At the start of the 20th century, African-American students were mostly excluded from the prestigious, independent white social clubs on campuses known as Greek-letter organizations. These segregated clubs were traditionally divided into “fraternities” for male members and “sororities” for female members.
The first such organization established for black American men was the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, or “A-Phi-A,” founded in 1906 at Cornell University.
Two years later, on the 15th of January at historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., 9 coeds, led by Ethel Hedgeman, courageously broke with tradition and founded the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, or “A-K-A,” the first college sorority started and incorporated by African-American women.
Young Miss Hedgeman, who was inspired by her English teacher’s accounts of sorority life at Brown University, envisioned a support network for black women with like minds to coalesce their talents and strengths for the mutual uplift and benefit of others.
The mission crafted for Alpha Kappa Alpha has remained unchanged since the sorority’s inception more than a century ago:
To cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and friendship among college women, to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women in order to improve their social stature, to maintain a progressive interest in college life, and to be of “Service to All Mankind.”
Since Alpha Kappa Alpha’s humble beginnings on the campus of Howard University, the sorority has flourished into a globally-recognized organization with 986 chapters spread across North America, the Caribbean, Germany, Africa and Asia, but the sisters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated remain committed to founder Ethel Hedgeman’s mission of servant-leadership and are consistently at the forefront of effective advocacy for civil rights, fair labor, social justice, improving education and the uplift of all citizens.
Frances Presley Rice is a screenwriter and producer with Block Starz Music Television LLC, best known for its documentary film The Czar of Black Hollywood.
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