About Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

In 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority became America's first Greek-letter organization established by Black college women. Her roots date back to Howard University, Washington, D.C., where the idea for formation was conceived by Ethel Hedgeman Lyle of St. Louis, Missouri. She viewed the Sorority as an instrument for enriching the social and intellectual aspects of college life by providing mental stimulation through interaction with friends and associates.


 

The Original Group
Ethel Hedgeman Lyle
Anna Easter Brown
Beulah Elizabeth Burke
Lillie E. Burke
Marjorie Hill
Margaret Flagg Holmes
Lavinia Norman
Lucy Diggs-Slowe
Marie Woolfolk Taylor

The Sophomores of 1908
Joanna Merry Berry-Shields
Norma Elizabeth Boyd
Ethel Jones Mobray
Alice P. Murray
Carrie E. Snowden
Harriet Josephine Terry
Sarah Meriweather Nutter

 The Incorporators
Julia Brooks
Nellie M. Quander
Nellie Pratt Russell
Minnie B. Smith

Through the years, however, Alpha Kappa Alpha's function has become more complex. After her incorporation as a perpetual body in 1913, Alpha Kappa Alpha gradually branched out and became the channel through which selected college-trained women improved the socioeconomic conditions in their city, state, nation, and the world.

In a world in which materialism is pervasive, and technology and competition have decreased the need for collaboration and cooperation, it is critical to have an association that cuts across racial, international, physical, and social barriers to help individuals and communities develop and maintain constructive relationships with others. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is that vital organization.

Alpha Kappa Alpha is a sisterhood composed of women who have consciously chosen this affiliation as a means of self-fulfillment through volunteer service. Alpha Kappa Alpha cultivates and encourages high scholastic and ethical standards; promotes unity and friendship among college women; alleviates problems concerning girls and women; maintains a progressive interest in college life; and serves all mankind through a nucleus of more than 170,000 women in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa.

 

An Excerpt from "Alpha Kappa Alpha Through the Years, 1908-1988"

"Alpha Kappa Alpha women are college presidents, deans, directors of Fortune 500 companies, judges, mayors, and members of Congress, state legislatures, city councils, and school boards. [We] are rural and urban teachers, counselors, and role models. An Alpha Kappa Alpha woman made the calculations for the automatic control system design of the first orbital flight.

Members are poets, musicians, artists, and dancers. They are fighters for civil and human rights. They are the strong mothers and wives of brave men who have carried burdens in the heat of the day. Sometimes they are kinfolks--mothers, daughters, sisters--but often they are themselves the leaders of catalysts. They make history whenever they come together.

There are no average or even typical Alpha Kappa Alpha women. They fit no common physical descriptions or economic characteristics, yet they are all the same--these women who wear the twenty pearls. You can identify them by the smiles on their faces and the love in their eyes. Beautiful Alpha Kappa Alpha women are young, mature, matriarchal, elderly, and venerable. Life polishes neophytes until they are shining silver stars, who then mellow into the glowing radiance of golden Sorors.
 
 		  
 

 

  
 

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