For instance, when an acquaintance signed upfor the wrong site for the Law School AdmissionTest, Bragg drove her to Amherst, Mass., in themiddle of the night so she could take the test inthe morning.

"He is someone to turn to for guidance on alllevels," says Kristen M. Clarke '97, Bragg'ssuccessor as BSA president.

At dinner, Williams says, "freshmen would comeup to Alvin and ask for advice, ask 'what do youthink about Gov 30,' or what they should do forinternships."

Many people who know Bragg also note thediversity of his pool of friends. And, unlike manyBlack students in recent years, he didn'texclusively request Quad houses, which are home tothe College's largest Black community. Instead,Bragg was randomized into Currier his sophomoreyear.

Most of Bragg's long-term friends, however, areBlack, he says, despite his largely white highschool. On Bragg's wall is a Xeroxed photo ofeight young Black men, his closest buddies fromhome.

"They had the same kind of experience as Idid," he says.

A Smooth Term

Dating back to 1969, When a Black student groupused veiled promises of riot to push a balkyFaculty into creating Afro-American Studies, therehas been a tradition of strong-armed activism inthe BSA. During the deliberations over AfroAm, onestudent sat outside the Faculty room with aconcealed meat cleaver during the deliberationsover Afro-Am; few believe the department wouldhave been created without the threats.

As BSA president, Bragg was not part of thatmilitant tradition, though Black students atHarvard have rarely forced change withoutprotests.

"He's more a moderator than a debater,"Williams says.

For example, when Kenan Professor of GovernmentHarvey C. Mansfield Jr. '53 made a controversialremark linking grade inflation to increased Blackenrollment at Harvard, Bragg was not theprofessor's opponent in a Kennedy School forum onthe topic.

Instead, as Harvard Political Union Chair, hewas the referee as Mansfield argued againstsomeone else.

"He stands out as the one president who did notflirt with Black nationalism" in recent times,Epps says, characterizing Bragg's BSA term as"smooth."

Bragg himself cites support for younger Blackstudents as perhaps his proudest accomplishment asBSA president. "To me that's the most importantthing," he says.

Luis R. Rodriguez '94, his vice president,recalls Bragg's ability to "bring across a lot ofdifferent points of view...He spanned a broadspectrum of Harvard life."