Alpha Kappa Alpha Day – January 15, 2025

History of Alpha Kappa Alpha Day

Every year since the early 20th century, January 15 has been celebrated as Alpha Kappa Alpha Day. The history of the day’s celebration follows the history of the creation of the sorority. For over a century, this day has been consecutively celebrated.

Created on January 15, 1908, at Howard University, A.K.A. was a product of a black woman’s dream of a support network where fellow female black college students would find the necessary support they needed to live and study successfully in a complex, unfair, and racist college system. Ethel Hedgeman’s search for liberation for her fellow black college colleagues at Howard University produced the first black female Greek-letter sorority. While other female sororities existed before then, and many others sprang up after, A.K.A. has a rich history that is quite unmatched by others. On the one hand, it was the first sorority that black female college students around the U.S. related to. On the other hand, it holds a record-breaking history. It presently has an approximate membership of over 300,000 across the U.S. and other countries.

Some of the many notable alumni of A.K.A. include the famous black poet — Maya Angelou, who in 1969, published “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings;” Coretta Scott-King, the wife of the 20th-century activist Martin Luther King Jr.; Katherine G. Johnson, Phylicia Rashad, Rosa Parks, and many others. In 2021, A.K.A. became the only female Greek-letter sorority to produce a Vice President. Kamala Harris holds the position of the only woman to occupy the second-highest seat possible in the White House. These and many other achievements from the sisters of A.K.A. make the sorority widely acknowledged, not only in the U.S. but also in South Africa, Canada, Japan, Germany, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Liberia, Nigeria, and others.