Alpha Kappa Alpha--HerStory
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"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."
(Taken from Alpha Kappa Alpha Through the Years 1908-1988)
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the oldest Greek-letter organization established by black college women, was founded January 15, 1908 on the campus of Howard University. Led by Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, these nine extraordinary women formed a sisterhood with traditions, purpose and goals that would last for 95 years and beyond. They 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. Four years later in the year 1913, Nellie Quander and her associates added a new dimension- national organization and perpetual membership. Alpha Kappa Alpha gradually branched out and became the channel through which selected college-trained women improved the social and economic conditions in their city, state, nation and the world.
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. While maintaining the same primary areas - education, health, economics, family, the arts, public policy and world community - she has founded and developed programs and initiatives to meet these demands. In the twenties, the Sorority waged a war on diphtheria and smallpox. During the forties she rallied against lynching. In the nineties, the Sorority is fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS. This is in keeping with the Sorority's initial objective and purpose, to cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards, promote unity and friendship among college women, alleviate problems concerning women and girls, and maintain a progressive interest in college life. Through these activities, Alpha Kappa Alpha women fulfill the commitment embodied in her theme of "Service To All Mankind."
Today, 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 200,000 women in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa.