Educator

Joanna Berry, a distant relative of co-founder Lavinia Norman, was known for her dignity, poise and grace. She served as custodian of Alpha Chapter’s records during the fall of 1909. After graduating in 1910, she began her teaching career at Manassas Institute, her former high school in Virginia and continued her career working within schools located in North Carolina, New York and South Carolina.

After a 12-year hiatus from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Shields affiliated with Phi Omega Chapter in Winston-Salem, NC and later with Tau Omega Chapter in New York City when her family relocated in 1937. Professionally, she helped to secure a grant that increased the school year from three to six months for African Americans in South Carolina and maintained memberships in the NAACP, the Negro History Club and the National Council of Negro Women.

Educator

In addition to being one of the seven endowed founders in the sophomore group, Norma Boyd was also an incorporator of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and founder of the National Nonpartisan Council (NPC) on Public Affairs, the nation’s first full-time minority lobbyist organization. She served as Alpha Kappa Alpha’s first national corresponding secretary, as president of Xi Omega Chapter in Washington, D.C. and as a North Atlantic Regional Director.

With a teaching career that spanned nearly 40 years, Boyd consistently remained committed to community service and was a lifelong protector and advocate for civil liberties. Her diligence on this front earned her the distinction of being named an accredited observer of non-governmental organizations for the United Nations. Boyd was Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s last surviving endowed founder.

Educator

Anna Easter Brown was the first treasurer of Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. While at Howard University, Brown was an honor student, a library aide, a member of the school choir and a passionate writer. She graduated from Howard University in 1909 and began her teaching career in Bricks, NC. She went on to teach in Rocky Mount, NC for more than 30 years and became the chartering president of Chi Omega Chapter. Brown was an advocate of history and was known especially for her annual Negro History Week exhibits that received national media attention.

Educator

Beulah Elizabeth Burke is credited with having created the name, motto and colors of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She became a charter member and president of Beta Omega Chapter in Kansas City, MO, a charter member and president of Mu Omega Chapter in Kansas City, KS and chartered the first three undergraduate chapters of the sorority that were established after incorporation.

Although she trained to be a language teacher, she demonstrated mastery in home economics, resulting in administrators requesting her to concentrate in the area which led to her receiving a master’s degree in home economics. Ms. Burke taught in public schools (Kansas City, MO and Atlantic City, NJ) and at a state university in Dover, DE. She also served as manager of a housing development (Atlantic City, NJ) and was director of a residence hall for female government employees (Washington, DC).

Educator

Lillie E. Burke enrolled in Howard University’s preparatory academy in tandem with her younger sister, Beulah, and subsequently they both enrolled in Howard’s College of Liberal Arts at the same time. At the time of the formation of the Sorority, Burke, like her sister, was an honor student, a Greek scholar and a senior. She is credited with having helped with the creation of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority motto and was a charter member of Xi Omega Chapter, the first graduate chapter in the District of Columbia.

After graduation, Burke accepted her first teaching assignment at Downing Institute in Downingtown, PA, where she distinguished herself as a gifted teacher.

Educator

Margaret Flagg helped write Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s first constitution and bylaws. It is through her recorded recollections about the personalities of the other founders that the character sketches of those pioneering young women now exist for future generations of members. Nine years after her graduation, the talented teacher married and moved back to her childhood home of Chicago, IL.

Once back home, Holmes served as vice president and recording secretary of Theta Omega Chapter. Her community involvement continued in her volunteer service with the NAACP, YWCA and Chicago public school system, which recognized her as an outstanding Latin teacher. An avid traveler, she toured the United States, Canada and Europe with her husband, John.

Educator

Ethel Hedgemon was the visionary and principal founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Her warmth and outgoing personality combined with a strong desire to interact with other collegians with like minds and exceptional talents for the betterment of themselves and mankind, propelled her to spearhead the movement that led to the founding of the nation’s first black sorority.

Hedgemon experienced numerous notable achievements in her life and her career, among them included being the first female African-American to teach in a “normal” school in Oklahoma, founding the Mother’s Club of Philadelphia, being a charter member of the West Philadelphia League of Women Voters and chairing the Philadelphia Mayor’s Committee of 100 Women Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and her marriage to George Lyle, who was the first male African-American to teach in a “normal” school in Oklahoma. Within the sorority, she played an integral part in our founding, served as national treasurer for 23 years, was a charter member and president of Omega Omega Chapter in Philadelphia, PA and is the only member ever to be named Honorary International President.

Educator

Marjorie Hill was a senior at Howard University when she joined the small group that went on to form the sorority and graduated shortly after our founding. She chose to pursue a teaching career at Morgan College in Lynchburg, VA immediately after her undergraduate degree was conferred.

Not much is known of Hill after she left Howard University as she died during the summer of 1909, becoming our first Ivy Beyond the Wall (deceased member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc)

Culinary Artist

Like Lucy Slowe, Ethel Hedgemon, Lavinia Norman and Harriet Terry before her, Ethel Jones, one of the seven sophomores accorded founder status, became the president of Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in the last semester of her senior year in 1910. When the sorority’s existence was threatened in 1912, she worked with incorporator, Nellie Quander, to take measures to ensure our survival. After the sorority was chartered as Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®, Jones was installed as vice president of the first board of directors.

