Brothers, as we join next week for our Phirst ever House of Alpha Week (see attached flyer), I wanted to give you a perspective on a poem recited and loved by all. Brother Sydney P. Brown (Beta, 1917) (attachment 1) credited his experience and encounters with Alpha Brothers during different events in his life from college to serving in World War 1, attending law school, and relocations all with the connecting factor that of the brotherhood, which gave him the perception to write “The House of Alpha”. It was during a moment of leisure, he expressed what it meant to be a part of Alpha Phi Alpha.
Did you know there was a mystery behind there being two versions of “The House of Alpha”? After a search years ago where the first original “House of Alpha” was published in The Sphinx, 1923, Brother Anthony Crutchfield of the Gamma Lambda Chapter (Detroit, MI) answered the call and provided the first original print of “The House of Alpha”. As you review the original poem, please look for the difference in what you were told to learn (new version) and what was actually written by Brother Brown.
So Brothers as we connect with Brothers and we continue to increase our reclamation efforts, let’s continue to welcome our Brothers back into the “House of Alpha”. Take the time to read and reflect on a poem so dear to our beloved Brotherhood and in the truest sense, of what it means to be a part of the “House of Alpha”.
Also, I invite you to read in his own words Brother Brown’s experience as to “Why He Built The House of Alpha”… “Rome was not built in a day, neither was the House of Alpha. In 1912, there was not a public high school for Blacks in Mississippi. A physician, an Alpha, who finished Howard Medical School came to my hometown, Edwards, Mississippi from Vicksburg, 18 miles away. He had a few patients in Edwards and told my parents about the……” (pick up his story “In his own words” in the attachment 2).
Again, Brothers, I hope you will join Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. in a series of events for “House of Alpha” week. Remember, “Goodwill is the monarch of this house. Men unacquainted, enter, shake hands, exchange greetings, depart friends. Cordiality exists among all those who abide within…”
This is your moment in Alpha History and dedicated to Brother Oliver L. Hodge (BY, ’57) who was the “eminent expression of friendship” and if your life was ever touched by his, you truly became “tune, and thereafter, amiable, kindly and fraternal”. Rest well my Brother.
Fraternally Submitted,
Brother Sean C. Hall, Historian
