  We present a study of the H$\alpha$ line emission from a sample of 1482
optically-selected, morphologically-classified bright galaxies (median redshift
of 0.05) derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The luminosity function is
calculated for each morphological class and for the total sample. The
luminosity function fitted with the Schechter form gives a slope
$\alpha=-1.43\pm 0.10$ for the total sample and the H$\alpha$ luminosity
density is $10^{39.31\pm 0.04{+0.10\atop-0.07}}h$ erg s$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-3}$, where
the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. This value is
consistent with that derived by Gallego et al. (1995), but this agreement is
caused by a fortuitous cancellation of their neglect of stellar absorption that
affects the estimate of extinction corrections and a significant sample
incompleteness of emission line galaxies. The fraction of H$\alpha$ emitters
monotonically increases from early (a few % for ellipticals) to late types
(100% for irregular galaxies), whereas strong emitters exist in all classes of
morphological types. We find that 83% of the luminosity density comes from
spiral galaxies, 5% from irregular galaxies, and 9% from early type galaxies; a
small number of morphologically disturbed galaxies contribute by 3%.
