Historic 1936-37 Morehouse "M" Book Once Owned By Tuskegee Airman Capt. William J. Faulkner Jr. Joins Alpha Rho Chapter Collection
- Jun 28
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 1
APCAA Staff
ATLANTA, GA / Monday June 29 2026 — A piece of Morehouse College history has come home. The Alpha Rho Chapter Collection has acquired a genuine 1936-37 "M" Book that once belonged to Morehouse Class of 1940 graduate and decorated Tuskegee Airman Captain William J. "Billie" Faulkner Jr., adding a rare and deeply personal artifact to one of the most ambitious fraternal archival projects in the country.
Published by the Student Activities Committee of Morehouse College, the "M" Book served as an all-purpose student handbook — part yearbook, part field guide, part civic catechism. Acquired in spring 2026 and remarkably preserved nearly 90 years after it was printed, the 80-page, 8-by-6-inch booklet was hand-crafted to orient incoming students to nearly every dimension of campus life.
This second known "M" Book annual imprint is authenticated with the (2) owner autographs.
Its pages hold photographs and biographical sketches of the student body and college leadership, a full student directory, profiles of the administration and faculty, the academic calendar, a history of the college, school cheers and fight songs, campus periodicals, facilities, codes of conduct, student organizations, athletics, class leadership rosters, and a record of campus activities. Taken together, it offers an unusually intimate look at HBCU culture in the years immediately preceding World War II — a period for which detailed, student-level documentation is scarce.
The Airman Behind The Book
The man who once carried this handbook did not live to see it become history. William J. Faulkner Jr. was born in 1918, the son of the Rev. and Mrs. William J. Faulkner Sr., with his father serving as dean of the Fisk University Chapel. A graduate of Pearl High School, the younger Faulkner went on to Morehouse College, graduating with the Class of 1940.
Two years after the United States entered World War II, Faulkner enlisted on August 17, 1942. He completed the famed Tuskegee pilot program and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant on April 29, 1943, becoming, by most accounts, the first African American from Nashville commissioned in the Army Air Forces. Assigned to the 301st Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps, Faulkner flew dozens of combat missions over Europe. In September 1944, he was awarded the first oak leaf cluster to the Air Medal for "meritorious achievement in aerial flight while participating in sustained operational activities against the enemy."
Less than two months later, on November 7, 1944 — with 56 combat missions behind him — Captain Faulkner was reported missing in action over Austria. His parents waited through the fall, finally receiving word two days before Christmas that their son had been killed on the day he disappeared, his P-51C possibly brought down by mechanical failure, though other accounts hold that he was shot down. He was ultimately awarded the Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters. Captain Faulkner rests today at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in France, the final resting place for the largest number of American World War II dead in Europe — 10,489 graves.
"Pioneers" Preserved In Print
Faulkner's "M" Book also preserves the names of several Alpha Rho brothers identified within its pages as early "pioneers" of the chapter. Among them: Carlton Walter Rhetta (Fall 1936), Secretary of the Student Activities Committee; Alfred Russell Brooks (Fall 1927) and William Nichols Jackson (Fall 1930); Butler Alfonso Jones (Spring 1934), Editor-in-Chief of the Maroon Tiger and chapter president; Anthony Thomas Quarles (Fall 1934), Senior Class Representative; George Washington (Fall 1933), Vice President of the Chi Delta Sigma Debate Society; and James Edward Nix (Spring 1934), Junior Class President. Their entries place Faulkner's keepsake squarely within the broader story of student leadership at Morehouse in the 1930s.
"Captain Faulkner's 'M' Book is more than a memento — it's a witness to who we were as students and brothers in the years just before the world changed forever,” remarked collection founder and association president Bro. BMaynard Scarborough. “Preserving it feels less like archiving and more like a sacred trust. We're proud Alpha Rho was the first chapter in our 650-chapter global network to take this step, and even prouder the work continues to grow."
A Growing Archive — And A First Of Its Kind
The Faulkner "M" Book now joins the Alpha Rho Chapter Collection at the Atlanta University Robert W. Woodruff Library, a repository already home to treasured artifacts connected to multiple Morehouse College presidents and other influential alumni statesmen.
The Collection was launched in 2023 by the Alpha Rho Chapter Alumni Association (APCAA), and in the years since has steadily built an archive spanning a wide range of artifacts tied to chapter and college history. Notably, it stands as the first such institution established among Alpha Rho's network of 650 chapters and associations worldwide — a distinction that has positioned it as a model for how fraternal organizations might preserve and present their own histories within an academic research setting.
That growth will be on full display this fall. The Collection is scheduled to host family members and estate trustees connected to two of Morehouse's most storied presidents during a grand opening exhibit at the start of Morehouse College Homecoming Week on Thursday, October 8, 2026. Expected attendees include relatives of Bro. President Dr. John Hope, including his son, Hope II (Fall 1929), and grandsons Hope III (Fall 1955) and Richard (Fall 1958), as well as family connected to Bro. President Dr. Hugh M. Gloster (Fall 1930).
For a chapter with more than a century of history, the addition of Captain Faulkner's "M" Book is more than a new acquisition — it's a reminder that the smallest surviving objects can carry the weight of an entire era, and an entire life.
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