Other members include political activist Cornel West, musicians Duke Ellington, Donny Hathaway, and Lionel Richie, NBA player Walt Frazier, NFL player Charles Haley, Jamaican Prime Minister Norman Manley, Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, Justice Thurgood Marshall, businessman Robert F. Smith, United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, and film director Barry Jenkins.

[4] In December 1905, Poindexter organized a meeting of students which included Murray, Ogle, Phillips, Chapman, Kelley, Callis, Tandy, and George Tompkins.

[32] The National Urban League's (NUL) Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life was first published in 1923 under the leadership of Alpha founder Eugene K. Jones and Charles Johnson as its executive editor.

[35] While in office he helped secure a chapter house, appointed a special committee to consult with the president of Howard, and asked members to 'use every means possible to raise the moral and scholastic tone of the Fraternity".

[39] While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha's leaders recognized the need to correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African Americans and the world community.

Du Bois, Noble Sissle, Countee Cullen and other members were entrepreneurs and participants in this creative upsurge led primarily by the African-American community based in Harlem, New York City.

[43] Alpha men Rayford Logan and Eugene K. Jones were members of Roosevelt's unofficial Black Cabinet, an informal group of African-American public policy advisors to the President.

Historian and fraternity brother John Hope Franklin was an early beneficiary of the publishing company[28] and was the 2006 Kluge Prize recipient for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity.

NNA lawyers, including Lawson and Thurgood Marshall, fought back – to the Supreme Court of the United States in New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co.[46] This ruling in favor of the NAACP became a landmark case in the struggle by African Americans against discriminatory hiring practices.

Seven Alpha men represented the United States at the politically charged 1936 Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Fritz Pollard Jr., Cornelius Johnson, Archie Williams, Dave Albritton, and John Woodruff.

The case styled Murray v. Pearson (1935) was initiated by the fraternity and successfully argued by Alpha men Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston to challenge biases at the university which had no laws requiring segregation in its colleges.

[56] After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the nation's entry into World War II, the fraternity fought to secure rights for its members within the ranks of officers in the armed forces.

The types of warfare encountered evidenced the nexus between education and war, with illiteracy decreasing a soldier's usefulness to the Army that could only be addressed with the inclusion of a large number of college-educated men among the ranks of officers.

Marshall employed mentor and fraternity brother Charles Houston's plan to use the de facto inequality of "separate but equal" education in the United States to attack and defeat the Jim Crow laws.

"[41] In 1981, the fraternity celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in Dallas, Texas, featuring a presentation of the New Thrust Program consisting of the Million Dollar Fund Drive, the Leadership Development and Citizenship Institutes, and the quest to obtain a national holiday for fraternity brother Martin Luther King Jr.[68] We will go to great lengths to lend our voices, our time, our expertise, and our money to solve the problems that humankind must solve as we move into the 21st century.As the 21st century approached, Alpha Phi Alpha's long-term commitment to the social and economic improvement of humanity remained at the top of its agenda.

A Senior U.S. District Judge upheld earlier federal court decisions in the case, which also found private entities have a right under the NVRA, to engage in organized voter registration activity in Georgia at times and locations of their choosing, without the presence or permission of state or local election officials.

"[28][71] The council is headed by Ambassador Horace Dawson and communicates its position through white papers which is disseminated to policymakers, politicians, scholars, journalists, and chapters of the fraternity.

"[65][71] The mystique of belonging to a Greek letter group still attracts college students in large numbers despite lawsuits that have threatened the very existence of some fraternities and sororities.

[116] The fraternity's membership roster includes activist Dick Gregory, Princeton Professor Cornel West, Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel Pierce, celebrity physician Corey Hébert, entrepreneur John Johnson, athlete Mike Powell, musician Donny Hathaway, United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, the first Premier of Bermuda Sir Edward T. Richards, and Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson.

[119] Alpha men were instrumental in the founding and leadership of the NAACP (Du Bois),[120] People's National Party (PNP) Norman Manley,[121] Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) (Jesse E. Moorland),[122] UNCF (Frederick D. Patterson),[123] and the SCLC (King, Walker and Jemison).

Houston's campaign to fight Jim Crow Laws began with Plessy v. Ferguson and culminated in a unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Atlanta Life is notable for both its financial support of the Civil Rights Movement and owning the first insurance policy for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.[125] Ron Dellums's campaign to end the racist, apartheid policies of South Africa succeeded when the House of Representatives passed Dellums's anti-apartheid Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act calling for a trade embargo against South Africa and immediate divestment by American corporations.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, designed to recognize individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors", has been awarded to many members including Edward Brooke and William Coleman.

[137] The Centennial Convention, called "Reflects on Rich Past, Looks Toward Bright Future", began on Capitol Hill with Congressman and fraternity member David Scott stating to the House of Representatives, "this week men from every discipline and geographic location convene to chart and plan for the fraternity's future, celebrate its 100th anniversary, and reinvigorate its founding principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity."

While in Washington, fraternity members such as National Urban League head Marc Morial and Congressman Gregory Meeks witnessed the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by President George W. Bush in a signing ceremony at the White House.

[142] Members of black fraternities and sororities call themselves Greek because "Greece was a culturally diverse pluralistic society of various ethnic and racial groups—much like the United States of today.

The Cobb County medical examiners report "didn't declare the hazing to be a "direct cause" of Joel's death, but it stated that he was "under an intensive amount of anxiety and stress" that night.

[153] In 2006, the first trial in the case, of Raymond Lee (SMU fraternity member), resulted in a conviction and a sentence to 180 days in jail, ten years of probation, and a $10,000 fine.

[156][157] In 2009, a fraternity member at Fort Valley State University was arrested and charged with felony aggravated battery for hospitalizing a pledge with acute renal failure.

[166] On January 29, 2016, Bradley Doyley, a senior and basketball player at Buffalo State College was pronounced dead allegedly of a hazing-related pledging ritual.