Mission

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 purpose 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".

The small group of women who founded Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at the turn of the last century were conscious of their privileged position as college-trained women of color just one generation removed from slavery. But at the same time, they were sensitive to the needs and struggles of the less fortunate in underserved communities in their hometowns and in other environments beyond their travels who were in need of goods, services and opportunities beyond their reach. The young collegians’ commitment to scholarship, leadership, civic engagement and public service, woven together by the bonds of lifelong sisterhood, formed the bedrock of the rich legacy of servant-leadership that epitomizes the sorority to this day. And the global reach of its programs, laser-focused on the health, wealth, family, education, human rights and parity issues that concern its constituents, ensures the relevance of the organization into perpetuity.


Founders

 
 

Ethel Hedgemon Lyle

Anna Easter Brown

Beulah Elizabeth Burke

Lillie E. Burke 

Marjorie Hill

Margaret Flagg Holmes

Lavinia Norman

Lucy Diggs Slowe 

Marie Woolfolk Taylor

Norma Elizabeth Boyd

Ethel Jones Mowbray

Alice Porter Murray 

Sarah Meriwether Nutter

Joanna Merry Berry Shields

Carrie Elizabeth Snowden

Harriet Josephine Terry


Incorporators

Nellie Mae Quander

Julia Evangeline Brooks

Nellie Pratt Russell

Minnie Beatrice Smith


 

Founded

January 15, 1908 at Howard University, Washington, DC

Symbol

Ivy Leaf

Incorporated

January 29, 1913 in Washington, DC

Flower

Pink Tea Rose

Motto

“By Culture and By Merit”

Colors

Salmon Pink and Apple Green