Capt. Howard T. Matthews is the command judge advocate at Red River Army Depot, an imposing title for a 31-year-old who was raised in Abbeville, La.

The attorney is a 1997 graduate of Southwestern Louisiana in Laffayette, which today is the University of Louisiana. He was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army’s National Guard in 1997 and he obtained his law degree from the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, La., in 2000. . .

While at UL, Matthews developed many mentors to help him through college and social activities. Most had one thing in common: They were members of a prestigious college fraternity: Alpha Phi Alpha.

“I had a great many mentors at school and in the community who were Alphas and I was aware of the great things they did in the fraternity,” Matthews said. “In my second year of college I began to make inquiries about Alpha Phi Alpha and began to realize what a great organization it was. I submitted an application and joined in the fall of 1993 and was initiated in October of that year.”

The history of the fraternity goes back to the turn of the century, when prejudices were still rampant, even on the few mostly white college campuses where blacks were allowed to attend, such as Cornell University. Such prejudices placed an extra burden on minority students, especially in the socialization realm.

The answer came in the form of a fraternity, called Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate, Greek-letter fraternity established by and for Black college students, organized at Cornell University in Ithica, N.Y., in 1906.

“Seven visionary students founded the fraternity,” Matthews said. “These early fraternity pioneers succeeded in laying a firm foundation for the fraternity and remained steadfast in their goals. The fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice educationally and socially at Cornell. The Alpha Phi Alpha founders worked hard to lay a solid foundation based on scholarship, fellowship, good character and the uplifting of humanity.”

The first chapter was called Alpha Chapter. Since 1906 more than 150,000 young men have been initiated into the fraternity. The fraternity celebrates 100 years this year. Members from all over the world are expected to attend a convention in Washington next month.

“Alpha Phi Alpha has been interracial since 1945 and all races are now represented,” Matthews said. “There are something like 350 alumni chapters in 44 states, the District of Columbia, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa.”

The original fraternity gave black students an avenue for closer contacts among themselves. They were also offered opportunities for mutual assistance and organization. To Matthews, it gave him something he could not seem to find elsewhere.

“Alpha Phi Alpha has a whole lot of success stories,” Matthews said. “One of the things we do is offer an institution for making good men better. It made me a better man. It’s put a lot of ‘tools’ in my ‘toolbox.’ Big Brothers and Big Sisters are Alpha Phi Alpha associated programs, and I’ve been a big Brother.”

Matthews found himself in good company. A few recognizable names of current and past Alpha Phi Alpha members include: Frederick Douglas (abolitionist leader and scholar), Dick Gregory (social activist), Alex Haley (activist and author of “Roots”), Martin Luther King, Jr. (minister and Civil Rights leader), Duke Ellington, Lionel Richie and Cannonball Adderly (jazz musicians), Charles Haley (Dallas Cowboys) and Thurgood Marshall (former Supreme Court Justice).

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By JOHN FOOKS
Texarkana Gazette