Dr.Alfonso Elder was the second president of North Carolina Central University located in Durham, North Carolina.

At the age of twenty-three, he was graduated magna cum laude from Atlanta University and began teaching at Bennett College, a black female college in Greensboro, N.C. During the academic year 1922–23, he taught mathematics at the Elizabeth City State Teachers’ College, an all-black, four-year teacher education institution in Elizabeth City.

From 1924 to 1943, Dr. Elder served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the North Carolina College for Negroes, Durham, where he had been appointed professor of education earlier in 1924.

In 1943, he left the college to accept a temporary position as chairman of the Graduate Department of Education at Atlanta University.

Returning to Durham, he was inaugurated as the second president of the North Carolina College on June 4,1949.