50 Fun Facts About Alpha Kappa Alpha

Which film tells the story of three NASA mathematicians who were all members of Alpha Kappa Alpha?

Hidden Figures earned three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. One of its three heroines, initiated at Hampton, became NASA's first Black female engineer in 1958.

On which campus in Washington, D.C., later attended by Kamala Harris, was Alpha Kappa Alpha founded?

Howard University approved the idea as soon as two students pitched it to the administration. The result was the first Greek-letter organization founded by African American college women.

Which two colors, credited to founder Beulah Burke, do Alpha Kappa Alpha members wear as the sorority's official pair?

Pink and green, officially salmon pink and apple green, were chosen along with the name and motto. Flashes of the pair showed up among Kamala Harris's supporters in 2024.

Which sorority was formed in 1913 by Alpha Kappa Alpha undergraduates who had wanted to change its name and symbols?

Delta Sigma Theta was founded by 22 women on January 13, 1913. Its first public act came seven weeks later, when members joined the women's suffrage march in Washington.

Alpha Kappa Alpha's umbrella group, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, is better known by which two-word nickname?

Divine Nine counts the council's five fraternities and four sororities. The council itself was formed in 1930.

Which Nobel Prize-winning novelist joined Alpha Kappa Alpha while studying English in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s?

Toni Morrison graduated in 1953 and later returned to the same campus to teach English. In 1993 she won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In which Southern state did Alpha Kappa Alpha run mobile summer health clinics for rural Black families in the 1930s?

Mississippi hosted the sorority's Health Project, whose volunteers set up clinics under trees. The US Surgeon General called it one of the greatest volunteer public health efforts he had seen.

Which doll brand marked Alpha Kappa Alpha's centennial with a collector's edition, its first to honor a sorority?

Barbie maker Mattel suggested the doll after learning of the anniversary. It was unveiled at the centennial convention in Washington, D.C., wearing an evening gown in the sorority's colors.

Which earlier First Lady, like Michelle Obama in 2008, accepted honorary membership of Alpha Kappa Alpha?

Eleanor Roosevelt became a champion of the sorority after members sent her a report on their Depression-era health work. Michelle Obama agreed to join during her husband's first presidential campaign.

Kamala Harris's 2024 campaign received over 1,500 donations of which exact amount, a nod to Alpha Kappa Alpha?

$19.08 echoes the sorority's founding year. The gifts arrived within about a day of Joe Biden leaving the race and endorsing Harris, a member since college.

Which plant, whose leaf is Alpha Kappa Alpha's symbol, did early members plant at their campus birthplace in 1909?

Ivy lent its name to that 1909 celebration, Ivy Day, and to the sorority's official journal, the Ivy Leaf, first published in 1921.

Which Latin title do Alpha Kappa Alpha members use when addressing one another?

Soror is Latin for sister and the root of the English word sorority. Members use it as a title, as a Florida lawmaker did online when cheering Kamala Harris in 2024.

In which city's Hyde Park neighborhood has Alpha Kappa Alpha had its permanent corporate headquarters since 1985?

Chicago has housed the sorority's national office since 1949. The permanent building on South Stony Island Avenue gained a third floor in 1992 and a full renovation in 2017.

Alpha Kappa Alpha gave $20,000 in the early 1970s to preserve the Atlanta birthplace of which civil rights leader?

Martin Luther King Jr. had addressed the sorority's national convention during his lifetime, as had fellow activist Roy Wilkins. The gift helped save the house where he was born.

Which Alpha Kappa Alpha member played Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show before winning two Tony Awards?

Phylicia Rashad was initiated into the sorority's first chapter as a student. In 2004 she became the first Black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Which Alpha Kappa Alpha comedian spent five years at the National Security Agency before her stand-up career took off?

Wanda Sykes joined the sorority at Hampton University in Virginia. She kept performing on nights and weekends while working at the NSA, then left for New York in 1992.

Which honorary Alpha Kappa Alpha member recited her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration?

