City of Pittsburgh - File #: 2006-1025

• File #: 2006-1025
• Version: 1
• Type: Proclamation
• Status: Adopted
• File created: 12/5/2006
• In control: City Council
• Enactment date: 12/5/2006
• Enactment #: 734
• Title: NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh hereby commends and thanks Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc. for its hundred-year commitment to service and leadership of social and civic progress, from the civil rights movement to local community growth; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh hereby declares December 4, 2006, "Alpha Phi Alpha Day" in the City of Pittsburgh.
• Sponsors: William Peduto, Twanda Carlisle, Tonya D. Payne, Dan Deasy, Jeffrey S. Koch, Jim Motznik
• Indexes: PROCLAMATION - MR. PEDUTO

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
12/5/2006	1	City Council	Adopted	Pass

Body

WHEREAS, on December 4^th, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, seven African American students: Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Eugene Kinkle Jones, Vertner Woodson Tandy, Robert Harold Ogle, and George Biddle Kelly founded the first collegiate fraternity for African American men;

WHEREAS, the founders of Alpha Phi Alpha, collectively known as the Seven Jewels, believed that it was important to create a support network for African American male students on college campuses across the nation; and

WHEREAS, Alpha Phi Alpha is dedicated to the principles of manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind; and

WHEREAS, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr._National_Memorial> is a project of Alpha Phi Alpha and the fraternity also leads philanthropic programming initiatives with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the March of Dimes <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_Dimes>, Head Start <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_Start>, Alpha Homes, a Voteless People is a Hopeless People, Project Alpha, the Boy Scouts of America <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America> and many more important and influential programs and projects; and

WHEREAS, there are over 700 Alpha chapters in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the West Indies, including over 300 college and university chapters in the United States such as Howard University, Harvard University and the University of Pittsburgh;

WHEREAS, locally, the Omicron Chapter, founded in 1913, and the Alpha Omicron Lambda Chapter, founded in 1928, have produced some of Pittsburgh's premier African American leaders in all professions; such as Byrd Brown, Harvey Adams, Tim Stevens, William Fisher, Theodore Vasser, Colonel Edmund Effort, and K. Chase Patterson a member of the fraternities' national board of directors; and

WHEREAS, Alpha Phi Alpha celebrated its one hundredth anniversary on December 4, 2006.

Title

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh hereby commends and thanks Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc. for its hundred-year commitment to service and leadership of social and civic progress, from the civil rights movement to local community growth; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh hereby declares December 4, 2006, "Alpha Phi Alpha Day" in the City of Pittsburgh.