“We must fight till hell freezes over and then fight on the ice.”
-Vertner Woodson Tandy, December 1937.
First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All!
Since its founding, the fraternity has provided leadership and service during the Great Depression, World War II, Civil Rights Movements, and addressed the social issues of apartheid, urban housing, and economic, cultural, and political concerns affecting people of color.​
The fraternity’s major programs include Voter Education, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boy Scouts, Brothers Keeper, and March of Dimes. The organization also contributed a Million Dollars to the National Urban League, the NAACP, and the United Negro Scholarship Fund. The fraternity led the management and construction of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the Washington Mall. Dr. King was one of the most revered brothers of the fraternity.
The fraternity’s membership is more than two hundred thousand college-trained men dispersed in more than 1,500 colleges and 900 alumni chapters throughout the United States, Korea, Europe and the Caribbean.
Some of its prominent members are Justice Thurgood Marshall, Congressmen Emmanuel Cleaver, Al Green, William Gray, Charles Rangel; Ebony Publisher John H. Johnson, former PVAMU presidents Alvin I. Thomas, E. B. Evans and Charles Hines, Mayors Lee P. Brown, David Dinkins, Maynard Jackson, Frank Jackson, Raymond E. Carreathers, Jiles P. Daniels, Sr., Michael Wolfe and Ernest Morial, Texas State Representatives Al Edwards, Sylvester Turner and Boris Miles, musicians Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie; Activists Paul Robeson, W. E. B. DuBois, Olympians Ralph Metcalfe and Jesse Owens, and legendary coaches Eddie Robinson and Lenny Wilkins.
Our History
The Epsilon Tau Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. was chartered on November 7, 1952, when the members established and operated a chapter of the fraternity in the Prairie View community; and
The chapter celebrated its 61st Anniversary on November 7, 2013. It was through the leadership and passion of the charter members, namely Sammie Davis, Thomas P. Dooley, James E. Ellison, Edward B. Evans, Augustus M. Glenn, Lee B. James, Herman T. Jones, Harold E. Mazyck Jr., James E. Nix, Emery R. Owens, Lee E. Perkins, Alfred N. Poindexter, James A. Randal, John R. Ross, William A. Samuel, L. E. Scott, Thomas R. Solomon, Wendal D. Swindall, Alvin I. Thomas, Harvey R. Turner, John C. Williams, Curtis A. Wood and George R. Woolfolk, Charter members of the Epsilon Tau Lambda Chapter.
As part of the national fraternity and its response to serving the communities the chapter commitment is shown with national programs such as Boy Scouts, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, March of Dimes, Go to High School, Go to College, A Voteless People is a Hopeless People and the Brothers’ Keeper Program, which has enriched our community, the county, the state and the nation.
The Epsilon Tau Lambda Chapter recognizes the freedom of participating in activities and programs to create a better quality of life for our community, the members have committed themselves to engage in dialogue and common cause with the community with a shared vision of peace and justice for all, and
The members are committed to the ideals and motto of the fraternity: First of All, Servants of All and we shall Transcend All, as evidenced in the membership’s involvement in various areas of the community
Several members of Epsilon Tau Lambda Chapter have provided leadership in the City, namely Edward B. Evans and Alvin I. Thomas (PVAMU presidents), Jacob Boyer, Tyrone Davis, Simeon Queen, Brian Rowland and Herbert Thomas (council members), Jiles P. Daniels, Raymond Carreathers and Frank D. Jackson (mayors) and George E. Higgs (civic and social leaders), teachers and businessmen
Our Leadership
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Our Lineage
Kevin McCraw
Anti-Virus
Kevin Bussey
Knoowledge
Morris Woodard
Bones
Cecil Dorsett
Virus
Charles McCaul
Professor
Gabe Lewis
Welcome Back
Charleston Hardy
Cocky
Mark Crawford
7th Grade
Lynn Jackson
Dr. Who?
Lionel Smith
Training Day
David Arterberry
Dash