From the book "The Talented Tenth" by Skip Mason     Eugene Kinckle Jones attended Wayland Academy from 1899 to 1902. Wayland was the high school division of Virginia Union University. Upon graduation he entered Virginia Union University graduating in 1906 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. In the fall of that year, he enrolled at Cornell University College of Civil Engineering, at Ithaca, New York. Henry Arthur Callis remembered Jones arrival to Ithaca:      "Kinckle Jones arrived at Cornell University in September 1906. This was the month of the Atlanta riots which Brother W. E. B. DuBois has memorialized in verse. 'Gene' came from Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia where both his father and his mother taught. He matriculated in the College of Engineering where he made a splendid record.     When I returned to Cornell in September, 1907, 'Gene' had transferred to the Graduate School, Department of Sociology, under Professor Walter F. Wilcox. Sociology was my undergraduate major. Immediately, I sought from 'Gene' the reasons for his change of schools. There were two. He had come to Cornell primarily to work and secure his graduate degree in Sociology. In order that there should be no question about his admission to the Graduate School, he elected to spend one year in the 'toughest' college on the campus. 'Gene' then revealed his vision and his purpose to build such an organization as the National Urban League.     With such vision Eugene Kinckle Jones seized the Alpha Phi Alpha idea. His zeal made Alpha a National fraternity within two years. His founding of Alpha Lambda Chapter in Louisville, Kentucky began the fulfillment of our goal 'Alpha Phi Alpha' for life."     In February of 1907, Jones transferred to the Graduate School of the College of Arts of Science selecting Social Science as his major subject and Economics as his minor subject. He was told that it would probably take two years for him to complete the requirements for a Master's degree. He completed fifty seven hours of course work and prepared a 172 page thesis. He finished in a year and half and received the degree in June, 1908 but during his days at Cornell, with the rigors of his academic schedule, he became endeared to this new organization known as Alpha Phi Alpha. Finally, he was established as a Jewel in 1952. He died in 1954.