Alpha Kappa Alpha celebrates 100 years of sisterhood
Nation’s oldest African-American sorority looks back on legacy of scholarship and service
In elementary school, Dawn Sanders looked up to her principal, Johnnie Mayo. Sanders was in awe of the poise and success of Mayo, who went on to become the city’s first female black assistant superintendent of elementary education.
During her high school years, Sanders was impressed with her guidance counselor Aloma Johnson, whose mentoring is still invaluable today and will have a charter school named in her honor this year.
Sanders heard that Mayo and Johnson were members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s oldest African-American sorority.
“They were role models, and I admired them,” she said. “I wanted to emulate them.”
As Sanders got older, she continued to be influenced by the leadership, professionalism and community service of local women involved with the historically black sorority.
“I knew when I entered college, I would become a member,” she said.
And Sanders, now the executive director of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, did so 19 years ago at the University at Buffalo, joining legions of influential women locally, nationally and internationally who this year are celebrating 100 years of upholding the values of sisterhood, scholarship and service of the organization founded in 1908.
There are eight other area black Greek organizations — for men and women — all with undergraduate or alumni chapters in Western New York. And like the AKAs, community service is at the core of these organizations. The majority of the chapters here each year offer thousands of dollars in college scholarships and variations of other community outreach, such as mentoring, black history programs and provide health screenings and education.
AKA, one of the most well-known organizations, was founded by nine young women on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D. C. The sorority now has 225,000 members and 975 chapters around the world.
Sanders and other members of the city and Amherst chapters last week joined more than 35,000 members from around the world in Washington, D. C., for the organization’s weeklong “2008 Centennial Boule.” The Buffalo Niagara region has about 200 members, and close to 100 went to D. C.
“This is a historic milestone,” said Sanders, 40, who is a past president of the Buffalo chapter, Gamma Phi Omega, which was founded in 1948. “It’s an exciting, ground-breaking opportunity for the world to see this dynamic organization, which is devoted to education, social programs, economic development and uplifting the community.”
The group has adhered to its mission of “service to mankind” through a multilayered effort of programs in promoting education, economic development and addressing the social problems of the day — from civil rights injustices to bridging the modern-day digital divide.
Locally, the AKAs train high school girls in leadership, hold a variety of health workshops and walks, voter registration drives, adopt needy families, organize highway cleanups, work with Literacy Volunteers of America and give $15,000 to $20,000 each year in scholarships to high school seniors.
“We are dedicated to the spirit of service, giving back to the community,” said Gerri Horton, East High School principal and president of the city chapter. “It’s our legacy.”
Community service
While their white counterparts are known more as social organizations, black Greek letter organizations have had a lasting tradition of community service.
“Their origins are quite different,” said Lillian S. Williams, associate professor and chairwoman of UB’s African American Studies Department.
“As black Greeks, community service is what we do, and I think we do an effective job,” said Yvonne Evans, a 37-year member of AKA and a program analyst for the Treasury Department. The black Greek letter organizations were formed during the segregation period and afforded its member the typical brotherhood or sisterhood, but operated with a larger goal of service to the marginalized black population.
“They were interested in bettering their community,” said Williams, who is a member of Delta Sigma Theta, the largest black sorority. “Any issue that confronted the African-American community, they were involved in or supported in some way.”
The black fraternities and sororities also claim the nation’s and the local community’s leaders and high achievers in all professional fields and areas.
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the country’s oldest black fraternity, and so is Buffalo’s Mayor Byron W. Brown. A famous Omega Psi Phi Fraternity member is basketball great Michael Jordan, and a local member is Buffalo School Superintendent James A. Williams.
The AKAs membership roll includes the first African-American female astronaut in space Mae Jemison, Nobel-and Pulitzer- prize winning author Toni Morrison and locally, Tanya Perrin-Johnson, former executive director of the YWCA, who is the city’s community services commissioner.
“The members of the Noble Nine are thought to be the Talented Tenth,” said Andrew Huff, a member of the city’s Omega Psi Phi chapter and president of the local chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which is an umbrella organization for the nine black Greek letter organizations, collectively known as the “Noble Nine” or “Divine Nine.” “Great men and women are members of these organizations. You have area judges, school principals, doctors and other professionals.”
And their commitment to their sororities and fraternities and communities continue and oftentimes is strengthened into their alumni years and become a lifelong involvement. Dorothy
M. Hackney, 80, has been an AKA for 58 years, and the centennial celebration was her 34th boule.
“It’s such a marvelous organization, it offers so much for women and the community,” said Hackney, a retired outside investigator of the New York Power Co.
Responding to a need
Black college graduates remain involved because of the state of the community, members said.
“We have stronger alumni chapters than undergraduate chapters because our community is in need of service,” said Greg Pratchett, a Buffalo firefighter who is president and has been a member of the city’s Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity since 1981. “Our community’s need is greater and different.”
Derrick Jackson, a Buffalo State College student who is the president of the school’s Kappa chapter, pledged the fraternity because of the impact its alumni members had on him as a teenager through its youth mentorship and leadership training programs.
“The members of this organization have played an instrumental part in my life,” he said. “I didn’t grow up with my father, so I looked up to these men who taught me how to achieve the next level after high school.”
In D. C., Sanders was once again astonished by the women of her sorority. Decked out each day in their sorority colors of salmon pink and apple green, they celebrated, through various activities and events, their history of service and sisterhood.
The highlight for Sanders was the Unity March on Pennsylvania Avenue, which featured members of all nine black Greek letter organizations.
“It was an opportunity to witness history in the making, all those AKAs and members of the other organizations united and closed down Pennsylvania Avenue,” she said. “It was fantastic.”
