Our History
On January 15, 1908 Ethel Hedgeman, along with eight of her scholarly associates, founded Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated in the basement of Miner Hall on the campus of Howard University. At the time, when negros were not permitted to join white sororities or fraternities, this dynamic visionary created the FIRST organization for negro women that valued sisterhood, scholarship, and service. Her vision of creating a group for negro women that valued moral and ethical standards has magnified not only on domestic land, but internationally. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated has grown from a group of 20 distinguished women to almost 300,000 members world wide!
Since its inception in 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated has pledged to the concept of improving the stature of college educated African American women. Throughout different programs, Alpha Kappa Alpha has attended to different communities with differing needs. We have served in subject matters of Women's Health and Wellness, Finances, Food Security, and more!
Our Guiding light
Ethel Hedgeman Lyle
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® was founded on a mission comprised of five basic tenets that have remained unchanged since the sorority’s inception more than a century ago. Alpha Kappa Alpha’s mission is 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 in order to improve their social stature, to maintain a progressive interest in college life, and to be of “Service to All Mankind".