Eric Christopher Webb, DDiv., CPLC
Director of Communications
/Editor of The Sphinx
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
ewebb@apa1906.net
Cell: 443-635-5911
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STATEMENT OF ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC. ON BROTHER REP. AL GREEN’S ACTIONS AT THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS TO JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. applauds Alpha Brother Rep. Al Green’s courage and conviction to take a stand against President Donald J. Trump’s barrage of recent harmful and discriminatory policies during the President’s address to a joint session of Congress last night despite facing ejection.
As Alpha men, among them Brothers Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Robeson, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and famed Civil Rights litigator and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, we are no strangers to the fight for civil rights and the power of civil disobedience.
Brother Green, a 1968 Beta Nu Chapter initiate at Florida A&M University, who has represented Texas in Congress for 20 years, stood in the aisle and declared that the President had “no mandate” to cut Medicaid before Speaker Mike Johnson ordered him removed. Brother Green is a veteran civil rights advocate who fights for the poor and disenfranchised.
With President Trump’s recent executive orders attacking Birthright Citizenship, eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, calls to eliminate the Department of Education, and his recent firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Four-Star General Brother Charles Q. Brown, the Fraternity, as well refuses to stand idly by as efforts to roll back historic civil rights and social justice advancements are taking place.
Two weeks ago, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. General President Brother Lucien J. Metellus, Jr. issued ‘a Call to Action’ to Alpha Brothers and all chapters to counter the attacks on DEI and defend the Department of Education by utilizing various strategies, including meeting with their congressional representatives and senators. In addition, the Fraternity, in a statement, also condemned the firing of General Brother Brown.
As the world’s first and leading intercollegiate Fraternity founded by African American men, the Fraternity and its Brotherhood has long stood at the forefront for the advancement and equal protections of African Americans and people of color in the public sector, and that is unwavering.
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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.