Clarice Redding Louis says she’ll always remember the day she was first launched to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. It was 2008 and he or she was 18 years previous—a contemporary high-school graduate visiting Washington, D.C. as a part of an unique Financial institution of America pupil management program. Louis was one among 200 individuals hand-picked from throughout the globe for a paid summer time internship, which culminated in a week-long journey to D.C. to be taught in regards to the significance of presidency, personal sector, and nonprofit organizations working collectively to enhance communities.
However what most shocked her on the outset of her journey was seeing so many individuals decked out in salmon pink and apple inexperienced, Louis advised Fortune. Hundreds of Alpha Kappa Alpha members from all around the world had congregated on the nation’s capital for the group’s centennial celebration. Even the White Home donned pink and inexperienced banners, the official colours of the primary Black school Greek-letter sorority for educated ladies.
Louis remembers stopping at a Starbucks and operating into some AKA girls who gave her the spiel in regards to the group, which has now just lately entered the highlight because of one among its most high-profile members, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who mentioned being an AKA modified her life.
“They told me what each of their careers were and what drew them to the organization,” mentioned Louis, a physician of schooling and director of development for Group Companions of South Florida. “I was in love from that moment. That was July 12, 2008. I’ll never forget the date.”
Getty Pictures—The Washington Submit
Like Louis, AKA sorority members take pleasure within the second they first realized in regards to the group—and after they knew they have been meant to hitch. Lots of the whopping 360,000 initiated members internationally are legacy, which means a relative had additionally been a member of the group earlier than them.
Lori Sloan has been an AKA member for 37 years, impressed by the membership of her late aunt. Her aunt “was a very active member” till she died in her 90s, “so I knew that it was something that was a lifelong commitment,” Sloan advised Fortune. Sloan joined AKA as a member of Purdue College’s chapter.
Now, the 116-year-old group has greater than 1,000 chapters in 11 nations and all 50 U.S. states. However it began at Howard College with its alpha chapter, again in 1908.
On the time of its origination, the group’s founders have been among the many fewer than 1,000 Black People enrolled at larger schooling establishments. And since its founding, AKA has been devoted to civil-rights causes and 5 fundamental tenets: excessive scholastic and moral requirements, unity and friendship, social stature of women and girls, a “progressive interest in college life,” and being of “service to all mankind.”
The right way to grow to be a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha members can be part of the group both as an undergraduate pupil or grow to be part of a graduate chapter in the event that they’ve already earned a bachelor’s or a complicated diploma from an accredited four-year school or college. They must be invited to hitch the chapter, and it’s dissimilar from panhellenic sorority recruitment popularized lately on social media. Membership in AKA goes far past sporting pink, inexperienced, and pearls, and stepping and strolling. It’s a lifelong dedication to management and repair.
Potential AKA members should reveal the tenets of the sisterhood—and plenty of are campus leaders even earlier than becoming a member of the chapter. Educational excellence can be essential for membership: Particular person chapters usually have GPA or different scholastic-related benchmarks in place to evaluate the possible member’s success.
“We are looking for women of high scholastic and ethical standards [and have a] litmus for who we accept as members,” Deidra Davis, graduate adviser of the AKA chapter at Howard, advised Fortune. “It’s no wonder why many are so impressed by women that they see on campus.”
Davis has been an AKA member for 37 years and was in Howard’s chapter concurrently Vice President Harris. Davis joined AKA the 12 months after Harris had been initiated, and had admired her and the opposite ladies who had joined the group earlier than her. Davis was “really taken by the level of excellence and the level of leadership” Harris exuded throughout her time at Howard and in AKA.
“Many of the AKAs, including Kamala at the time, just had a presence on campus and were always actively involved in serving others and leading things on the university campus,” Davis mentioned. “That’s what drew me and piqued my interest in being a part of that same group.”
That sentiment nonetheless resonates with present members at Howard, together with Imani Smith, who presently serves as president of the chapter.
