People, Locations, Episodes

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is Founded

Kappa Alpha Psi was founded on the campus of Indiana University on this date in 1911. The fraternity’s fundamental purpose was (and is) achievement.

Early in the 20th century, Black college students were actively dissuaded from attending college. Formidable barriers were put up to prevent the few who were enrolled from assimilating into co-curricular campus life. This ostracism characterized Indiana University in 1911, thus triggering Elder W. Diggs, Byron K. Armstrong, and eight other Black students to form Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, which remains the only Greek letter organization with its First Chapter on its campus.

The founders wanted a formula that would immediately raise the sights of Black collegians and stimulate them to accomplish higher than they might have imagined. Fashioning achievement as its purpose, Kappa Alpha Psi set in motion an academic institution that would unite college men of culture, patriotism, and honor in a bond of fraternity. The fraternity considers membership in it “a lifelong dedication to the ideas and lofty purposes of Kappa Alpha Psi.”