33^rd General President, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

President Obama urged to create

White House Council on Men and Boys

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity sounds alarm

on precarious condition of America’s young men

BALTIMORE, MD – One of the leading organizations of men in America has asked President Obama to create a White House Council on Men and Boys.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the world’s oldest collegiate Greek-lettered organization of African-Americans recently wrote the president a letter encouraging him to create the council after Mr. Obama formally established the White House Council on Women and Girls.

“Mr. President, we are keenly aware of the challenges that face women and girls. However, we believe a focus must also be placed on men and boys,” wrote the Rev. Herman “Skip” Mason, Jr., general president of Alpha. “As a father of a six-year old son and an eight-year old daughter, like you I want to make sure that there are well-educated, responsible and community-oriented men for them to look up to as they grow and develop.”

According to a 2006 report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education, only 35 percent of black male students graduated from high school in Chicago and only 26 percent in New York City. Only a few black boys who finish high school actually attend college, and of those who enter college, nationally, only 22 percent finish with a degree.

On the education front, Alpha has for years provided scholarships to deserving young men. The fraternity expanded that effort in 2008 with the new Alpha Phi Alpha Charitable Foundation, thanks in part to a startup grant from former Massachusetts Senator, and Alpha member Edward Brooke. And this year, Alpha Phi Alpha is implementing a new initiative, From the Highchair to Higher Education. Its primary focus is to provide boys, at the youngest age possible, the best opportunity to successfully make it through high school and college. 

The fraternity has offered to partner with the White House to make the new council a reality. Mason says the following critical needs should be addressed by the council: Health promotion and preventive initiatives for men and boys; academic and social development initiatives; manhood and fatherhood accountability initiatives.

To read the letter to the president in its entirety go to www.apa1906.net.

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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has continued to supply voice and vision to the struggle of African Americans and people of color around the world. The Fraternity has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community's fight for civil rights, through Alpha men such as Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell, Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, former Senator Edward Brooke and Cornel West. The fraternity through its college and alumni chapters serves the community through nearly a thousand chapters in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean. For more information visit www.apa1906.net.