Being the 13th oldest municipal institution in America, College of Charleston had never experienced what was to come. In the Fall of 1997, graduate brothers Cedric Rivers and David Hartwell were moved by the Alpha spirit and felt a strong need to bring the light of Alpha to a majority white school that was in darkness. Present on the campus at the time were only three black sororities and three black fraternities, all derivations of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Mu Pi Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha was soon to be the founders of Tau Eta, which was founded at Baptist College, now Charleston Southern University in 1977. Jason Jurkowski was the President of Mu Pi and Timothy Green was the chapter advisor for the Fall and Spring of 1997 and 1998.
During the Spring 1998 intake in Orangeburg, SC, Damion M. Waymer became the first initiate into Mu Pi from College of Charleston. He was the first of Tau Eta’s founders to emerge out of darkness. Seeing the torch lit that spring, five more distinct young men, Virgil Smith, III, Robin F. Fraiser, Kendall J. Garvin, Charles I. Brown, and Keiron T. Kennedy, followed in the Fall 1998 intake. In Spring 1999, Quincy O. Tate crossed completing the number needed to start a chapter. Thoughts of a new chapter stirred at College of Charleston, which derived the Tau Eta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc being chartered on Sunday, September 5, 1999.