The Beta Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. celebrated its 80th anniversary on April 23, 2012. Current chapter members and alumni from across the country convened in Tallahassee late last week for a three-day commemoration.
Attendees included: Brodes Hartley, president and CEO of Community Health of South Florida Inc. and former chairman of the FAMU Foundation; Daryl Parks, a Tallahassee attorney and former vice-chairman of the FAMU Board of Trustees; David Jackson, chairman of the FAMU Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and African American Studies; Charles Frazier, president of Educational Development Company; Quintin Haynes, associate director of finance for the White House Office of Management & Administration; and Breyon Love, FAMU student body president and university trustee.
The highlight of the anniversary took place on Saturday, April 21 with a gala keynoted by Frederick S. Humphries, the eighth president of FAMU.
The first black Greek letter fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, was founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University by seven men or “Jewels”: Henry A. Callis; Charles H. Chapman; Eugene K. Jones; George B. Kelley; Nathaniel A. Murray; Robert H. Ogle; and Vertner W. Tandy. The aims of the fraternity are manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind. Its motto is: “First of all; Servants of all; We shall transcend all.”
Chapman, who became at professor Florida A&M College, personally founded the Beta Nu Chapter in 1932.
