THE ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA SORORITY WAS BORN

THE ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA SORORITY WAS BORN

OF ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY’S INFLUENCE!

by

Vernon M. Herron

Life Member 709 A Phi A

Ethel Hedgeman                                      George  Lyle

 

All brothers of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity salute the beloved sisters of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority on their 100^th Anniversary year of existence. The story of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Alpha Phi Alpha is a “love-knot” story rooted in a personal relationship between Ethel Hedgeman and George Lyle and the historic development of Black Greek life in the academic community.1

 

Ethel Hedgeman was a founding principal of AKA during her Junior year at Howard University at Washington, DC.[i] Also, George Lyle was a Junior at Howard and was a principal and President of the Beta Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Howard.[ii] The birth of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority has often been related to the establishment of Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.[iii]

 

Ethel Hedgeman and George Lyle were friends, sweethearts, lovers and finally life’s partners.[iv] As school mates, Ethel witnessed the strength and character of George, his academic excellence, fraternal leadership, social gracefulness and manly deeds of a black manhood. Ethel envisioned those needful qualities in a sisterhood. Through mutual respect, constant dialogue regarding structure, purpose, and positions, a vision of America’s first Greek-letter organization for Black women was born.[v]

 

It is true that Ethel Hedgeman attributed much encouragement toward the establishment of the first Geek-lettered organization for Black women to two of her former teachers, Ethel Tremain Robinson and Elizabeth Appa Cook.[vi] But the hard cold fact which remains is that

THE ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA SORORITY WAS BORN

OF ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY’S INFLUENCE![vii]

 

A journey on retrospect is to review a date-line calendar of these two wed-locks:

            1906   The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was founded in Ithaca, NY. Its first                                   chapter             was called Alpha.[viii]

            1907   One year later, Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was established

                        at Howard University, Washington, DC with George Lyle as its principal

                        and president.[ix]

            1908    The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was founded at Howard University.[x]

            1909   Ethel Hedgeman and George Lyle were of the ’09 class at Howard.[xi]

            1911   Ethel Hedgeman and George Lyle were married in Philadelphia.[xii]

            1950   Ethel Hedgeman Lyle died and was buried in Philadelphia.[xiii]

 

 

 

CONGRATULATION TO

ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA SORORITY

WHOM WE LOVE![xiv]

 

 

 

 

 

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[i]

Endnotes

 

 

                1  Majorie H. Parker, Alpha Kappa Alpha: Sixty Years of Service (Washington, DC: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. 1966), p.3

 

 

                2  Parker, Alpha Kappa Alpha, p.3.

 

 

 

                3 Charles H. Wesley, The History of Alpha Phi Alpha: A Development in Negro College Life, (Washington, DC: Foundation Publishers, 1950), p.59.

 

 

                4 Parker, Alpha Kappa Alpha, p. 3.

 

 

                5 Ibid., p.3.

 

 

                6 Ibid., p. vii.

 

 

                7 Ibid., p.  3.

 

                 

                8 Ibid., p. 3.  

 

 

                9 Wesley, The History of Alpha, p. 23.

 

 

                10 Ibid., p. 59

 

 

                11 Parker, Alpha Kappa Alpha,  p. 1

 

 

                12 Ibid., p.3.

 

 

                13 Ibid., p. 3.

 

 

                14 Ibid., p. 12.

 

 

                15 “In Our Hearts.”