A Call to Sisterhood: The History of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated
Written by: RauLanda L. Watley
Date: January 10, 2013
Photo Courtesy of www.aka1908.com
A great visionary once said "To experience a call is ordinary how we answer is what makes it
extraordinary.” In 1907, visionary Ethel Hedgeman Lyle experienced a call to empower women through
sisterhood and service.
Lyle set out to answer a call that would establish an entity so extraordinary that it would inspire women
of color to achieve greatness despite the dysfunctions surrounding them. However, the dream did not
evolve over night .With careful planning, thought, and consideration she recruited other dynamic
women to assist with her dream.
In the spring of 1907, Hedgman began meeting regularly with Miss Ethel Robinson to discuss starting a
sorority at Howard University. From that summer up until the spring semester of 1908, Hedgeman and a
group of young ladies worked diligently to refine their plans. A review of commencement programs
show that of the 148 students graduating from Howard between 1908 and 1911 only 25 were women.
Fromthe pool, Ethel Hedgeman meticulously entrusted eight to help her vision. The group of eight
subsequently chose seven sophomores for admission. The final group of 16 represented a rare breed of
women who used their talents to blaze trails through Howard University
.
Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, January 15,
1908. The founders set out to awaken people of color using the torch of resilience to lighten darkness.
With the advent of the 1908-1909 school years, outreach began through events such as campus wide
spring carnival, an Ivy Day, and bringing social advocate Jane Addams of the famed Hull House to
Howard. Alpha Kappa Alpha had established a presence that would continue to grow. Dean Kelly Miller
of the College of Arts and Sciences noted that the girls had brought lifeto the campus, calling their "spirit
and enthusiasm" contagious.
However, it was not until Alpha Kappa Alpha's destiny was threatened that Nellie Quander became a
reckoning force to exalt the organization to new heights. Quander knew she had to protect AKA's legacy
after she listened to proposals for an entirely new sorority.
She named lieutenants, Norma Boyd and Minnie Smith, and together they rallied AKA's true believers
and organized a campaign that culminated with the incorporation of Alpha Kappa Alpha on January 29,
1913.With this the founding principles and brands of Alpha Kappa Alpha would never be abolished but
strengthened. Just ten years after incorporation AKA had established a national presence with 28
chapters. These chapters range from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast and extend as far north as the
Great Lakes. AKA not only expanded its presence but its servitude to include political awareness, but
the pioneers established a legacy of leadership through projects such as the Mississippi Health Project,
Cleveland Job Corps Center, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Educational Advancement Foundation, the National
Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs, and the Economic Sustainability Paradigm. Throughout its rich
history, AKA has held many honors including launching the nation's first mobile health clinics and
operating the first Job Corps center for women, AKA also pioneered initiatives in healthcare, was a first
responder for the NAACP, and launched the first Negro lobby in the nation's capital. The sorority was
also amongst the first women's group and the first sorority to earn observer status at the United
Nations.
106 years later, AKA has produced some of society’s most eminent women ranging from government
officials, health professionals, scientists, and technologies to artists and worldwide entertainers.
Distinguished Alpha Kappa Alpha women still garnish themselves in ivies and pearls not only as symbols
of the sorority; but as crowns of endurance that represent the struggle and sacrifice sisters have
endured to establish the first organization designed to inspire women of color to be great despite the
dysfunction that surrounded them.
Ethel Hedgeman aspired to inspire women to achieve greatness in every endeavor. She promoted
educational advancement, social awareness, and professional growth. And with this aspiration fueling
her she transformed an ordinary call into an extraordinary force that would promote educational and
social cultivation through the true bond of sisterhood.
Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated take on the charge of upholding such an
extraordinary answer to what started as an ordinary call. These women carry out the Alpha Kappa
Alpha destiny by unselfishly asking not what the sorority can do for them but what they can do for the
sorority to ensure that 106 years from now future Sorors will be proud to stand on their shoulders just
as they stand on the 20 women who fortified the legacy.
Alpha Kappa Alpha continues to inspire young women providing guidance and security to become
visionaries such as Ethel Hedgeman and educational pioneers and record setting athletes like Lucy
Diggs Slowe. For it is not the fuel that keeps the Alpha train choooing but the unbreakable bond of
sisterhood that allows them to defy all odds. God made them women, fate made them sisters, and the
relentless will to spread the light of service to all mankind makes them pioneers.