One hundred years ago this year, 10 men matriculating at Indiana University came together to found Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Beginning July 2, members of Kappa Alpha Psi converged on Indianapolis, Ind., for the 80th Grand Chapter Meeting and celebration of the organization’s 100th birthday.
With events scheduled from July 2 to 10, it appears the membership will make their presence known just as they did 100 years ago when Elder Watson Diggs, John Milton Lee, Byron K. Armstrong, Guy Levis Grant, Ezra D. Alexander, Henry T. Asher, Marcus P. Blakemore, Paul W. Caine, Edward G. Irvin and George W. Edmonds founded the second national historically Black fraternity.
“Kappa Alpha Psi is the first national fraternity to be founded at IU, and is a great point of pride for this university,” said IU President Michael A. McRobbie in a news release. “The fraternity has grown into one of the leading African-American fraternities in the nation and its founding here was one of many remarkable events that have helped transform Bloomington into one of the jewels of the Midwest.”
According to the history of the organization from its website, Diggs and Armstrong came to Indiana University from Howard University and, along with the other men, formed an organization to provide some semblance of campus life for students. The group was first named Alpha Kappa Nu, in honor of a prior campus group charged with creating a haven for Blacks on campus, but was changed to Alpha Kappa Psi in 1914.
In a recent message to the membership, Grand Polemarch Dwayne M. Murray extolled the vision of the founders. “When we study our 100 year history, we learn that our Founders, though young in age, were extremely smart men. We learn that they understood the environment around them; they recognized the opportunities that their collegiate peers had that were denied them,” he said. “They learned that they were not on a level playing field, but simply members of a racial minority for which equal accommodations and access were not granted. They learned fast that racial denial did not have to be, if they would but join together with other students of like circumstances and change the socio-economic paradigm in which they lived.”
The wisdom of the founders extended to the fraternity’s constitution and bylaws. By ensuring the organization would be open to men regardless of “color, religion or national origin,” the organization has spread globally, with chapters in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Korea, Japan, Germany, the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and St. Croix.
It is this rich history and ongoing call to service that the projected 20,000 members making the trek to Indianapolis are celebrating this year. “Just as the history of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity started with Indiana University, the history of Indiana University cannot be told without reference to the contributions of Kappa Alpha Psi,” Edwin C. Marshall, IU vice president for diversity, equity and multicultural affairs and a former vice polemarch of the Alpha Chapter at IU said in a statement.
This is, according to a statement from Murray, evident in even the Indiana street names. He traveled to his hotel on Kappa Alpha Psi Centennial Way and passed Grand Polemarch Lane and Kappa Street during the journey.
While in Indiana, the membership will participate in a variety of events including visiting locations on the “Kappa Trail,” a series of places with significance to the fraternity.
There will also be the unveiling of a bench in People’s Park, dedicated to the found of Kappa Alpha Psi, and plaques unveiled on Kirkwood Avenue and the bridge crossing the creek in Dunn Meadow.
“The pilgrimage of Kappas to Bloomington and the Alpha Chapter represents a journey of exploration into the roots of their fraternal heritage and the legacy of 100 years of achievement in every field of human endeavor,” Marshall added.
Some famous Kappas include talk show host Tavis Smiley; Arthur Ashe, tennis legend and activist; George Taliaferro, first African-American drafted by an NFL team; Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, NBA greats; Bernard Harris Jr., the first African-American to walk in space; Ralph Abernathy, civil rights activist; Jamal-Harrison Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore; Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta; Lerone Bennett Jr., author; Percy Sutton, attorney, activist; Johnny Cochran, attorney; Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP; Nathaniel McFadden, Obie Patterson and Shawn Tarrant, all in the Maryland General Assembly; Robert Sengstacke Abbott, publisher of the Chicago Defender and Reginald Lewis, CEO of Beatrice International.
Harold Fisher, Maryland author and host of “The Daily Drum” on WHUR-FM, is a Kappa and is proud of the organization’s accomplishments, especially what it has done for young Black men and the community in its first 100 years. “It means a lot to me because I was a small part, a very small part, of the first 100 years,” he said.
The first 100 hundred years and the work of the organization, he said, make a powerful statement of strength and perseverance. “I’m so glad I made the right choice.”
For more information on the events and the organization’s history, visit their website at www.kappaalphapsi1911.com.
