Historically black houses stress community, service
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity holds no pretensions of serving as a basement for the campus. Located not on Webster Avenue but tucked quietly away in a River apartment, the fraternity doesn't even have a basement. What it does have, however, is a group of seven African-American men committed to social activism and improving campus life for black students, according to Karim Marshall '03, president of Alpha Phi Alpha. The fraternity is one of three historically black Greek organizations on campus -- organizations that, despite their subtle presence on campus, work to make their impact felt at Dartmouth and beyond. The first chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha was founded in 1906 at Cornell University, not as a fraternity in the traditional sense but rather to support African-American males desiring social change at a predominantly white institution. Nearly a century later, in a post-civil rights movement society, the organization lives on, continuing to lend support to African-American students and effect social change, yet in an ever-evolving form. Dartmouth's Alpha Phi Alpha chapter was founded in 1972.