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The list of Alpha Phi Alpha brothers (commonly referred to as Alphas¹) includes initiated and honorary members of Alpha Phi Alpha (ΆΦΆ), the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter organization established for Black college students.² Founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Alpha Phi Alpha opened chapters at other colleges, universities, and cities, and named them with Greek-letters. Members traditionally pledge into a chapter, although some members were granted honorary status prior to the fraternity's discontinuation of the practice of granting honorary membership. A chapter name ending in “Lambda” denotes a graduate chapter. No chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha is designated Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet that traditionally signifies "the end". Deceased brothers are respectfully referred to as having joined Omega Chapter. Frederick Douglass is distinguished as the only member initiated posthumously when he became an exalted honorary member of Omega chapter in 1921.²

The fraternity through its college and alumni chapters serves the community through nearly a thousand chapters in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean."³

The Cornell University Sign at the West Campus Entrance. Cornell University was the site of the founding of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

The fraternity has been led by 32 General Presidents and its membership includes at least two Heads of Government, three Governors, a Vice President, two Senators, a Supreme Court Justice, two Presidential candidates, Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Lenin Peace Prize, Kluge Prize, and French Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre laureates, and at least four Rhodes Scholars, seventeen Ambassadors, thirteen Presidential Medal of Freedom, three Congressional Gold Medal, and seventeen Spingarn Medal recipients, and fourteen Olympians. Buildings, monuments, and schools have been named after Alpha men such as the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge, and the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The House of Alpha

The House of Alpha was written in 1946 by fraternity brother Sydney P. Brown as a dedicatory statement for the "Alpha House" (fraternity house) of Theta Chapter and Xi Lambda chapter who jointly shared the fraternity house. Loyalty to the Fraternity ideas was repeatedly urged by brothers on the part of those who were among the initiated, and for every chapter with the vision of a fraternity house. The statement has become a manifesto for the national fraternity and chapters, as each may symbolically be referred to as a "House of Alpha."²⁵

Eugene K. Jones, sometimes referred to as "The Visionary Jewel" once said:

Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest of Negro Fraternities, with all of its members presumably far above the average American and having a good and practical understanding of the salient factors involved in the Negro's problem...should be able to take into their hands the leadership in the Negro's struggle for status.⁶

Here follows a list of notable Alphas.

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness. Sourced additions are welcome and you can help by expanding it.

Founders

Charter for Alpha Phi Alpha's Alpha chapter with signatures of founders–Cornell University. circa. 1906

Academia

Educators

Ninety-five percent of all Black Colleges have been headed by an Alpha.⁵

Floyd Flake

Norman Francis

John Hope

Charles S. Johnson

Frederick Patterson

Professors and researchers

John Franklin

Rhodes scholars

The Rhodes Scholarship is the world's oldest and arguably most prestigious international fellowship. The scholarships have been awarded to applicants annually since 1902 by the Rhodes Trust in Oxford on the basis of academic qualities, as well as those of character.

Business

Entertainment

Music

Duke Ellington

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Richie

Noble Sissle

Film, television and theatre

Tim Reid

Paul Robeson

Government, law, and public policy

Note: individuals who belong in multiple sections appear in the first relevant section.

Vice Presidents and Supreme Court

Hubert Humphrey

Thurgood Marshall

Cabinet and Cabinet-level Ranks

Lee Brown

Samuel Pierce