Florida Senate - 2010                            (NP)    SR 2786
       
       
       
       By Senator Smith
       
       
       
       
       29-02887-10                                           20102786__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution honoring Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity,
    3         Inc., as its Florida members celebrate the 2010 “Alpha
    4         Days on the Hill.”
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was founded on December
    7  4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, as the first
    8  intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African
    9  Americans and, since its inception, has supplied voice and
   10  vision to the struggle of African Americans and other people of
   11  color around the world, and
   12         WHEREAS, the founders of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, known
   13  as the “seven jewels of the fraternity,” were visionaries Henry
   14  Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinkle Jones,
   15  George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold
   16  Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy, all of whom recognized the need
   17  for a strong bond of brotherhood among African descendants in
   18  this country, and
   19         WHEREAS, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, incorporated on
   20  January 29, 1908, to serve as a study and support group for
   21  minority students who faced racial prejudice and discrimination,
   22  both educationally and socially, and
   23         WHEREAS, the founders and early leaders of Alpha Phi Alpha
   24  Fraternity, Inc., succeeded in laying a firm foundation for the
   25  fraternity’s principles of scholarship, fellowship, good
   26  character, and the uplifting of humanity, and
   27         WHEREAS, chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., have
   28  been developed at other colleges and universities, many of them
   29  historically black institutions, and
   30         WHEREAS, Charles Henry Chapman, who served as a professor
   31  of agriculture at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
   32  University, was active in the founding of the Beta Nu Chapter,
   33  the first African American Greek-lettered organization in this
   34  state, and
   35         WHEREAS, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., continues to
   36  grow, spanning the globe with over 400 undergraduate chapters
   37  and 200 graduate chapters, and
   38         WHEREAS, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.,
   39  realistically faces the educational, economic, political, and
   40  social challenges encountered by African Americans in the United
   41  States and internationally, and responds to these challenges
   42  with continued emphasis on academic excellence through mandated
   43  programs like “Project Alpha,” “Go To High School,” “Go To
   44  College,” and “A Voteless People Is A Hopeless People,” and
   45         WHEREAS, the membership of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity,
   46  Inc., has included the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr.
   47  W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Dick Gregory, John Hope Franklin,
   48  Justice Thurgood Marshall, United States Vice President Hubert
   49  Humphrey, United States Senator Edward Brooke, Congressman Adam
   50  Clayton Powell, Jr., NASA Astronaut Winston Scott, Lenny
   51  Wilkens, Duke Ellington, Stuart Scott, Jesse Owens, Marc Morial,
   52  Donny Hathaway, and scores more, and
   53         WHEREAS, current Alpha membership includes many Florida
   54  leaders, including Senator Christopher Smith, former
   55  Representatives Curtis Richardson and Alzo Reddick, and former
   56  Senator Arnett Girardeau, DDS, and
   57         WHEREAS, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., is
   58  celebrating more than 103 years of outstanding achievement in
   59  upholding the aims of manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all
   60  of mankind, NOW, THEREFORE,
   61  
   62  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   63  
   64         That the Florida Senate honors and congratulates the Alpha
   65  Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., on more than 103 years of service
   66  and recognizes its past and present Florida members as they
   67  convene in Tallahassee to celebrate the 2010 “Alpha Days on the
   68  Hill.”