Maya Angelou was the first poet to read at a presidential inauguration since Robert Frost appeared for John F. Kennedy. The sorority lists her among its honorary members.

Which jazz singer, known as the First Lady of Song, was welcomed into Alpha Kappa Alpha as an honorary member?

Ella Fitzgerald shares the honor with civil rights icon Rosa Parks and film director Ava DuVernay. Honorary membership is the highest honor the sorority gives.

Which astronaut, an honorary Alpha Kappa Alpha member, carried the sorority's banner into orbit aboard Endeavour?

Mae Jemison flew in 1992 as the first African-American woman in space. Her space suit later toured the country with the sorority's centennial exhibit.

Alpha Kappa Alpha member Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa's first elected female head of state in which country?

Liberia elected Sirleaf in 2005, and she took office the next January. She shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to bring women into peace-building.

Which founder, remembered as Alpha Kappa Alpha's Guiding Light, led the drive to create the sorority as a student?

Ethel Hedgemon Lyle took up the idea after a faculty member described sorority life at a New England women's college. She later served 23 years as national treasurer.

Which founder and first president of Alpha Kappa Alpha won the American Tennis Association's 1917 women's title?

Lucy Diggs Slowe was the first African-American woman to win a major sports title. In 1922 she became the first Black woman to serve as Dean of Women at any American university.

Which early president led Alpha Kappa Alpha's incorporation in January 1913, securing its name and symbols in law?

Nellie Quander became the first international president once the charter was granted. Her family, the Quanders, is considered one of the oldest free African-American families in the country.

What name does Alpha Kappa Alpha give its international convention and governing body, first held in December 1918?

Boulé meetings were annual, scheduled around Christmas, until 1964 and have come every two years since. The 1942 gathering was called off because of World War II.

Which Greek title does an Alpha Kappa Alpha president hold, prefixed Supreme at international level?

Basileus was the title used by Alexander the Great and by the Byzantine emperors. The fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi took a different Greek title, Polemarch, for its own presidents.

In which campus building did Alpha Kappa Alpha's founders hold their first official business meeting on January 15?

Miner Hall also hosted the sorority's first initiation, held in one of its wings in February of the following year. The first group of sophomores had been admitted without one.

In which Ohio city did Alpha Kappa Alpha run a federal Job Corps training center for women from 1965 to 1995?

Cleveland made it the first sorority to operate a federal job training center, backed by a $4 million grant. The center trained women aged 16 to 21 who had left high school.

At which international organization did Alpha Kappa Alpha become the first sorority to gain observer status, in 1946?

United Nations accreditation followed the lobbying work of founder Norma Boyd, who was named an official observer for non-governmental organizations.

Honorary Alpha Kappa Alpha member Constance Baker Motley wrote the original complaint in which landmark court case?

Brown v. Board of Education began with a complaint Motley drafted in 1950 as the Legal Defense Fund's first female attorney. She later became the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge.

Which president signed the 1964 act creating the Job Corps, the jobs program Alpha Kappa Alpha later helped run?

Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act on August 20, 1964, as part of his War on Poverty. By that October the sorority was negotiating to operate a training center for women.

Alpha Kappa Alpha's centennial convention set a Guinness World Record for the largest what, with 16,206 taking part?

Sit-down dinner it was: a silver-service banquet in Washington, D.C. The same week brought a unity march with fellow Black Greek organizations and a concert by Patti LaBelle.

Which actress, Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek series, was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha?

Nichelle Nichols later volunteered with NASA to recruit a more diverse astronaut corps. Those who signed up included some of the first women and minority astronauts.

Which Alpha Kappa Alpha member from Florida A&M became the first Black player to win a Grand Slam tennis title?

Althea Gibson won the French title in 1956, then both Wimbledon and the US Nationals in 1957 and 1958. She was later the first Black player on the women's professional golf tour.

Through which charity did Alpha Kappa Alpha help build a New Orleans home for a family that survived Hurricane Katrina?

