Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter

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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter

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Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter, Nonprofit Organization, Berkeley, CA.

The Brothers of Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter in Berkeley, CA work hard to embody the mission of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - to develop leaders, promote brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities.

10/15/2026

When Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter was chartered in Berkeley on April 12, 1947, seventeen men signed on as charter members.

William Anderson, M.D. Fowler Beckford. George Byers. C. Toland Draper. Isaac Fletcher. A. J. Franklin. Charles Furlow. James Hatchett. Leland Hawkins. John Jackson. Harold Jones. William Pittman, D.D.S. John Price. Joshua Rose. William Byron Rumford. Rudolph Smith. J. Oscar Williams, Sr.

Among them were a Berkeley dentist, a pharmacist who would carry California's fair employment and fair housing laws, a YMCA executive who would become the first Black member of the Oakland City Council, and a young man from Tollette, Arkansas, who would teach mathematics for forty years.

Some of these Brothers are well documented. Most are not. If your family, your church, or your lodge holds a photograph, a program, or a letter belonging to any of these men, the chapter wants to hear from you.

First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All.

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10/14/2026

Don't forget to join the The Bay Area Alphas and AKA, Alpha Nu Omega Chapter TONIGHT @6:30pm for Part I of an empowering two-part community series designed to decode the world of AI. This is your opportunity to move beyond simply using technology and learn how to truly command it.

10/09/2026

Turns out some of us were 100% raised right… and some of yall clearly slammed Granny’s screen door a few too many times!

Incredible night of fellowship, laughs, and serious competition at our Inaugural Black Trivia Night (The Raised Right Edition) at Five and Dime!

We learned what’s actually inside the butter cookie tin.
We harnessed the power of the church fan.
We relived the '90s.

And the room brought competitive fire to every single round.

Shoutout to our winning teams, everyone who brought the energy, and the good folks from Five and Dime for making tonight a memorable night.

Stay tuned for our next Black Trivia Night: The Music Edition 🤙🏾

10/07/2026

Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter presents our Monthly Brotherhood Social: Trivia Night (The Raised Right Edition). We are testing who actually remembers the music, television, and cultural moments that raised us. Leave the search engine in your pocket. This one comes down to what you lived through and what you retained.

Event Details:

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2026
Location: Five and Dime (329 14th Street, Oakland)
Team Sign-ups: 6:30 PM
Trivia Starts: 7:00 PM

Arrive early to grab seats and register your crew. Tag your smartest teammate in the comments and show up ready to compete.

09/30/2026

Can you name the iconic line Don Cornelius used to close every single episode of Soul Train without looking it up?

If you paused to think, assemble your team right now!

Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter presents our Monthly Brotherhood Social: Trivia Night (The Raised Right Edition). We are testing who actually remembers the music, television, and cultural moments that raised us. Leave the search engine in your pocket. This one comes down to what you lived through and what you retained.

📍 Five and Dime | 329 14th Street, Oakland
🗓 Thursday, October 8, 2026
⏰ Sign-ups: 6:30 PM
🎙 Trivia starts: 7:00 PM

Arrive early to grab seats and register your table. Tag your sharpest teammate in the comments and show up ready to compete.

09/29/2026

If you are a Black man over 50 or know someone who is writing off persistent back pain or fatigue as 'just getting older,' read this immediately.

Last weekend, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Omicron Theta Lambda Chapter hosted Brother Dr. Michael Green (The Permanente Medical Group) in partnership with Blood Cancer United to address multiple myeloma, the most common blood cancer affecting Black men.

The data is clear: Black men face 2.1 times the diagnosis rate of White men. However, clinical studies show that when patients receive equal access to standard and modern treatments, the survival gap completely disappears. The difference comes down to early detection and proactive care.

Pay attention to these warning signs:
* Unexplained back, rib, or bone pain lasting more than 2 to 3 weeks
* Persistent fatigue or shortness of breath
* Frequent, recurrent infections
* Abnormal kidney labs or sudden changes in kidney function

Take control of your health at your next doctor visit:
1. Request a full review of your routine blood work, including total protein and kidney markers.
2. Ask your physician if a serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) or free light chain test makes sense for your baseline.
3. Bring a trusted family member or friend to help take notes and ask questions.

