Alpha Kappa Alpha
international historically African American collegiate sorority
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (ΑΚΑ) is a historically African-American sorority. The sorority was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. Incorporated in 1913, the sorority is a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), a group of historically Black fraternities and sororities often called the Divine Nine.
In 2025, Alpha Kappa Alpha had more than 365,000 members in 1,085 chapters in the United States and eleven other countries. Women may join through undergraduate chapters at a college or university, or graduate chapters after acquiring an undergraduate or advanced college degree.
History
Beginnings: 1907–1912
In spring 1907, student Ethel Hedgeman Lyle led efforts to create a sorority at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. Forming a sorority broke barriers for African-American women in areas where they had little power or authority due to a lack of opportunities for Black Americans in the early 20th century. Faculty member Ethel T. Robinson encouraged Hedgeman by relating her observations of sorority life at the Women's College at Brown University. Hedgeman began recruiting interested classmates; the group used the summer of 1907 to research and explore options for their new organization.
The public source identifies “Alpha Kappa Alpha” as international historically African American collegiate sorority. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alpha, Kappa and international.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3308284. VIAF identifies the subject as 143151649. The Library of Congress control number is n86078716. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1913, 2025 and 1907.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alpha Kappa Alpha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.