[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2153]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             ON THE OCCASION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH 
          ANNIVERSARY OF THE ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA SORORITY, INC.

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. GARY C. PETERS

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 28, 2014

  Mr. PETERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to welcome the 
Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor Chapters of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, 
Inc. to Michigan's Fourteenth Congressional District, as they gather to 
celebrate their One-hundred-and-sixth Anniversary.
  Founded in 1908, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA) was the product 
of a small and dedicated group of African-American college students 
from Howard University who sought to make the college experience as 
meaningful as possible for themselves and the generations of young 
women that followed them. Together, this group of pioneers created our 
nation's first historically African-American sorority and set out upon 
a journey to promote and encourage high scholastic achievement, strong 
ethical standards, improved friendship among college women, as well as 
to identify and develop solutions to issues that prevented young women 
from accessing higher education. With the motto of ``Service to All 
Mankind,'' the sorority quickly took root in campuses and communities 
across the United States.
  In the early years following its inception, the members of AKA 
engaged in endeavors that both assisted with access to and maximizing 
of the higher education experience for women of color. By the time AKA 
celebrated its Twenty-fifth Anniversary in 1933, the sorority had grown 
into a national organization with over 500 members in 104 chapters from 
across the United States. Among AKA's first achievements were the 
creation of a $2000 scholarship to increase the ability of talented 
young women to financially afford college and an engagement with the 
NAACP to remove social barriers that prevented equal access to college 
education.
  As the decades passed, AKA continued to expand both its membership 
and the scope of its community programs. In support of their sorority's 
mission to make higher education more accessible, the members of AKA 
took frontline roles in the Civil Rights movement and the President 
Johnson's War on Poverty. In addition to its Emerging Young Leader 
Initiatives, which provides middle school aged girls with leadership 
development and enhanced academic opportunities, AKA and its members 
began to tackle issues of community health, poverty and environmental 
justice. To support healthier communities, AKA started an asthma 
prevention program to help families identify and treat childhood asthma 
before it impacts the educational experience. In fulfillment of AKA's 
mission, its members undertook the creation of programs to empower 
their communities with information on the impact of environmental 
issues affecting them, setup health care forums targeted to women's 
issues and continue to partner with international leaders like UNESCO 
to end hunger and poverty across the globe.
  Today, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is a thriving global 
organization with over 200,000 members worldwide across hundreds of 
chapters and has affected the future of thousands of young women. AKA's 
members have been part of key social movements that have seen our 
nation and the world move closer to equality on all fronts. I thank the 
members of the Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor Chapters of the Alpha Kappa 
Alpha Sorority, Inc. for their tireless dedication and service to 
Greater Detroit region and congratulate them on celebrating another 
great milestone in their history. I am proud to represent so many 
strong and talented Alpha Kappa Alpha women and I wish them well in 
their future endeavors as they continue making a remarkable impact on 
communities around the world.

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