president of the college. DuBois admonished him for treating the students inhumanely. One of the items, he cited was that Fisk had no fraternities or sororities. The nearest chapter was Chi at Meharry which ahd been established in 1919.  As a result of DuBois's persistence, Fisk President McKenzie resigned. The Sphinx congratulated Brother DuBois and the others for "the gallant fight that ey won in the interest of tolerant and enlightened principles in Negro education. 

In 1923, DuBois future son in law, poet Countee Cullen was initiated into Eta  Chapter in New York along with nine other men. A year later, Cullen married DuBois's only daughter Yolande(a member of Delta Sigma Theta) in what Harlemites called the "wedding of the year." The marriage, however, dissolved 
a year later. It was speculated and rumored throughout Harlem that the marriage had been arranged by DuBois and that Cullen and Yolande were not in love with each other. They traveled separately on their honeymoon DuBois's editorship of the Crisis Magazine consumed his time. However, he  made great efforts to travel. One trip took him to Chicago on May 17,  1925, where  the Xi Lambda Chapter presented the distinguished scholar in their "Go 
to High School-Go to College" program at the Wendell Phillips High School. "Nothing like it has taken place in Chicago within the memory of those who  chronicle the happening of important events in the city" according to an article in the Sphinx. DuBois was dressed in his academic robe and Ph. D. hood and spoke on "Our Journey Through Life"  Over 2,200 persons jammed the auditorium to hear himBrother DuBois along with Jewel Kelley visited Rho Lambda Chapter in Buffalo,  New York in March of 1929. The brothers remarked that "never before were we  imbued with the indomitable spirit incident to the visit of so great a number of honored guests at one time." 

 In 1930, the Theta Lambda Chapter Education Committee presented Brother  DuBois at the Wayman AME Church. Over 500 persons were in attendance. He  spoke on the "The Negro's Contribution in American Civilization."

After DuBois  ended his stormy relationship with the NAACP and the crisis,  Brother Dr. John Hope (initiated into Eta Lambda Chapter around 1923) and  president of Morehouse and later Atlanta University invited DuBois to return  to Atlanta in 1934. DuBois affiliated with the Eta Lambda Chapter. Though not 
a regular meeting attending brother, DuBois as he done in years past  participated in the chapter's Educational Activities speaking at various mass  meetings throughout the city. He created and organized the Phylon Magazine  while at Atlanta University and remained in Atlanta until 1944 as head of the  Sociology Department at Atlanta University. 

In Atlanta now, DuBois had been invited to attend the Special Convention in  1934 in Chicago  to speak. He did not show up and his letter expressing his  regret was not received until months later  by Brother Wesley, then General  President who told DuBois that he wished he had contacted him directly so  that he could have made the proper announcement. Jewels Callis and Ogle were  in attendance. Occasionally, Callis would write DuBois supporting him on his  scholarly efforts. In the Callis papers at Howard are a several of such  letters.

DuBois remained committed to his work of teaching at Atlanta University. At  the close of the 30th General Session of the fraternity in 1944, Brother  DuBois gave the final address at the banquet. DuBois talked about the people  and physical beauty of small countries as Haiti and said the "Negro Americans 
should look to these islands of the sea for more useful, fruitful and 
graceful living." This statement may have been a premonition of what was to  come for DuBois in the future as he left America for Africa. A few years  later, DuBois was the guest speaker for the Beta Kappa Chapter 16th  Anniversary at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma in 1947. From the  later 40's to the 1950's. DuBois returned to New Yori before  receiving an  invitation for Kwame Nkrumah to come to Ghana. An invitation he accepted.

He lived out his life in Accra and on August 25, 1963, the day before the historic March on Washington where another Alpha Brother Dr. Martin Luther  King would do his "infamous "I Have A Dream" speech, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois died. 

