Alpha Phi Alpha Partners with AUC Woodruff Library and HBCU Digital Library Trust to Preserve More Than a Century of Fraternity Archives

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. announced today that it has committed $125,000 to preserve and digitize its archives through a new partnership with the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, which becomes the fraternity’s archival custodian, and the HBCU Digital Library Trust.

Founded in 1906 as the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American men, Alpha Phi Alpha holds more than a century of records tied to Black leadership, activism, and the broader fight for African American progress. The investment funds the digitization of the fraternity’s public records and supports the AUC Woodruff Library Digitization Hub, extending the fraternity’s longstanding commitment to historically Black colleges and universities.

Once digitized, the fraternity’s public records will be broadly accessible through the HBCU Library Alliance Digital Collection, opening Alpha Phi Alpha’s history of social change and community advocacy to scholars, students, and the public.

“As the first intercollegiate Fraternity founded by African American men, our history and legacy does not only belong to Alpha, but provides context to the history of all other Divine Nine organizations that followed as well as to the fight for African American progress in America,” said General President Lucien J. Metellus, Jr. “This urgent initiative ensures that the Fraternity’s priceless archives are protected, elevated, and accessible for generations.”

HBCU Digital Library Trust Advisory Committee Chairman Brother Dr. Jerome Offord Jr. said the collaboration safeguards “the history of Black leadership, resilience, civic engagement, and advocacy while deepening our understanding of the African American experience from the dawn of the twentieth century to today.”

For Dr. Kimberley Bugg, CEO and Library Director of the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library, the role of repository carries weight. “By serving as the archival repository for the Fraternity’s historic records, we are safeguarding more than a century of the intellectual, civic, and leadership legacy of Black men since 1906, ensuring these stories are preserved, studied, and shared with future generations around the world,” she said.

The partnership places the preservation of Alpha Phi Alpha’s founding vision of manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind in the hands of an institution built to protect Black history for the generations still to come.