Henry Callis
*Henry Callis was born on this date in 1887. He was a Black physician.
Henry Arthur Callis was born in Rochester, New York, and attended Cornell University and Rush Medical College. He became a physician and worked as a medical consultant at the Veterans' Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama. He was a professor of medicine at Howard University and a frequent contributor to medical journals. Callis was the second husband of poet Alice Dunbar; their marriage ended in divorce.
He was one of the seven Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity founders at Cornell University in 1906. Callis co-authored the fraternity name with George Kelley and became the only founder to become general president of the fraternity (1915). Callis assisted in the organization of several chapters, including Xi Lambda Chapter (1924) in Chicago and Alpha Nu Lambda (1928) in Tuskegee, AL.
The Eta Tau Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha created Alpha Phi Alpha Homes Inc. to address housing for low-income families, individuals, and senior citizens in Akron, Ohio. In 1971, Alpha Homes received a $11.5 million grant from HUD to begin the groundbreaking of Channelwood Village, with the Henry Arthur Callis Tower as its centerpiece.
Henry Callis died on November 12, 1974, in Washington, D.C. His death was a milestone for the fraternity as Callis became the last Jewel to enter its Omega Chapter—distinguished to contain the names of deceased fraternity members, and the Alpha Phi Alpha entered a period when it had no living "Jewels." The Callis Papers - personal and family papers of Henry Callis, including awards, certificates, clippings, correspondence, a diary, notebooks, photographs, programs, and scrapbooks relating to Callis and his family were donated to Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