Habitat for Humanity put up the house with the sorority's help in July 2007. Members had already raised money for a disaster relief fund after the 2005 storm.

In which country did Alpha Kappa Alpha build ten schools in the 1990s, working with the self-help foundation IFESH?

South Africa got the schools after apartheid ended, along with donated computer technology. The project followed an earlier program to fight poverty in African villages.

Which Greek letter is added to an Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter's name to show that its members are college graduates?

Omega marks a graduate chapter, such as Xi Omega in Washington, D.C. Graduate members make up the largest share of the sorority's membership.

Alpha Kappa Alpha's motto, credited to founder Beulah Burke, pairs the word merit with which other quality?

Culture and merit make up the motto, which the sorority says captures its founders' ideals. Burke, who trained as a language teacher, also came up with the Greek-letter name.

Which flower is the official bloom of Alpha Kappa Alpha, also adopted in yellow by fellow sorority Sigma Gamma Rho?

Tea rose blooms serve two of the four historically Black sororities. A third, Zeta Phi Beta, chose a white rose, leaving only one of the four without a rose.

In 1939 Alpha Kappa Alpha became the first organization to take out a life membership in which civil rights group?

NAACP life membership came a year after the sorority set up the first full-time congressional lobby for minority civil rights.

Alpha Kappa Alpha marked an anniversary in 1958 by funding pioneering research into which inherited blood disorder?

Sickle cell anemia research at a medical college in Washington, D.C., received the money. The work added to understanding of how the disease affects children.

Alpha Kappa Alpha's founders, first sophomores and incorporators are honored together under which jewel-themed name?

The Twenty Pearls are the original group, the sophomores given founder status and the women who incorporated the sorority. Two women belong to both of the last two groups.

Under which trademarked name do Alpha Kappa Alpha chapters stage fundraising fashion shows?

Fashionetta was created and trademarked in 1953 to expand funding for the sorority's projects. A rival sorority's counterpart, the Jabberwock, has raised scholarship money since 1925.

Which Washington obstetrician was first medical director of Alpha Kappa Alpha's Depression-era mobile health project?

Dorothy Ferebee worked at Freedmen's Hospital and led volunteer teams south each summer. She went on to head both the sorority and the National Council of Negro Women.

Which Alpha Kappa Alpha president, a California high school teacher, started a 1934 summer school for rural teachers?

Ida L. Jackson was the first African-American woman to teach high school in California. Her summer school in the rural South grew into the sorority's celebrated mobile health clinics.

Which painter designed the memorial window honoring Alpha Kappa Alpha's founders, unveiled on its home campus in 1978?

Lois Mailou Jones had retired a year earlier after 47 years teaching art on the same campus. Two founders then still living, Lavinia Norman and Norma Boyd, attended the unveiling.

In 1921 Alpha Kappa Alpha sent a telegram urging which president to back a federal anti-lynching bill?

Warren Harding did voice support for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. It passed the House in 1922, but a filibuster by Southern Democrats halted it in the Senate.

In 1913 an Alpha Kappa Alpha president asked which suffrage leader to let Black students march without discrimination?

Alice Paul co-organized the Woman Suffrage Procession, which went down Pennsylvania Avenue the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

Which organization supporting historically Black colleges received a $500,000 Alpha Kappa Alpha campaign in the 1970s?

United Negro College Fund support fit a long habit: the sorority was the first Black Greek-letter group on its home campus to offer a scholarship program.

Which high jumper, the first Black woman to win Olympic gold, became an honorary Alpha Kappa Alpha member in 1998?

Alice Coachman won her gold at the 1948 London Games. Earlier in her career she had broken national high jump records while competing barefoot.

Which Alpha Kappa Alpha member was elected in 1990 as the first woman to serve as mayor of Washington, D.C.?

Sharon Pratt joined the sorority as a student in the city in 1964. She was also the first DC-born mayor since one who took office in 1861.