AKA History

How It All Started

“Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated had its humble beginnings as the vision of nine college students on the campus of Howard University in 1908. Since then, the sorority has flourished into a globally impactful organization of nearly 300,000 college-trained members, bound by the bonds of sisterhood and empowered by a commitment to servant-leadership that is both domestic and international in its scope.”

Where/How It Was Founded

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. was created so that African American women who didn’t have the same equal rights or opportunities would one day have them. AKA was founded January 15, 1908 on the campus of Howard University in Miner Hall. Twenty lovely ladies came together and felt the need to create this organization for change and they did. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. has been around for 111 years, giving service to all mankind. AKA has 1,024 chapters and nearly 300,000 members and more than 55 nations and all 50 states.

AKA has chapters all over the world were many beautiful women join and fulfill a lifetime membership. AKA was founded by 20 beautiful African American women, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, Anna Easter Brown, Beulah Elizabeth Burke, Lillie Burke, Marjorie Hill, Margaret Flagg Holmes, Lavinia Norman, Lucy Diggs Slowe, Marie Woolfolk Taylor, Norma Elizabeth Boyd, Alice P. Murray, Ethel Jones Mowbray, Sarah Merriweather Nutter, Joanna Berry Shields, Carrie Snowden, Harriet Josephine Terry, Nellie Pratt Russell, Nellie Quander, Minnie B. Smith, Julia Brooks. These ladies came together in Miner Hall and created AKA. On January 29, 1913 AKA became incorporated as a business organization. Quander, Boyd and Smith as singers for the petition. AKA was the first Greek letter organization become Incorporated.