During the march, mention was made that DuBois had passed. Brother W.E.B DuBois appeared on the cover of the 1969 edition of the Sphinx. DuBois was the author of numerous books. Two books that I recommend every  Alpha read at some point in his life is  Souls of Black Folk and From Dusk to Dawn.

To see the expression on DuBois's face as he is sitting between Eugene  Kinckle Jones and George Biddle Kelley outside of the St. Phillips Protestant  Church in Harlem  at the 17th Annual Convention in New York speaks volumes  regarding DuBois's respect and appreciation for Alpha Phi Alpha. This group 
of college trained men embodied the very essence of what his celebrated  theory the Talented Tenth was about. These were the sons of priviledge and  opportunity who had an inalienable right because of what they had been given  to lead the race and lift it from the depths of despair. 

A year before Alpha was founded, DuBois said  "We refuse to allow the impression to remain that the Negro American assents to inferiority, is submissive under oppression and apologetic before insults"

This was indeed the spirt that Alpha Phi Alpha was founded in 1906 and  through DuBois's actions, it can be said that Alpha was indeed the "pride of  his heart" because he cherished the precepts of the organization and raised  its banner high in everything that he did.
 

 
"In the early days of our existence we were fewer in number and felt a deeper  personal interest in each other."
Jewel George Biddle Kelley, 1953
 

"Our undergraduate brothers, because of the great opportunities presented  them and because the world is so sorely in need of the contributions which  only they and their contemporaries can make, must leave for posterity a  record better than that of the generation which preceded theirs."
The 20th General President, William Hale, 1961

ON THE MASONIC ISSUE A BROTHER WROTE:

It is interesting to know that noted historian Charles H. Wesley (a Prince Hall Mason), author of The History of Alpha Phi Alpha, A Development of  College Life also authored a book titled; Prince Hall Life and Legacy. What  was so striking about the book is that on  Page 178 shows a picture of the  noted historian himself  (Charles H. Wesley) at the Prince Hall Monument, 
Boston, Massachusetts.  Note; Boston is where the Body of the deceased Most  Worshipful Grandmaster Prince Hall lies in final resting; which every Prince  Hall Mason around the world are challenge to make at least one earthly  pilgrimage). Another interesting note is a Masonic Poem written by Dr. W. E. 
B. Duboise in 1904 while living in Boston, Massachusetts, also a Prince Hall  Mason. The title of the poem was; CREDO.

I hope this was helpful..my brother
Rev. Bro. R. Walker
LM# 8189
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WERE SIGMA FOUNDERS ETERNAL SPHINXMEN?
Skip:

Can you research a long standing rumor in Alphadom that the founders of Phi  Beta Sigma were members of the Sphinx Club and were dropped when the did not  pass the "paper bag" test?

O6,
Carlton A. Riddick
#10-Fall 1989, Alpha Omicron
 

SKIP'S RESPONSE
Brother Riddick,
That rumor would be very difficult to prove. Unless there were documents that 
listed Sphinxmen of Beta for 1912 or 1913, or unless it was mentioned in the  History of Alpha or the Phi Beta Sigma History (which it is not), it is simply that another fable. Once again, the very fact of establishment in 1906 should remedy or justify that we laid the foundation and set the pattern for others to follow.  
 

WERE OMEGA FOUNDERS REJECTED DURING TAP DAY:

Skip,

Have you ever heard the rumor that rejected "Tap Day" students formed Omega  Psi Phi?  What if any truth is in this. Also, I want you to know how thrilled I am that you are doing this. I really look forward to this daily history lesson, and you know that once we are out of school most of us don't learn any more
fraternity history. Thanks once again.
Lewis

SKIP'S RESPONSE
It is assumed that Tap Day occurred only once in the Spring  of 1908 and after being reprimanded by Alpha Chapter it was stopped. The  Founders of Omega did not enroll at Howard until the Fall of 1908 or later.  It is unlikely that in the fall of 1910, the brothers of Beta were engaged in  that. That would have been around the time that the Omega Founders were  students in School.