The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA) is an international service organization and the first African American sorority in the U.S. The oldest Greek-letter organization established by Black college-educated women, AKA was founded in 1908 by nine women on Howard University’s campus in Washington, D.C. Today, AKA has both undergraduate and graduate chapters in 12 countries and has initiated over 325,000 members since its founding.
In November 2022, the organization announced that it’s helping to build a women’s museum in the St. Louis, MO., home of Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, one of AKA’s founders. This project is the result of a $4 million donation from AKA’s Gamma Omega chapter of St. Louis and the sorority’s nonprofit wing, the Ivy Alliance Foundation.
The Life of Ethel Hedgeman Lyle
During her time at Howard University, Lyle was one of just 1,000 Black students who were enrolled in higher education institutions in 1908. Additionally, she was one of only 25 women who received a bachelor of arts degree from Howard University between 1908 and 1911. After she graduated, Lyle put her degree to good use by becoming an educator. She went on to become the first Black woman to earn a Teacher’s Life Certificate from the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Later, Lyle moved to Philadelphia, PA, to continue her teaching career and became active in the local community. In 1926, Lyle founded and was the first president of Omega Omega, the first AKA alumni chapter in Philadelphia. Although she passed away in 1950, Lyle is known today as the “visionary and principal founder” of AKA.
When sorority member Tracey Clark Jefferies found Lyle’s home over seventy years later, it was vacant and was scheduled to be demolished. To save the property from destruction, Jeffries and the Gamma Omega graduate chapter of St. Louis purchased the home to create a headquarters for the Ivy Alliance Foundation, as well as a museum and community center. “For over a hundred years, we have been providing service to mankind,” said Jefferies, referencing AKA’s mission. “Now the community will know where to find us.”
The museum and community center is set to open in the summer of 2024.
Robert F. Smith’s Work to Preserve Black History and Culture
As founding director and President of the charitable organization Fund II Foundation, Robert F. Smith champions multiple efforts to preserve Black history and culture.
Fund II Foundation was founded in 2014, and focuses on making grants to organizations that “preserve the African-American experience, safeguard human rights and provide music education,” among other goals. Since its founding, Fund II Foundation has awarded over $250 million in grant money to a range of organizations, including the United Negro College Fund, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, The National Park Foundation and more.
In 2016, the Fund II Foundation granted $2.7 million to the Louis Armstrong House Museum (LAHM) in Queens, NY to help create a digital archive of Armstrong’s life. Smith is on the LAHM Board of Trustees and personally contacted the museum to see if he could lead a campaign to digitize thousands of valuable artifacts, such as photographs, letters and sheet music. Thanks to Fund II Foundation’s donation, the effort went live in 2018 and includes a “scrapbook compilation of Armstrong’s early days in New York, hundreds of hours of never-before-heard concert recordings, spoken word tapes, video concert footage and photographs of the trumpeter in his Queens home.”
In addition to his work with the Foundation, Smith made a historic $20 million donation to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This gift also supported the museum’s digitization efforts to ensure that important African American stories are preserved for years to come. “I am thrilled to bring the transformative power of technology to celebrate and conserve the African American experience in America,” Smith said in a press release announcing the grant.
Learn more about Smith’s efforts to preserve Black history and culture.