Early detection saves lives. Share this information with a brother, father, or friend today.

09/24/2026

| On May 17, 1967, Brother Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the steps of Sproul Plaza at the University of California to a crowd of roughly seven thousand. Students climbed into the trees to hear him. He asked for no fee and rode over from his San Francisco hotel in a student's car with a single chaperone.

It was his last major address in the Bay Area. He called for a revolution of values and for a redistribution of economic wealth and political power. He spoke against the war in Vietnam. He told those gathered that they had been the conscience of the academic community and of the nation.

Brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter met with him during that visit to discuss his vision for the nonviolent movement and what more this chapter could do.

He entered Omega Chapter less than eleven months later.

The work continues through efforts like the Education Foundation and the Leadership, Technology, and Innovation Conference.

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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity The Western Region of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. NorCal Alphas

09/17/2026

| Brother Dr. William R. Pittman was elected the first President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter in 1947. He came to that office having spent sixteen years building the first Black dental practice in Berkeley.

He was raised in East Oakland and served with the 365th Infantry in France during the First World War. He came home, finished his high school education, and completed pre-dental training at the University of California. When he enrolled at the University of California College of Dentistry in San Francisco, administrators told him they would not graduate a Black student. He transferred to Meharry in Nashville and finished the degree there.

In 1931 he opened his office at 2930 Grove Street. Grove Street was the color line in Berkeley at the time. He practiced at that address for more than forty-four years before retiring in 1975.

His wife, Tarea Hall Pittman, served as NAACP regional secretary and later regional director. She organized to desegregate the Oakland Fire Department, hosted Negroes in the News on KDIA for more than forty-five years, and lobbied for the fair employment legislation that Brother Rumford would carry to passage in 1959.

Grove Street is Martin Luther King Jr. Way today.

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09/10/2026

Brother William Byron Rumford was a charter member of Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter and its first Vice President. He was a pharmacist by trade, and the store he ran on Sacramento Street in Berkeley served as a gathering place for the neighborhood around it.

In 1948 he was elected to the California State Assembly, the first African American from Northern California to win state office. He took his seat in January 1949 and served eighteen years representing a district that covered much of Berkeley and part of Oakland.

As chairman of the Public Health Committee he authored the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. He carried the Fair Employment Practices Act of 1959, which outlawed employment discrimination in California and established the state's Fair Employment Practices Commission. In 1963 Governor Edmund G. Brown signed his fair housing bill, making it unlawful to refuse to sell, rent, lease, or finance housing on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or ancestry.

The California Real Estate Association funded a ballot campaign to undo that law, and Proposition 14 passed the following year. The California Supreme Court held Proposition 14 unconstitutional, and the United States Supreme Court affirmed that judgment in Reitman v. Mulkey in 1967. The Rumford Act stood.

Brother Rumford entered Omega Chapter in 1986. Today, down the street from the Berkeley plaza that bears his name, a statue honors him on the Sacramento Street median—standing across from the former site of the pharmacy where it all began.

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09/03/2026

| Brother Walter A. Gordon sat for the charter photograph of Gamma Phi Lambda Chapter in 1947 as its Parliamentarian. He arrived at that seat having already lived several lives.

He entered the University of California in 1914 and won state championships in both boxing and wrestling. In 1918 he was named All-America in football, the second African American in the country to receive the honor. The following year Chief August Vollmer brought him onto the Berkeley Police Department as the city's first Black officer. He earned his law degree in 1922 while still carrying the badge, becoming the first African American to graduate from Berkeley's law school, and he was a charter member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, Alpha Epsilon Chapter that same year.

He built a law practice in Oakland, coached Cal football for 24 years, and led the Berkeley branch of the NAACP. Governor Earl Warren appointed him to the California Adult Authority in 1944, where he served nine years as chairman and pressed the state toward rehabilitation over punishment. President Eisenhower named him Governor of the United States Virgin Islands in 1955. He left that office in 1958 for the federal bench and served ten years as a judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands.

He returned to Berkeley and served on the Housing Authority, the Redevelopment Agency, and the Alameda County Grand Jury. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Grandson of enslaved people. Son of a Pullman porter. Parliamentarian of this chapter.

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Address

Berkeley, CA

Telephone

(510) 969-2744

Website

http://www.bayareaalphas.com/links

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