ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA LAMBDA PHI OMEGA CHAPTER
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® (AKA) is an international service organization that was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC on January 15, 1908. It is the oldest Greek-lettered organization established by African-American, college-educated women.
The sorority’s sixteen Founders created the organization 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, and most important of all, to serve all mankind.
Under the leadership of Ethel Hedgemon, a group of nine Howard students started our sisterhood. They were Lavinia Norman, Margaret Flagg, Lucy Slowe, Marie Wolfolk, Beulah Burke, Lillie Burke, Anna Easter Brown, Marjorie Hill. Seven sophomores were asked to join later in 1908 to ensure the continuity of the sorority. They were Joanna Berry, Norma Boyd, Ethel Jones, Sara Merriweather, Alice Murray, Carrie Snowden and Harriet Terry. These sixteen women are known as the Founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Four years later on January 29, 1913, Nellie M. Quander, the first national president, ensured that Alpha Kappa Alpha would exist forever by incorporating our sisterhood. The incorporators are: Norma Boyd, Julia Brooks, Ethel Jones Mowbray, Nellie Quander, Nellie Pratt Russell and Minnie Smith.
Over 115 years later, the purpose and presence of Alpha Kappa Alpha continues in perpetuity. Currently, the organization is comprised of nearly 355,000 members in 1,064 graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, Liberia, the Bahamas, the US Virgin Islands, Germany, South Korea, Bermuda, Japan, Canada, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Led by International President Danette Anthony Reed, Alpha Kappa Alpha is often hailed as “America’s premier Greek- letter organization for African-American women.”