Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Alpha Alpha Lambda Chapter, Inc.
Founded October 13, 1926
Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
Historical Moments
READ IT, SAVE IT, COPY IT, FILE IT, FORWARD IT, DISCUSS
IT
AND BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF THE FRATERNITY
#4
VOL. 1, NO. 4 - April 20, 1999
"We Must Find the Good and Praise It"
Alex Haley
THE ALPHA-DELTA ONNECTION
By Skip Mason
"She may be an Omega Sweetheart or a Dream Girl of A Phi A.
.....But if she wears that Delta Symbol, then her true love is DST."
From the Delta Sweetheart Song
The fall of 1912 was a tumultuous year for sisterhood on the campus
of Howard University as 22 women pulled out of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
to organize another sorority they named Delta Sigma Theta. One young
lady, Myra Davis holds the distinction of being the only woman to
serve as both Basileus of AKA and President of DST in 1912 and 1913 respectively.
Of the twenty-two women who organized the sorority, two dated two
of the founders of Omega Psi Phi.. Delta Founder Edith Young dated Edgar
Love and Frank Coleman dated and ultimately married Edna Brown. And
yes my dear brothers, another three of the Delta founders were "Sweethearts
of A Phi A" and later to become wives of our dear brothers.
Delta Founder Osceola Macarthy, who became one of the first African-American
women to perform on Broadway dated and married Beta Chapter initiate
Numa P.G. Adams, a member of the Howard Class of 1911. Brother Adams, a
chemistry professor became the first African-American dean of the Howard
University Medical School. He and Jewel Callis were very close friends
and it was Adams who invited Callis back to Howard to teach after his stint
in Tuskegee Institute Hospital.
Another Delta Founder who married an Alpha was Miss Vashti Turley.
She married Brother Carl Murphy, also a graduate of the Howard and Harvard
University, an instructor of German at Howard and later editor and publisher
of his father's paper The Baltimore Afro-American. Brother Murphy
also served as Editor of the Sphinx in the 1920's. The Murphy's had
five children (all daughters, all Delta's) Their granddaughter is the Reverend
Vasti Murphy McKenzie, a prominent Baltimore pastor and National Chaplain
for Delta Sigma Theta as well a candidate for the Episcopacy of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church.
Finally, Delta Founder Naomi Sewell married Alpha man Clarence
Richardson. Sewell taught high school in Princeton, New Jersey where she
befriended Brother Paul Robeson, who was attending Rutgers at the time.
On weekends they would have singalongs.
DID YOU KNOW THAT...
Brother Paul Robeson(Nu Chapter '17) and his wife Eslanda Goode Robeson,
a Delta spent their honeymoon at a Delta Convention.
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (Delta's first National President, one
of the founders of the National Bar Association) was married to an Alpha,
Attorney Raymond Pace Alexander.
The Alpha chapter at Rust College presented a young Delta girl in one
of her first recitals on the campus as a part of their cultural program.
This Delta soror at Rust was Leotyne Price.
-Historian and 14th General President Charles Wesley had a Delta wife, Charlotte.
-19th General President Myles Paige had a Delta wife Dorothy
-26th General President Ozell Sutton is married to Delta Joanna Sutton
-27th General President Charles Teamer is married to Delta Mary Teamer.
-28th General President Henry Ponder is married to Delta Anna Ponder.
In December of 1923, the Delta's and the Alpha's held their National convention
in Columbus, Ohio and took a pilgrimage to the home and grave of Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
(You will recall in the first issue that Mrs. Paul Lawrence Dunbar became the first
wife of Jewel Henry Arthur Callis and wrote the words to the Delta National Hymn).
The two groups came together for their annual banquet. It was at that convention that
Mary McLeod Bethune was inducted as a Delta.
While students at Howard University during the 1960's, this Delta and Alpha team forged
a phenomenal friendship and one of the greatest musical duos of our time: Delta Roberta
Flack and Alpha Donny Hathaway.
DELTA QUOTE- "If God has created a better man than an Alpha man, I do not know where he
is." Mona Humpries Bailey, Past National President of Delta Sigma Theta (in her remarks
at the Atlanta Convention in 1986). She is sister of Alpha brother Frederick Humphries,
President of Florida A&M University.
*I was at the convention when she made the remarks. She brought the house down!
"I fear that in another generation, the relationship of the years 1890-1920 in the
establishment and growth of Alpha and the subsequent Greek letter societies, will
be lost entirely. When that occurs our usefulness will be over.
Jewel Henry Arthur Callis, 1952
