Eric Christopher Webb, DDiv., CPLC

Director of Communications

/Editor of The Sphinx

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

ewebb@apa1906.net

Cell: 443-635-5911

Friday, May 26, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STATEMENT OF ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC. MOURNING DEATH OF THE LATE HONORABLE, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN, BROTHER CHARLES B. RANGEL

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. mourns the death today of the late Honorable, former U.S. Congressman, Brother Charles B. Rangel, who was the last living founding member of ‘The Gang of Four’political coalition and a 2019 Alpha Award of Merit recipient. He was 94.

The late Brother Congressman Rangel, who was a Fall 1964 Alpha Gamma Lambda initiate and Life Member of the Fraternity, was a towering figure in the U.S. politics, who served 46 years in the U.S. Congress and had become the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in 2007.

Brother Rangel, a Harlem native affectionately known as the ‘Lion of Lenox Avenue,’ was a decorated Korean War veteran, who earned degrees from New York University and St. John’s University School of Law.  He was elected in 1971 after defeating the renowned Brother Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. for what is now New York’s 13th Congressional District., serving from 1971 to 2017. Brother Rangel was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

A champion for justice and opportunity, he “fought tirelessly for affordable housing, urban revitalization, fair tax policies, and equal opportunities for all Americans,” according to a family statement.

The Fraternity offers its sincerest condolences to his family, friends, his former constituents, and all who admired our legendary Alpha Brother.

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About Alpha Phi Alpha

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American men, was founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and is headquartered in Baltimore, MD.  The Fraternity has long stood at the forefront of the African American community’s fight for civil rights through Alpha men such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; late former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell; late former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; legendary activist, actor and performer, Paul Robeson, former Ambassador Andrew Young; late former Senator Edward Brooke; scholar, Cornel West; Senator Raphael Warnock; Congressman Steven Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus; General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; six other members of the U.S. Congress, numerous state, and local lawmakers across the United States, as well as President of Liberia, His Excellency Joseph Boakai, Sr. The fraternity, through its more than 720 college and alumni chapters and general-organization members, serves communities in the United States, and other parts of North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.