Callis, Henry Arthur

Impact on the world

Co-founded Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Cornell University on December 4, 1906, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African American men, helping to transform what began as an informal literary and support society for Black students facing racial exclusion into the country's oldest Black collegiate fraternity, now with more than 290,000 members and over 730 chapters worldwide; widely remembered as 'the philosopher of the founders,' he was the only one of the fraternity's seven founding 'Jewels' to later serve as its General President.

Life & background

Born in Rochester, New York to an AME Zion preacher, Callis reportedly pledged at age six, after visiting relatives, that he would attend Cornell University, a goal he achieved by winning a state scholarship from his high school; while there, he supported himself by tutoring white students and working as a waiter in the dining rooms of the same established white fraternities that excluded Black students like himself from membership. He was among the small group of Black students at Cornell who, facing pervasive social and academic exclusion, organized first as an informal study and literary society before formally establishing Alpha Phi Alpha in December 1906, helping select the fraternity's name and serving the young organization in multiple early leadership roles, including president, vice-president, and secretary, before later becoming its seventh General President from 1915 to 1916. After earning his bachelor's degree from Cornell in 1909, he pursued a career in medicine, becoming a physician and medical consultant at the Veterans Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama before relocating to Washington, D.C., where he joined the faculty of Howard University's medical school and contributed prolifically to medical journals throughout his career. He remained Alpha Phi Alpha's last surviving founding 'Jewel' for years before his death in 1974 at age 87, after which his personal papers were donated to Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

Sources

1. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. official history; Detroit Alphas; Wall Street Alphas; Kappa Iota Lambda chapter history