Alphas to observe 119th Founders’ Day
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Delta Sigma Lambda Chapter will celebrate its 119th Founders’ Day at 7:06 p.m. Dec. 4 at Barraque Street Missionary Baptist Church, 1800 W. Pullen Ave.
The guest speaker will be Chancellor Anthony Graham of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The general public is welcomed to attend this free event, according to StuffinTheBluff.com.
Prior to his appointment at UAPB, Graham served as provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs (2018-2023) and interim chancellor (2023-2024) at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. Before these appointments, he was dean of the College of Education and a tenured professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where he advanced initiatives to increase teacher diversity and expand community engagement.
Graham holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and teaching with a concentration in multicultural education and a master’s degree in secondary English education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a graduate of Kinston High School in Kinston, N.C. He began his career as a high school English teacher in Greensboro.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
As a scholar, Graham focuses on the educational experiences of Black male students, including how their academic and cultural identities are shaped by educational environments. His research explores effective pedagogical strategies, teacher identity, and culturally relevant instruction. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and co-authored a book, and served as managing editor of The Negro Educational Review.
Graham has secured more than $25 million in competitive grant funding from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the Lumina Foundation. These grants have supported initiatives to diversify the teaching workforce, expand educational access, and strengthen student support, particularly for students of color and those in underserved communities. Among his notable projects are the NSF-funded North Carolina A&Teach STEM Scholars Program, the Adult Connections and Continuing Education Student Success (ACCESS) Program, and multiple U.S. Department of Education funded teacher residency programs.
Graham has launched programs such as the Brother-2-Brother Mentoring Program, the Charles Hamilton Houston Summer Leadership Institute for Adolescent African American Boys, and the Scholarship Search and College Admission Conference for Minority Students.
His contributions have earned wide recognition. A member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Graham is proud to lead UAPB into a bold new chapter grounded in excellence, access and innovation, according to the news release.
Alpha Phi Alpha™ is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. Initially organized as a study and support group during the 1905-1906 school year for minority students who faced racial prejudice at Cornell University, it evolved into a fraternity focused on scholarship and social impact, with a founding date of Dec. 4, 1906™.
Alpha Phi Alpha has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community’s fight for civil rights through leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Edward Brooke, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, William Gray, Paul Robeson. Alpha Phi Alpha has also been interracial since 1945.