About Us
Mission and Vision
The Alpha Alpha Lambda Scholarship and Educational Fund, Inc. provides support and funding to a wide variety of scholarship and educational programs in and around Essex County, NJ. In line with the mission, vision and values of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. this foundation seeks to raise the educational achievement, confidence and life experience of young Black men.
Foundation History
The foundation was founded by a group of Alpha Alpha Lambda Brothers in 1986, who recognized a need to support African-American youth by providing scholarship funds for the greater Essex County community.
The following Brothers were the original members of the Foundation; Bros. Richard Cook, Sydney Johnson, Marvin McCurtis, Claude Perry, Carlisle S. Parker, Warren Sherwood, and Jim Dave Wilson. Those original seven members were known as the “Unholy 7”. They were committed to the principles of empowering today’s youth through the recognition of scholastic achievement. Furthermore, they had a singular purpose of maintaining the existence and success of both the chapter and foundation.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. History
Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American Men, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of brotherhood among African descendants in this country.
The fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell. The Jewel founders and early leaders of the fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha’s principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity.
Alpha Phi Alpha has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community’s fight for civil rights through leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Edward Brooke, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, William Gray, Paul Robeson, and many others.
Alpha Alpha Lambda Chapter History
Twenty years after the founding of our dear Fraternity, the Brothers in the State of New Jersey experienced a need to establish a local chapter to sustain them in their efforts to address what has been called the problem of the 20th Century – the problem of the color line; while pursuing, ambitiously their professional careers. Therefore on a fall Wednesday evening, October 13, 1926, in the home of Brother Dr. Clarence S. Janifer, Sr., at 208 Parker Street, Newark, New Jersey; Bro. Peyton Anderson, Eastern Regional Vice President with Bro. James Fladger and Bro. Leslie Thompson of Eta Chapter (Columbia University) along with the following Brothers met to form a New Jersey chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Thirteen alumni Brothers made application for charter. Ultimately, fourteen were recognized as charter members. The men, are affectionately known throughout the Chapter as “The Original 14.”