Aiken Augustus Pope

Born in 1889 in Augusta, Georgia, Aiken A. Pope received his bachelor's degree from Lincoln University in 1911, where he was the valedictorian, before coming to Yale Divinity School. He graduated with a Baccalaureate of Sacred Theology degree in 1914. He was one of a group of Black men who reactivated Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Yale. From 1915 to 1918, he studied at Harvard Law School, receiving his LLB. in 1918. At Harvard, Pope was one of the students who formed the Sigma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. He served as a second lieutenant in the 351st Field Artillery, 99th Division in World War I, and was stationed in France.

Shortly after his military service, Pope established himself as a lawyer in New York. He worked for the firm of Goldstein and Goldstein and for the New York Department of Labor, and then set up his own practice, Morton & Pope. In the 1920s, he worked with other Black lawyers on several NAACP cases, and he was the Republican candidate for various local offices. Pope was a member of several clubs and professional and civic groups, including the New York Lawyers Company Association, the legal committee of the NAACP, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the board of directors of the Urban League, and the Elks and other fraternal organizations. Pope died in 1961 and is buried in Long Island National Cemetery.