50 Years of Brotherhood
It was a cool Tuesday night on May 17, 1966, when seven men, known as “The Pearls,” became the founding members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. chapter on the University of Missouri campus.
“At the time, the closest [Alpha chapter] was in Jefferson City at Lincoln University,” says founding member and Interim UM System President Mike Middleton, BA '68, JD '71. “I have two older brothers who went to Lincoln and were Alphas, and my father was an Alpha. So, I knew about Alpha and I wanted to be an Alpha. There were five other men on campus who had similar sentiments, so we started the process of trying to form a chapter.”
An undergraduate student at Lincoln University joined the six MU students to make seven, the number of men required by the national office to start a chapter. Together, with the help of Lincoln’s graduate chapter, the men went through an initiation process and formed Zeta Alpha, the 332nd Dynasty of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American men, was founded Dec. 4, 1906, at Cornell University. More than 100 years after its founding, the men of the fraternity still strive to develop leaders and promote brotherhood and academic excellence while providing service and advocacy for their communities.