PHILADELPHIA PA -- Congressman Chaka Fattah, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s oldest African American college fraternity, delivered the keynote Sunday Dec. 3 at Alpha’s 100th Anniversary Founders' Day Celebration.

Alpha Phi Alpha brothers form “a collection of people whose story is the very essence of the history of African Americans in the United States,” the Congressman told Eastern Pennsylvania/Philadelphia chapters at their banquet at the Drexelbrook Conference Center in Drexel Hill, Penna.

The chapters awarded “Brother Congressman Chaka Fattah” the Certificate of Achievement/Award of Excellence “for duty well done and the respect of the Brothers well earned….”

The program took place on the eve of Alpha Phi Alpha’s exact Centennial. The fraternity was founded by seven young men at Cornell University on December 4, 1906. Over 175,000 men have joined Alpha over the century, and the fraternity maintains over 700 campus and alumni chapters, including seven in the Philadelphia area.

Monday December 4 has been declared Alpha Phi Alpha Centennial Day in the City of Philadelphia under the City Council Resolution approved in October, introduced by Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. – also an Alpha brother.

Congressman Fattah, who received a master of governmental administration degree from the University of Pennsylvania Fels School of State and Local Government in 1986, is a member of Alpha’s Zeta Omicron Lambda chapter.

In July, Congressman Fattah was among eight Alpha members serving in the House of Representatives who were honored at a Capitol Reception in connection with the Centennial celebration. At the time, he praised the organization for a century of valuing education and opportunity for African Americans.

“Alpha Phi Alpha is important not just because it is the first and the oldest,” Fattah said. “From its founding in 1906, Alpha has been at the forefront of efforts to encourage and assist young African American men to go to college, stay in college, graduate and take on leadership roles in our nation.”