Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity: A Centennial Celebration

H. Ray Wooten (Cornell Class of 1916), “A Better Chapter, A Greater Fraternity.” March 18, 1916. [view PDF]

Alpha Chapter members held “Papers of the Evening,” where they would share essays about topics of the day. The topics ranged from “Athletic Ability and Scholarship Efficiency as Aids in Securing Racial Privilege” to “A Brother’s Love” to “Ways of Increasing Our Treasury.”

In his essay, Harry Ray Wooten takes an introspective and evaluative look at the chapter and its members. Specifically, he praises the chapter’s officers, questions members’ conduct at meetings, evaluates Alpha Chapter’s role and influence among other chapters and the general fraternity, and admonishes the members to live up to the fraternity’s high standards. He ends his essay with a mandate: “Let us be men, show that we are true brothers of Alpha chapter and have put aside all petty prejudices, all former party affiliations, destroying all personal likes and dislikes, and to the best of our unbiased judgments, let us nominate and elect men even as you did in your past elections, who shall unflinchingly push the battle for a greater and more perfect order of Alpha Phi Alphaism.”