History of Alpha Phi Alpha 1950 Charles H. Wesley Negro College Life RARE Cowan

by Charles H. Wesley

$925 · Offered by eBay

Offered here is an early printing of Charles H. Wesley’s foundational institutional history of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity founded by African American college men, established at Cornell University in 1906. This is the sixth printing, published in 1950 by The Foundation Publishers of Washington, D.C., and carries the original subtitle used in the earliest editions of the work, “A Development in Negro College Life,” which was revised in later printings of the book. Wesley served for many years as the fraternity’s National Historian and as a General President, and this history remains the standard reference chronicling the organization’s founding, early ritual development, and expansion across college campuses in the decades that followed. The volume is illustrated throughout with period photographs and features the fraternity’s crest stamped in gilt on the front board. The front free endpaper carries a period ownership inscription reading “Brother Wallace E. Cowan.” Included with this book is a piece of related family ephemera: a 1986 membership agreement from the Downtown Athletic Club in Atlanta, belonging to Christopher B. Cowan, whose emergency contact on the form is listed as Wallace Cowan — the same name inscribed inside the book, and consistent with public records connecting the two as father and son. This document adds a tangible layer of family provenance connecting the book to the Cowan family across at least two gene

• Year: 1950
• Printing: later
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good

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