Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, Pi Lambda Chapter of Greater Little Rock, in conjunction with the Central Arkansas Sphinx Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, is pleased to announce the fraternity's 2006 Centennial Celebration Gala, A Century of Leadership and Service.  The event will be Saturday, December 2, 2006, at 7:30 p.m., in the Peabody Hotel Grand Ballroom in downtown Little Rock.  Tickets are $50 each.  A portion of the proceeds will be contributed to UNCF and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C.   

   The featured speakers for the event will be Dr. Walter Kimbrough, President of Philander Smith College, Sherman Tate, Vice President of External Affairs, Alltel Corporation and Arthur McDade, Southwestern Vice President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.  Darius Nelson and the Dell Smith Experience will provide musical entertainment. 

   Since its founding at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, on December 4, 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the nation's oldest and largest African-American intercollegiate fraternity, has supplied a voice and vision to the African-American community and people of color around the world.  The visionary founders, known as the "Jewels" of the Fraternity, were Henry A. Callis, Charles H. Chapman, Eugene K. Jones, George B. Kelley, Nathaniel A. Murray, Robert H. Ogle, and Vertner W. Tandy. 

   The Fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students at Cornell.  Alpha Phi Alpha chapters were developed at other colleges and universities, many of them historically black institutions, soon after the founding at Cornell.  The Jewel Founders and early leaders of the fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation of Alpha Phi Alpha's principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity.  C. Franklin Brown; A. B. Fox; J.G. Ish, Jr.; J.V. Jordan; U.S. Maxwell; Carl Patillo; M.K. Perry; and Leroy Williams founded the Pi Lambda Chapter in Little Rock May 3, 1926. 

   Now approaching 100 years of service, the Fraternity has uplifted the educational, economic, political/social profiles and community activist agenda of all African-Americans.  Their membership includes such persons as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Cornell West, U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), Congressman Danny Davis (D IL) and Ozell Sutton.  Noted Arkansas members include U.S. District Judge George Howard, Jr., Michael Joshua, President of J.M. Products, Inc., Sherman Tate, Vice President Alltel Corporation, Dr. Walter Kimbrough, President of Philander Smith College, Arkansas State Senator Tracy Steele, Arkansas State Representative Booker Clemons, Attorney John Walker, Dr. Fitz Hill, President of Arkansas Baptist College, sportscaster Mark Edwards, Junious Babbs, Little Rock School District associate superintendent and Dr. Charles Donaldson, Vice Chancellor, University of Arkansas-Little Rock. 

   For additional information, on the fraternity's 2006 Centennial Celebration Gala, A Century of Leadership and Service, contact Reginald Jackson, Chairman, at 501-952-9076 or regijackson@earthlink.net, or Dr. Rodney Williams, Pi Lambda President, 501-227-9766 or rodneywilliamsdc@yahoo.com.  For additional information about Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., log on to www.alphaphialpha.net.  For additional information about the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation, log on to www.mlkmemorial.org.