Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, founded January 15, 1908 at Howard University in Washington D.C., holds the “first” honor among black sororities for both establishment and incorporation. The year 2008 marked the 100th anniversary of this esteemed sorority and throughout the decades, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated has been at the vanguard of enriching the lives of people for a century. In fact, Alpha Kappa Alpha’s reach in every walk of life is unparalleled. Her programs have been as resplendent as a strand of pearls, and her responses to exigencies are unparalleled. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated was initiated by Ethel Hedgeman Lyle and nineteen other ambitious and dedicated women at Howard University. The founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha were determined that their college experience would be meaningful and valuable, in order to enhance their self-realization. The sorority was founded for the purpose of encouraging high scholastic and ethical standards and to promote unity and sisterhood amongst college trained Black women. The commitment of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated is to be “Supreme In Service To All Mankind.” Motto: “By Culture and By Merit.”
“Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Twenty Pearls”
Original:
Anna Easter Brown
Beulah Burke
Lillie Burke
Marjorie Hill
Margaret Flagg Holmes
Ethel Hedgeman Lyle
Lavinia Norman
Lucy Slowe
Marie Woolfolk Taylor
Sophomores:
Norma Boyd
Ethel Jones Mowbray
Alice Murray
Sarah Meriweather Nutter
Joanna Berry Shields
Carrie Snowden
Harriet Terry
Incorporators:
Norma Boyd (Sophomore)
Julia Brooks
Ethel Jones Mowbray (Sophomore)
Nellie Quander
Nellie Pratt Russell
Minnie Smith