Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Via WikiCommons.
Full Name: Ethel Hedgeman Lyle
Birth Date: February 10,1887
Death Date: November 28, 1950
Ethel Hedgeman Lyle was born on February 10, 1887, in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1904, she graduated from Sumner High School with honors. She was the first student from Sumner to receive a scholarship to Howard University, a well-known Historically Black College/University (HBCUs). Lyle went to Howard at a time when only one in three hundred African Americans attended any college or university.
Being a woman of color attending a college or university was a big deal and huge accomplishment at this time. This was not an easy task dealing with both racism and sexism. At colleges and universities across America, women of color were isolated and excluded from groups with men and other races of women.
Lyle was moved by faculty member Miss Ethel Tremaine Robinson’s sorority experience at Brown University to start a sorority for women of color on college campuses. She and eight other classmates founded Alpha Kappa Alpha on January 15, 1908. The sorority was incorporated on January 29, 1913. Alpha Kappa Alpha’s mission for over 100 years has been to cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and friendship among college women, to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women to improve their social stature, to maintain a progressive interest in college life, and to be of “Service to All Mankind.” One hundred fifteen years later Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated has over 355,000 members with women from all different races and backgrounds in over 12 countries.
Lyle graduated from Howard University in 1909, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts. She taught school-aged children for many years. She is known as the “guiding light” of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Hedgeman died on November 28, 1950.
Sources
https://blmgrassroots.org/ethel-hedgeman-lyle/
https://www.revitalization2000.com/ethel-hedgemen
https://aka1908.com/about/