The segregation and racial attitudes towards African-Americans extended to school campuses as well, with established fraternities excluding blacks from membership. A group of black students at Cornell decided to respond by forming a fraternity of their own, one to include students targeted by racial discrimination. Theirs was to be a mix of a traditional fraternal with literary or academic organizations. By October of that same year, they decided on a traditional Greek-Letter name, symbolizing their equality with other existing school organizations, and then began discussions of whether to make themselves a fraternity or just a social order.

On this day, December 4, in 1906, the organizers of Alpha Phi Alpha established it as a fraternity, making it the first fraternity with an all-African American membership.

The fraternity has historically involved itself heavily in African-American affairs. Members contribute to programs held by NAACP, the March of Dimes, Head Start, and other national organizations. The fraternity was the leading voice for the establishment of a memorial to Martin Luther King – just the second one to a non-president – and formed the foundation to select a site for the memorial and design it.