On January 15, 1908, a group of young women at Howard University, caught the inspiration of a fellow student. Ethel Hedgeman (Lyle) initiated the movement of Greek-letter sororities among Black women in America. She along with Lillie Burke, Beulah Burke, Margaret Flagg Holmes, Marie Woolfolk Taylor, Lavinia Norman, Anna "Easter" Brown, Lucy Slowe and Marjorie Hill derived Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. They were later joined by a group of sophomore girls (Joanna Berry Shields, Norma Boyd, Ethel Jones, Sarah Meriweather Nutter, Alice Murray, Carrie Snowden and Harriet Terry) who had been impressed by the new sorority.

From this small nucleus, Alpha Kappa Alpha has grown to a membership of more than 170,000 college women in the United States, the Carribean, Europe and Africa. The International Headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois with a modern, fully-equipped office operated by an Executive Director and several staff members.

Through the years, Alpha Kappa Alpha's program has had as its chief aim "service to all mankind". The point of focus has shifted from time to time and will continue to do so as a necessary part of growth and change. However, there has always remained the constant purpose to cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and friendship among college women, to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women in order to improve the social stature of the race, and keep alive within alumnae an interest in college life and progressive movement emanative therefrom.

Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha provide "service to all mankind" through the sorority's programmatic theme: ESP: Extraordinary Service Program. This theme has a five prong platform; the non-traditional entreprenuer, economic keys to success, economic growth of the black family and the undergraduate signature program: economic educational advancement through technology.