When I looked out my window from the 15th floor of the Renaissance Hotel last week I was floored by the site I saw below. It was a sea of pink and green. There were thousands of African American women roaming the streets of D.C. (around 35,000).
They each had different economic status, different professions, different color complexions, but they all have one fundamental base in common.
They were all members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
They were all a part of a legacy that preceded a women's right to vote, the NAACP, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Founded on the campus of Howard University on January 15, 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority became an outlet for servitude and sisterhood for African American women in this country. 100 years later the organization has grown from the original 16 to more than 200,000 members and 975 chapters worldwide.
The organization having with stood the test of time (it's survived two world wars, the great depression, and the civil rights movement) has been very instrumental in implementing change and education in this country. AKA's members include a bevy of first...the first black woman to win Wimbledon, the first African American woman in space, the first African American to become president of an ivy league university, and the first African American to win the noble prize for literature... and now with the honorary membership of Senator Barack Obama's wife Michelle-- possibly the first African American woman to become First Lady.
And so record numbers of Alpha Kappa Alpha women stormed the capital last week to recognize the legacy that was created there.
These women were expected to pour almost $100 million into the D.C. economy -- and having witness them shop, I am sure they exceeded that amount!
A celebration banquet held on the last night of the convention hosted more than 17,000 members in four separate ballrooms in the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. More than 3 tons of beef were served, 1,800 gallons of pink lemonade poured, and “pink and green “- red velvet cake was the dessert treat (the cake was literally pink and green, it was awesome and very tasty).
The banquet was hailed as the largest to be held in the D.C convention center and possibly the World.
During my time at the convention I was enthralled, witnessing the collection of these women and their admiration for one another, it was like nothing I have ever seen before. Embracing a total stranger across the street was all right because each woman sported the same three letters across their chest.
These women knew at the end of the day they are not just perfect strangers … they were sisters, because they shared a common bond -- and her name is Alpha Kappa Alpha.
I had the opportunity to encounter several women who have been members for more than 50 years.
I listed like a little child as they told me stories of how Alpha Kappa Alpha has grown before their very eyes. The common sentiment amoung each of them was how proud they were to see that she has continued to flourish amidst a time when fraternities and sororities are often shown in negative lights.
One woman told me her grandmother, mother, and two daughters were all also members … I quickly learned that was the case for a majority of the woman I would encounter.
Walking through both the Centennial and Traveling Museum I was hit with historical images and markers of African American.
Each picture held smiling images of famous and not so famous members.
Images of women who were doing their best to succeed during times when women – especially black women-were seen as insignificant.
As I neared the end of the exhibts I ran into a middle age woman showing her young daughter a picture of Ethel Hedgeman Lyle – the “Guiding Light”, the Founder of AKA and I couldn’t help but smile, for I was witnessing a legacy of sisterhood and servitude being passed down from one generation to another.
These are just the thoughts of a 20-Somethinger, please feel free to leave a comment.
Afua S. Owusu
(uh-fee-yah) (Oh-woo-sue)
News Producer
