Attorney Donnie G. Young is Alpha Phi Alpha Founders’ Day Speaker

Attorney Donnie G. Young is the speaker for the  Founders’ Day Observance of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. on December 5, 2021, at 3:00 p.m. on the Zoom Network. The members of the fraternity are commemorating the 115th Anniversary of the founding of the fraternity at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on December 4, 1906.

The program is open to the public and is being hosted by the Eta Gamma Chapter (PVAMU), Epsilon Tau Lambda (Prairie View), Pi Omicron (TAMU) and Pi Alpha Lambda (College Station) Chapters, all members of Area IX of the Fraternity.

Protocol for the Zoom Network: Dress in business professional attire and log-in personal name should be displayed.  Meeting ID: 822 2615 7046, Password: 963125.

Young is a native Houstonian and began his early education in Klein ISD and graduated from Jack Yates Senior High in 1969.  He is a 1973 graduate of Prairie View A&M College with Bachelor of Science in Political Science.  He later went on to earn his J.D. in 1978 from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.  He further enhanced his educational credentials with studies at Harvard University in Massachusetts Law and Government Studies and received Certification in Financial Markets from Yale University.While at Prairie View A&M, Donnie was active in several organizations and activities and was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. through the Eta Gamma Chapter in 1971 and served as Chapter President.  After PVAMU, Donnie continues to offer his services to the fraternity, having served as Director of the Alpha Great Northwest District. 

Throughout his career, Attorney Young has enjoyed the respect of his colleagues as well as a wide cross-section of community leaders, who have praised his legal skills, impeccable character, and ability to collaborate with people of diverse backgrounds. His professional career includes stints with Southern Pacific Transportation (BRAC) as the Union Representative, legal practice with Reeves, Bowser and Johnson Law in Cambridge, MA; U.S. West Communications in Bellevue, WA; Office of Minority and Women's Business Enterprises with the State of Washington and Court Operations for King County Superior Court.  Donnie likes to say, he is Re-Wired and not retired.

His other community services include member of the Editorial Board, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, YMCA - Board of Directors in Seattle, WA, Board of Trustees for the Bellevue Schools Foundation and the Advance Bellevue, and Partnership – Your Voice Your Vote with the National Urban League of Seattle.

In addition to his professional, social, and civic engagement, his personal activities for pleasure and enrichment include being a rare book collector, bicycling, billiards, backgammon, tennis and travelling.  In recognition of his service and commitment to social justice, Young has received awards and recognitions from various organizations and is most proud of Brother of  the Year Award from the Great Northwest District of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

While growing up his family taught him the importance of positive preparation through education and honorable resistance to overcome persistent injustice.  Young is  a quiet civil rights advocate who has dedicated his life to fighting for those in society whose voices, too often, are not heard.  This quest for service began when he was one of five students at Prairie View A&M College that were part of the lawsuit against Waller County for Voting Rights for the Students at the college. The resulting decision became a landmark victory for college students everywhere in America.

He is married to Lisa Robinson-Young and is the proud father of seven children, eleven grandchildren and one great grandchild

Since its founding, the fraternity has provided leadership and service during the Great Depression, World War II, Civil Rights Movements, and addressed social issues such as apartheid and urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues affecting people of color. The fraternity’s mentoring, academic achievement and voter education programs and its relationships with the March of Dimes, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Boy Scouts are priority-one for the fraternity. Alpha’s major programs include the Million Dollar Contribution to the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the United Negro Scholarship Fund and its lead role in the management and construction of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the Washington Mall. Dr. King was one of the most revered brothers of the fraternity. Attorney Harry E. Johnson, Sr., the fraternity’s 31st General President serves as the President of the MLK Foundation.

The fraternity’s membership is more than two hundred thousand college trained men dispersed in more than six hundred college and four hundred alumni chapters throughout the United States, Africa, Europe, Korea, and the Caribbean – Bahamas and Jamaica. Some of its prominent members are Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Congressmen Emmanuel Cleaver (PVAMU), Al Green, William Gray, Ralph Metcalf and Charles Rangel; Ebony Publisher John H. Johnson, former PVAMU presidents Edward B. Evans, Alvin I. Thomas and Charles Hines; Mayors Lee P. Brown, David Dinkins, Maynard Jackson, Ernest Morial, Sylvester Turner and PV Mayors Ernest Norris, Raymond E. Carreathers, Jiles P. Daniels, Sr., Frank Jackson and Brian E. Rowland, Hempstead Mayor Michael Wolfe and Texas Representatives Al Edwards, Boris Miles and Ronald Reynolds; musicians Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie; Rhodes Scholar and Activist Paul Robeson, W. E. B. DeBois; Olympian Jesse Owens, and legendary coaches Eddie Robinson and Lenny Wilkins.

Dr. Willis Lonzer is the General President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. which is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland; Jeramaine O. Netherly is the Southwest Region Vice President and Derrell Robinson is the Texas District Director.