Alpha Kappa Nu


Alpha Kappa Nu is the first documented African-American collegiate fraternal organization in the United States. Founded in 1903 at Indiana University and lasting until around 1905, it had a membership of 10, which included all the colored students at the school. A second chapter was set to be established at Wilberforce University. Wilberforce University was where the fraternity Gamma Phi was established in 1905.

History

Social club

In The Story of Kappa Alpha Psi: A History of the Beginning and Development of A College Greek Letter Organization 1911-1999, Historian Ralph J. Bryson recounted that his own fraternity "may have begun in 1903 on the campuses of Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, but there were too few registrants to assure continuing organization. That year, a club was formed called "Alpha Kappa Nu Greek Society"; though newspaper accounts from 1903 and 1905 identified the organization as a Greek fraternity with elected officers and a constitution with "plans of establishing branches at leading negro institutions," the club was never incorporated, and disappeared after a short time. The group lasted for 14 months. Although the group was also stated to have lasted until 1911. The purpose of the group was to "strengthen the negro voice." The group was listed as the first black college chapter to own its own house.

Kappa Alpha Psi

Bryson states that the original moniker of Kappa Alpha Psi, which did become an African-American fraternity, may have been chosen in tribute to the short lived club. However, there is no concrete evidence as to why the Greek letters Kappa Alpha Nu were chosen, and the name was later changed. Kappa Alpha Psi's historian credits the name change in 1915 with allowing their organization to "thereby became a Greek letter Fraternity in every sense of the designation."