“Coming in as a freshman, my first interactions with student leaders were ladies of the alpha chapter,” Smith advised Fortune. “It’s really just inspiring seeing the level of service that we exude in the commitment that we make to it.”
A historical past of and dedication to service
Alpha Kappa Alpha’s dedication to service grew to become more and more vital within the Thirties, in the course of the time The New Deal was enacted. The group expanded its mission to make sure Black People benefited from New Deal jobs and entitlement applications reminiscent of Social Safety, and in addition labored to abolish necessities for federal-government jobs that required {a photograph} of the applicant. This was a observe that led to racial discrimination in hiring.
The group additionally efficiently lobbied for admission of Black ladies into the U.S. Navy throughout World Conflict II and established the American Council on Human Rights in June 1948, though the group is formally non-partisan. AKA, by way of the American Council on Human Rights, additionally labored to make sure truthful employment and wages, advance Black voting rights, and demand entry to first rate, non-segregated housing.
“As a long-time activist and organizer, I was looking for a sisterhood that really resonated with who I am as a person. And Alpha Kappa Alpha is exactly that,” Nupol Kiazolu, who was initiated into AKA’s chapter at Hampton College in 2021, advised Fortune. “We have a longstanding track record of service and empowerment to the Black community, and not just the Black community, but the American community, and the communities all across the globe.”
Though all founding members of AKA exuded a dedication to service, one stands proud for Kiazolu: Norma Elizabeth Boyd, who in 1938 based the Nationwide Nonpartisan Council of Public Affairs—the primary Black congressional foyer—which laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Motion earlier than its peak within the Nineteen Sixties. Boyd additionally occurs to be Harris’ favourite AKA founder.
Getty Pictures—Brandon Bell
“Our sisterhood was also founded, as we know, in the face of profound challenges in our country,” Harris mentioned in a July 2024 handle to AKA. “And yet, despite all of this, and perhaps because of it, our founders believed in the power of sisterhood and service. And our founders believed in the promise of America—a promise of freedom, opportunity, and equality not for some but for all.”
Sisterhood, management, and excellence
Even after years—or many years—away from school, AKA sisters proceed to assist one another in a wide range of methods. These bonds are a part of what makes the group so sturdy.
Take Louis, for instance, who knew she wished to pursue a profession in psychological well being and schooling, and was supported by mentorship from her AKA sisters. However what she didn’t count on was the outpouring of assist to pursue a grasp’s diploma. Sooner or later at a chapter assembly, the president defined to members the significance of Louis and some different members persevering with their schooling. That day, Louis and 4 different AKA members left the assembly with a $25,000 test, which took care of Louis’ whole grasp’s program.
The assist didn’t cease there. When Louis determined to go for her Ph.D., she was given a test from AKA “of a significant amount” to earn her diploma.
Louis mentioned she felt “like I had the power of this entire organization behind me, propelling me through this process.” However past education, she has been supported by her sisters in quite a few methods—together with the supply of her first baby final 12 months. One in every of Louis’ AKA sisters was her OB-GYN, and made positive she was taken care of “given all the health care disparities with Black maternal health,” Louis mentioned. “She made sure every step of the way I had every comfort and luxury available to me.”
Getty Pictures—Paras Griffin
AKA additionally instills in ladies management qualities that stretch effectively past their years on campus. They’re taught the right way to interview for jobs, the right way to costume, and the right way to conduct conferences, Sloan mentioned. These are all vital qualities whether or not you’re an organizational chief or within the operating to be the following president of the USA.
And being a member of AKA additionally has networking perks—particularly should you can establish members by the colours and jewellery indicative of sorority membership.
“The sisterhood continues post graduation from college,” Sloan mentioned. “You go on a job interview, you get a job, you discover you have sisters there, and they take you under their wing. You have an insight to learn the company, the ins and outs, because the sisterhood never goes away. And that’s the comfort and support that you continuously have.”