After Jones graduated, she returned to her native Baltimore, MD to teach math in the city’s public schools. It was there that she married her husband, George, in 1913 and then moved with him to Chicago and then to Kansas City, KS. She became a member of Mu Omega Chapter upon its chartering in Kansas City in 1924.

Educator

Sarah Meriwether’s father, James, was a Howard alumnus and trustee, so as his daughter, she was instilled with strong ties to the school and was involved in numerous campus activities. Among them was joining Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and delivering the oration at the May 1909 Ivy Day Celebration. It has been said that some of the ivy that grows on the grounds of Howard University to this day was planted there by Meriwether, who had a penchant for planting cuttings in prevalent spots throughout the campus. Her involvement in the sorority was so strong that it created an interest from her mother, Mary Robinson Meriwether, who in 1913, was inducted as an honorary member.

After graduating and moving to Charleston, WV with her husband T. Gillis Nutter, she helped to establish two chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority: Nu Chapter at West Collegiate Institute (now West Virginia State University) in 1922 and Beta Beta Omega Chapter in Charleston during 1934. She also organized alumni and book clubs, chaired NAACP committees and became the first African American member of the Virginia Society for Crippled Children.

Educator

Alice Porter Murray was one of the sophomores invited to join Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in 1909. She quickly became an integral part of the literary and social activities sponsored by the group that benefited our members and the public. Murray, who lived in the affluent and culturally vibrant U Street District of Washington, D.C., is said to have excelled at playing hostess at social gatherings. She was also a gifted writer, noted for her poetry, prose and cultural commentary.

Upon her graduation in 1910 with a degree in liberal arts and pedagogy, Murray lost contact with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. It is speculated she pursued a teaching career after leaving Howard University.

Educator

Lavinia Norman was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s first constitution and bylaws committee and the presiding officer at the first Ivy Day ceremony in 1909 when the sorority’s members planted sprigs of their symbol of strength and endurance at the south end of Miner Hall, the organization’s on-campus birthplace. Upon graduation, she settled in Huntington, WV and was an active member of Beta Tau Omega Chapter.

After serving the organization for more than 75 years, Norman was the last survivor of the nine founders when she died at the age of 100. During her career at Douglass High School which spanned more than four decades, Norman taught English, Latin and French, served as coach of the school’s winning drama team and advisor for the student newspaper.

College Dean

A conscientious, hardworking and serious student, Lucy Slowe became the first president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, since the newly adopted constitution and bylaws stipulated the holder of the office be in her senior term at the college. She also held the position of chairman on both the constitution and bylaws and nominating committees.

After graduating as valedictorian in 1908, Slowe began her teaching career at Douglass High School in Baltimore, MD and later returned back to the District of Columbia to teach in high schools there. Her notable achievements included being the first Black female college dean at Howard University, the first Black member of the National Association of Women Deans, Administrators & Counselors and winning the 1917 American Tennis Association national tournament in Baltimore, becoming the first African American woman to earn this honor.

Educator

A sophomore when the sorority was founded, Carrie E. Snowden was one who took on the mantle of leadership since six of the nine founders graduated in May 1908. During the fall semester of 1909, she became the new sorority’s corresponding secretary.

Described as introverted and reserved, Snowden shunned the spotlight in favor of background roles in the group. After graduating in 1910 and teaching in DC and Baltimore schools, she returned to Howard University to work as a switchboard operator. She became a charter member of Xi Omega Chapter in Washington, D.C. in 1923.

Educator

Remembered fondly for her captivating smile, Harriet Josephine Terry brought congeniality, intellect and organizational skills with her membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She was the first of the sophomores to assume the role of president in the sorority, succeeding Lavinia Norman in the fall of 1909 after Norman, Hedgemon and Brown, the last of the nine founders to graduate, had completed their studies in the spring.

Terry was a skilled songwriter who composed a hymn for the sorority’s first induction ceremony in 1909. After graduating in 1910, she was hired to chair the English and History departments at Gloucester High School in Cappahosic, VA. Terry worked for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing during World War I, but returned to teaching at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville in 1922, where she taught until she retired in 1959. In 1949, she became a charter member of Epsilon Gamma Omega Chapter in Huntsville and also became the chapter’s president.

Social Worker

As a result of her passion and strong-willed nature, Marie Woolfolk was selected by Ethel Hedgemon to help her make the case for a sorority to the Howard University administration in the fall of 1907. Once the sisterhood was established, Woolfolk served as the first secretary, was a member of the first constitution and bylaws committee, and she then extended invitations to the university sophomores who were eventually added to the founding group. She became the chartering president of Kappa Omega Chapter in Atlanta, GA.

To satisfy her desire to pursue a career in social work upon graduation, Woolfolk received post-graduate training and was the only African American student enrolled at Schauffler Missionary Training School in Cleveland, OH. After completing her training, she relocated to her hometown of Atlanta, GA to practice her craft at the First Congregational Church as a community assistant to the church’s first Black pastor. Over the years, she also worked with the American Red Cross, the YWCA, the NAACP and was an organizer for Atlanta’s Community Chest, a precursor of the United Way.