[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 30 (Thursday, March 9, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN RECOGNITION OF 50-YEAR MEMBERS OF KAPPA ALPHA PSI FRATERNITY, INC.

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                        HON. ALBERT RUSSELL WYNN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 9, 2006

  Mr. WYNN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and thank my college 
fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., for the support and 
encouragement they are providing to the Eastern Province of Kappa Alpha 
Psi Fraternity, Inc., in recognizing its 50-year brothers and senior 
Kappas. I have been a member of this great fraternity for 36 years.
  Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. was founded nearly 100 years ago, in 
1911, at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, by eleven young 
African American male students, and chartered by the State of Indiana 
on May 15, 1911. These undergraduate students were in their late teens 
and early twenties and were sophomores and juniors, at Indiana 
University. Their parents and/or grandparents had been either slaves or 
freed slaves. An excerpt, in pertinent part, from the articles of 
incorporation reads as follows: ``All the subscribers hereto, who are 
colored citizens of the United States and Students of Indiana 
University, do hereby associate themselves together . . . for the 
purpose of founding a National, Secret, Greek Letter Fraternity . . . 
to stimulate fellow students to the attainment of high, intellectual, 
moral and social worth.''
  During the past nearly 100 years, the fraternity has grown to 370 
alumni chapters and 375 undergraduate chapters. The fraternity is 
divided into 12 provinces (regions) throughout the United States, and 
in several countries abroad. My local chapter, the Hyattsville/Landover 
(MD) Alumni Chapter is situated in the Eastern Province. The province 
has 53 Chapters with approximately 1,800 brothers affiliated with 
chapters assigned to it.
  New membership in the fraternity is not limited or restricted to 
undergraduate students only. Unlike many other national college 
fraternities, our alumni chapters are most viable and play a 
significant ``training for leadership'' role to its undergraduate 
brothers. This role is accomplished while these alumni members are 
raising families and achieving in all fields of human endeavor, 
including rendering community services. We also provide scholarships 
and loans to high school students, as well as college students, even to 
those who are not members of Kappa Alpha Psi.
  It is noteworthy, that social outlets available to these alumni 
brothers during the last nearly 100 years made it most feasible and 
propitious to continue bonding together as they worked with the younger 
brothers and others in the community.
  The Eastern Province has been diligent in its recognition of its 
senior brothers and brothers who have been members of the fraternity 
for fifty or more years. Beginning in May 2006, they will initiate an 
annual recognition activity for these brothers, in conjunction with 
national initiatives and special amenities, honoring their length of 
life and service to the fraternity and community-at-large.
  Somewhere in heaven, the chapter invisible, I know our esteemed 
founders are smiling after noting that our senior and fifty year 
brothers are not being placed on the shelf and forgotten.

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