Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated was started on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on December 4,1906. The fraternity as we know it today evolved from a Social Study Club then into Alpha Phi Alpha Society and finally into a fraternity. Although there are several men who had a hand in organizing this meeting group for black men on college campuses geared toward fostering scholarship and service, there are seven individuals who had the foresight, tenacity, and dedication for seeing the creation of such a fraternal organization for black people.

These men are known as the "Seven Jewels of Alpha Phi Alpha" and are the following: Jewel Henry Arthur Callis, Jewel Charles Henry Chapman, Jewel Eugene Kinkle Jones, Jewel George Biddle Kelley, Jewel Nathaniel Allison Murray, Jewel Robert Harold Ogle, Jewel Vertner Woodson Tandy.

Without these men, the dynamic institution known today as Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. may have remained a dream forever.