Charlotte, N.C./April 27, 2023 – Some memories remain clear years after we’ve experienced them. For Dr. Frederick V. Engram Jr. ’05, his decision to join the Alpha Omicron (AO) chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., is a memory he’ll never forget.
“It wasn’t until around homecoming when I really saw the Greeks become active when they performed at the step show,” he said. “Watching the same people, I would see around campus as students performing at that level was amazing. As soon as I was eligible to petition membership, I did.”
Nearly 20 years after joining the fraternity, Engram, who joined the chapter in 2003, is now co-chairing what will undoubtedly be a new special memory he can share with his brothers – the AO chapter’s Centennial Gala.
The gala will be held April 29, 2023 from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Big Chill in Charlotte. Carlton Riddick '93 (joined in 1989) and LeVar T. Crooms '06 (joined in 2005) are the other co-chairs of the event.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., was the first-ever Divine Nine organization to exist, and was founded on Dec. 4, 1906. Seventeen years later, the AO chapter was founded at Johnson C. Smith University and became the 36th chapter of the fraternity.
Notably, the AO chapter was the first chapter of the fraternity to be founded in North or South Carolina, and one of the first few to be founded in the Southern region.
Engram, who serves as an assistant professor in the Center for Integrative Studies at Michigan State University, said the history of the organization and its notable members inspired him.
“I’m a history buff, and I’ve always been super interested and fascinated in Black history and those stories that are untold,” he said. “When I crossed, I felt like I was this little fish in a big sea. I was in the same fraternity as Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and W.E.B. DuBois. I was thinking to myself at 19, ‘how can I measure up to these people?’”
But Engram knew he was also working among great people at JCSU.
Dr. Rufus Patterson Perry, the eighth president of JCSU, was a charter member of the AO chapter and served during the height of the Civil Rights Movement from 1957 to 1968. During his presidency, not only did he make a name for himself as JCSU’s “master builder,” thanks to his leadership in the construction of key buildings on campus and climbing enrollment rates, but he also played a large part in getting students involved in the Civil Rights Movement in Charlotte.
During his tenure, Martin Luther King Jr. visited the campus to ignite passion toward change in students and local community members. He also prepared students for sit-ins at local lunch counters and for marches to Uptown where students and community members rallied for equal treatment.
The AO chapter founded the Rufus P. Perry Endowment Scholarship in 2020 in his honor to help fund the education of students pursuingdegrees in social sciences.
“We see a lot of conversation about the push toward STEM,” said Engram. “But what we’re seeing happening in the world is a push to ban education and the important historical significance of events, which falls within the field of social sciences. As a scholar of critical race, it was important for me to create an endowment that focused on that.”
The proceeds from the Centennial Gala will fund the endowment, which Engram says will create a long-lasting legacy at JCSU. During the event, attendees can expect a delicious dinner, tunes from DJ Wiz, greetings and speeches from local and fraternal dignitaries and a documentary highlighting the AO chapter throughout the decades.
Engram is excited to celebrate this historic moment with his brothers, but he says all of the Greek organizations at JCSU should be excited and proud to be a part of the illustrious history of Johnson C. Smith University and their respective organizations.
“Our NPHC organizations are some of the oldest in all of Black Greek-dom,” he said.
The Rho Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., celebrated its centennial celebration in 2021, and more centennial celebrations are to come in the next five years.
“When you begin to think about the historic significance of that, it speaks to the caliber of Johnson C. Smith University,” said Engram. “I want students and alums who walk the grounds to be proud of what we’ve brought here and what we’ve done.”
To purchase tickets for the gala, or to learn more about how you can be a sponsor, visit the event listing online.
