The Baton Rouge (LA) Alumni Chapter

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Black-sponsored Greek letter organizations on the Indiana campus might

well have begun in 1903, but there were too few registrants to assure

continuing organization. In that year a club was formed called Alpha Kappa

Nu with the purpose of strengthening the Blacks' voice at the university and

in the city of Bloomington. The reason for choosing the Greek letter name

is not known, but it is known that the club expired within a short time.

There is no record of any similar organization at Indiana until the

chartering of Kappa Alpha Nu in 1911.

 

 

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. was founded on the campus of

Indiana University on January 5, 1911. Originally charted and incorporated

Kappa Alpha Nu on April 15, 1911, the name was officially changed to

Kappa Alpha Psi on April 15, 1915. The Fraternity's fundamental purpose

is Achievement. Early in this century, African-American students were

actively dissuaded from attending college. Formidable obstacles were

erected to prevent the few who were enrolled from assimilating into

co-curricular campus life. This ostracism characterized Indiana University

in 1911, thus causing 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 Alpha Chapter on the University's

campus. The founders sought a formula that would immediately raise the

visions and insight of black collegians at Indiana University and all over the

world. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. has continued to provide leadership

in every field of the human endeavor.

 

 

The founders sought a formula that would immediately raise the sights of

black collegians stimulating them to reach accomplishments higher than

they had imagined. With achievement as its purpose, Kappa Alpha Psi

began uniting college men of culture, patriotism and honor in a bond of

fraternity. Subsequently, chapters spread in succession to the University

of Illinois, the University of Iowa, and Wilberforce University campuses.

By 1919, the Kappa Alpha Psi experience had generated serious interest

among black college degree holders to form Alumni Chapters.