Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity: A Centennial Celebration

Signed Portrait of James Bertram Clarke, Cornell Class of 1912. [view]

This photograph is inscribed to Professor Burt Green Wilder, Cornell Professor of Zoology. Professor Wilder’s typescript describes Clarke as: “One of the Best men and most brilliant scholars graduated from Cornell University. He is now connected with the Crisis [official publication of the NAACP] in New York.”

Writer and Orator James Bertram Clarke was born in Saint Vincent, British West Indies, and initiated into Alpha Chapter on November 6, 1910. Clarke wrote and published articles and books about race relations and issues. Clarke wrote for the Crisis, was associate editor of the Cosmopolitan Student, the official publication of the Cosmopolitan Clubs of America, and belonged to the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He was fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian and taught language instruction classes in New York. Clarke also was an admirer of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and helped find ways to financially support the Harriet Tubman House for elderly African Americans, located in Auburn, NY.

James Bertram Clarke. “Race Prejudice at Cornell.” Cornell Era Vol. 43, No. 5. March 1911. [view PDF]

Clarke’s article describes some of his personal experiences with prejudice at Cornell, but focuses especially on the exclusion of black women from Cornell’s residence for women, Sage College. This article garnered nationwide attention in its time and resulted in a response from Cornell University President Jacob Gould Schurman, declaring that “University doors must be open to all students irrespective of race or color or creed...”

For more information on the experience of early African-American women at Cornell, see: The Challenge of Residency at Sage College, 1900s-1920s