October 24, 2025
The final remaining members of two Black Greek-letter organizations at Yale are working to protect their fraternities’ histories on campus.
Two Yale College college students are working to protect the legacy of their Black Greek-letter organizations because the final remaining members on campus.
Alejandro Rojas ’26 of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and Keith Pemberton ’27 of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. are the final remaining members of their organizations at Yale. With the college’s restricted data on the fraternities and the historical past of early Black students on the college, the 2 college students are working to protect their organizations’ legacies earlier than they graduate.
“A variety of our historical past has been misplaced due to the dearth of documentation from Yale College,” Rojas advised Yale Every day Information. “Essentially, it was a difficulty with whether or not or not Yale acknowledged the standing of those college students. I really feel this duty to guarantee that this historical past is honored regardless of how Yale may not have honored it up to now.”
In response to Rojas, Alpha Phi Alpha first established a presence at Yale within the Nineteen Seventies, predating the founding of the Afro-American Cultural Middle. Throughout the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s, the fraternity—chartered underneath the citywide Eta Alpha Lambda, which Rojas now leads as president—had almost 20 members on campus.
Because the oldest constantly energetic Black group at Yale, the fraternity’s historical past has been difficult to hint, Rojas famous, as a result of college’s restricted documentation. Earlier than 1970, many Black college students didn’t stay on campus and have been listed in New Haven metropolis data slightly than Yale’s enrollment logs. Moreover, a number of chapter members weren’t recorded in yearbooks or class archives, leaving gaps within the historic document.
Since turning into chapter president, Rojas has been on a mission to uncover as a lot of the chapter’s historical past as doable, even exploring archives at different universities, akin to Cornell and Howard. He cites different faculties like Brown and Harvard that every has just one Alpha member as properly.
“I don’t assume a number of college students are conscious of that nor have they got the identical crucial to take action,” Rojas mentioned. “I believe our position is to encourage folks to acknowledge our historical past by way of denied historical past and by way of Black historical past.”
Pemberton shares Rojas’ dedication to preserving his fraternity’s legacy. As the only member of Omega Psi Phi at Yale, he represents the citywide Epsilon Iota Iota chapter, based in 1922. Since its founding, about 9 Yale college students have joined the chapter, however earlier than Pemberton, it had gone 15 years and not using a Yale provoke.
He hopes his position as the one Omega on campus will create a pathway of feat and scholarship for different Black males at Yale and in New Haven, a mission that aligns with Rojas.
“We’re positively not searching for folks simply to extend numbers,” Rojas mentioned of himself and Pemberton. “For us, it’s actually essential to have a sure high quality of scholar who’s devoted to honoring the historical past in the identical ways in which we search to convey our personal perspective to it.”
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