Alpha Phi Alpha congratulates Obama on
Nobel Peace Prize

President Obama (then Senator) pictured here speaking at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial ground breaking ceremony, November 13, 2006.

BALTIMORE -- Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. the world’s first intercollegiate African-American Greek-lettered organization congratulates President Barack Obama on being the fourth U.S. president and only the third sitting president to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Foundation selected Mr. Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

“President Obama has brought a new climate to not only American, but world politics, positively changing the way we are seen throughout the world,” said Herman “Skip” Mason Jr., general president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

“Winning this prize puts President Obama in exceptional company with some of the world’s greatest leaders, including our own Alpha brother the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

King, the leader of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, won the Nobel Peace Prize 45 years ago in 1964.

Mr. Obama has often cited his success as a product of the work of King and other civil-rights leaders.

To commemorate King’s efforts, the monument is the brain child of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and the fundraising for the $120 million project is led by the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.

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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has continued to supply voice and vision to the struggle of African Americans and people of color around the world. The Fraternity has long stood at the forefront of the African-American community's fight for civil rights, through Alpha men such as Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell, Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Young, Edward Brooke and Cornel West. The fraternity through its college and alumni chapters serves the community through nearly a thousand chapters in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean. For more information please visit www.apa1906.net.

About the Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.
A Memorial honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be built on the National Mall, situated adjacent to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and in a direct line between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Congress passed Joint Resolutions in 1996 authorizing Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. to establish a Memorial honoring Dr. King to be built in Washington, D.C. The ceremonial groundbreaking took place on November 13, 2006, and the Memorial will be completed in 2011. McKissack & McKissack / Turner Construction Company/ Gilford Corporation / Tompkins Builders, Inc. Joint Venture will serve as the Design-Build Team. McKissack & McKissack is the oldest minority-owned architectural firm in the United States. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.buildthedream.org.