In celebration annually, members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., honor and commemorate the life and legacy of service and sisterhood of the 16 founding members of the sorority during the month of January.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was founded on January 15, 1908 on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC. Our founders were among the fewer than 1,000 Negroes enrolled in higher education institutions in 1908. Nine juniors and seniors who constituted the initial core group of founding members and seven sophomores who were extended an invitation for membership without initiation are acknowledged as Alpha Kappa Alpha’s original 16 founders.
Our founders were Anna Easter Brown, Beulah Elizabeth Burke, Lillie E. Burke, Majorie Hill, Margaret Flagg Holmes, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, Lavinia Norman, Lucy Diggs Slowe, Marie Woolfolk, Joanna Berry Shields, Norma Elizabeth Boyd, Ethel Jones Mowbray, Sarah Meriwether Nutter, Alice Porter Murray, Carrie E. Snowden and Harriet Josephine Terry.
Founders’ Day activities can include a rededication ceremony, ecumenical services and service projects which highlights the sorority’s history of service, sisterhood and scholarship.