| As a youngster, I used to listen to my
| |
| | Cornell was difficult. More than
|
| mother tell me how she and her sister
| |
| | the weather up there was cold.
|
| grew up in Ithaca, New York.
| |
| | Anyway, my grandfather and six of his
|
| She was always talking about how pretty
| |
| | fellow students were successful in
|
| it was and would go on and on about the
| |
| | founding the first Greek
|
| Finger Lakes and
| |
| | Letter Fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha in
|
| the mountains. It always seemed weird
| |
| | 1906. Back then Cornell was daunting;
|
| to me since I grew up in the segregated
| |
| | though admitted to study, it
|
| south. I knew about New
| |
| | was clear that students of color did not
|
| York City (I thought that Harlem was the
| |
| | really belong or feel welcome in the
|
| same as New York back then) and Brooklyn
| |
| | community. At the same time
|
| because I had heard that
| |
| | Greek Letter Fraternities were a key
|
| a lot of Black folks lived there. Back
| |
| | survival system for white men. They
|
| then I figured that Black folks could not
| |
| | provided social bonding and
|
| possibly live in places like that,
| |
| | academic support for their members.
|
| living that close to white people and
| |
| | Logically enough, Blacks could not join
|
| such. On top of that it was too cold.
| |
| | them back then. What
|
| Coming from Richmond, Virginia
| |
| | my grandfather and his friends, now
|
| this all seemed too strange for me. I
| |
| | affectionately and reverently known as
|
| could not really understand how Black
| |
| | the founding Jewels of Alpha
|
| folk could live that close to
| |
| | Phi Alpha, did must have been
|
| white people.
| |
| | phenomenal. They were courageous enough
|
| As my mother told me more, I learned
| |
| | to say that if we cannot join
|
| that my grandfather, who died before I
| |
| | the fraternities that make you feel
|
| was born, won a scholarship
| |
| | welcome and supported at Cornell, then we
|
| to Cornell University back in the early
| |
| | need to form our own. There
|
| 1900s. He stayed up there and married a
| |
| | had been an earlier effort to start a
|
| beautiful woman whose
| |
| | fraternity at Cornell for Black students
|
| family was one of the few Black families
| |
| | that was unsuccessful, but
|
| in town. That was why my mother, the
| |
| | my grandfather and his friends were
|
| older of two sisters, was
| |
| | committed enough to make their goal a
|
| born there in what I thought was a
| |
| | reality regardless of the sacrifice.
|
| strange, far-away land. And though she is
| |
| | Alpha Phi Alpha now has members
|
| dead now, the romantic visions
| |
| | worldwide and boasts in its membership so
|
| of this cold life in a small quaint
| |
| | many accomplished
|
| college town remain imbued within me.
| |
| | Black men that it has truly set a proud
|
| Her father faced many challenges as one
| |
| | tradition. There is so much good that
|
| of the very few Black students at Cornell
| |
| | can be said for the organization
|
| during that time.
| |
| | that this article certainly cannot do it
|
| Basically, all of the other Black
| |
| | justice. If any readers want to know
|
| students shared those challenges as well.
| |
| | more I would invite them to visit
|
| I learned that he bonded
| |
| | the Alpha Phi Alpha website,
|
| with a number of them and decided to
| |
| | In a twist of fate my grandfather seemed
|
| start a Greek Letter fraternity. It
| |
| | to have deeply influenced my fate when my
|
| seems at that time there were
| |
| | opportunity to
|
| no fraternities for Black students and
| |
| | attend college came.
|
| assimilation into University life at
| |
| |
|
