The Mu Eta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will mark its 50th anniversary with The Golden Jubilee Masquerade on Saturday, March 21, at the brand-new Center for Black Excellence and Culture on Madison’s South Side.
The formal masquerade will celebrate five decades of service and leadership of the fraternity in Madison and surrounding communities. Proceeds from the event will support the chapter’s youth development, educational, and civic engagement initiatives.
“This is just another great opportunity to celebrate the great work that we’ve been doing in the Madison community over the past 50 years, and really elevating to get the entire community involved in helping us celebrate our successes,” Derek Johnson, a longtime Mu Eta Lambda Chapter fraternity member and the chair of the Golden Jubilee Masquerade event, tells Madison365.
“We’re super excited this year to host the event at the new Center for Black Excellence and Culture, being that the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated was founded on a college campus to bring together Black men and celebrate Black culture and heritage,” Johnson says. “Throughout the event, we’ll be giving away a few awards to community members who have done some outstanding work and really just taking time to socialize and reflect a little bit on our history and some of the great work that we continue to do in the Madison community. It’s an opportunity to celebrate our legacy and think about our future.”
Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American Men, was founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of brotherhood among African Americans in this country.
Nine brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity established an alumni chapter in Madison on Oct. 18, 1975, after they reflected upon their experience in undergraduate school of how beneficial Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was to them during their academic years. On Feb. 13, 1976, the vision of the nine brothers became a reality, and the chapter was chartered as Mu Eta Lambda.
Those nine original members included David W. Christopher II, Rollie W. Early, William A. Graves, Allen Hancock, Ronald Lattimore, Dr. John Odom, Charles L. Robinson, Howard Swonigan, and William Washington.
“As president, I think it’s important to reflect on the beginning and the historical context of our chapter, which started 50 years ago,” Ezi Adesi, president of the Mu Eta Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., tells Madison365. “Those charter members really had the vision. There were nine brothers, many of whom are not with us anymore.
“They wanted to bring awareness to the struggles that we’re going to experience here in Madison and in the broader community outside of Madison. They wanted to solve problems,” Adesi adds. “They had an objective to really stimulate the ambition of all the members and get brothers on fire to do the work. They were all college-educated men who wanted to make a difference in their communities and make sure that equity and opportunity were there for the downtrodden.”
When the original group of men proceeded to make plans for the formation and growth of an alumni chapter, one of their main goals was to make the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity a substantial force within the Black community here in the Madison area and beyond. Youth, family, and civil engagement have all been very important to the fraternity as they worked in the community over the last half-century.
“One of the most direct areas we have been focused on over the years is education, through our scholarships that support students who are on their way to college,” Adesi says. “We’ve also engaged a lot with the youth within the schools through some of our national programs, one being Project Alpha, another being Go to High School and Go To College.”
Over the past five years, the Mu Eta Lambda chapter has awarded scholarships to nearly two dozen students and engaged hundreds more through its Go to High School, Go to College program and other youth-focused initiatives.
“We’ve always been very active with the Read Your Heart Out program, too, showing up in large numbers over the years. We’ve really just felt it is important to be invested in young people’s education here and scholarships for those who go on to college and have gone on to do some great things in our community,” Adesi says.
“We do engage with families throughout the year through some initiatives like our 1906 Pounds of Turkey [Thanksgiving Initiative], so we’ll make sure that families are fed for the special time of year as a holiday,” Adesi adds
The Golden Jubilee Masquerade will feature a formal or black-tie masquerade dress code and includes sponsorship opportunities at the Black ($250), Jubilee ($500), and Old Gold ($1,000) levels.
“The Golden Jubilee Masquerade is an opportunity to celebrate our legacy and really think about the future,” Johnson says. “The event itself will help us raise funds to support some of our local scholarship and educational activities. So we’re pretty excited that we get to have the entire community involved in helping us continue to do that great work.”
There will be light refreshments, food, programming, networking, and a soundtrack of music from fraternity brother Kyree Brooks (DJ Ree Maniac).
“We will have food and social opportunities for networking. It’s going to be a great time with some great music,” Adesi says.
“It’s a time to celebrate all of the work that has been done over the years and 50 years of service and 50 years of leadership in the Madison area,” Adesi continues. “We just want everybody to come out and we hope to see a lot of community leaders, fraternity brothers, community partners and people who have supported us over the years.”
To purchase tickets, click here.
