Fraternity History

Achievement in Every Field of Human Endeavor!

Kappa Alpha Psi®, a college fraternity, was born in an environment saturated with racism. The state of Indiana became the 19th state of the Union in 1816, and it founded Indiana University in Bloomington four years later. This city was largely populated by settlers from below the Mason-Dixon line and, therefore, found many sympathizers of the Southern cause. Consequently,

the few Blacks who took up residence in

Bloomington in those early years were socially

ostracized and encountered extreme acts of

prejudice and discrimination. The state of Indiana

became a stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan. Their

intolerance toward Blacks fueled the negative mindset of other Whites residing there. Vigilante lynchings of Blacks were commonplace. This environment made day-to-day life for Blacks an arduous task and attempts to achieve in school nearly impossible. Despite the growing hostility of Whites toward Blacks in Indiana, some Black students sought a college education at Indiana University, as it was a tuition-free university of the highest quality. However, few Blacks could remain longer than a year or so without having to withdraw in search of employment.

The campus of Indiana University at that time did not encourage the assimilation of Blacks. The administration maintained an attitude of indifference as Blacks slowly matriculated and were likewise swiftly forgotten. The percentage of Blacks on campus was less than 1%. Blacks could go weeks without seeing one another on campus. Blacks were not allowed to reside in on-campus dormitories, were not afforded off-campus accommodations, were denied the use of all other university facilities, and were barred from participating in contact sports. Track and Field was the only sport in which Black students could demonstrate their athleticism.

In the school years of 1910-11, a small group of Black students attended Indiana University. Most of them were working their way through school. The number of places where they might assemble was limited. Realizing that they had no part in the university’s social life and were drawn together by common interests, they decided that a Greek letter fraternity would do much to fill the missing link in their college existence.

The symbolic change of KAN to KAΨ

The Greek Letter Ψ was chosen in place of N and the Fraternity acquired a distinctive Greek letter symbol and Kappa Alpha Psi® ®thereby became an indistinguishable Greek-letter Fraternity.

About Our Founders

The Founders were God-fearing, and serious minded young men who possessed the imagination, ambition, courage and determination to defy custom in pursuit of a college education and careers. The ideals of the church were an important foundation of the Fraternity. One of the 5 Objectives of the Fraternity is: “To promote the spiritual, social, intellectual and moral welfare of members.” Many aspects of the Fraternity’s rites are engrained in Christianity ideals and contain excerpts from the Bible.

Elder Watson Diggs and Byron Kenneth Armstrong, had previously attended Howard University and had come into contact with men belonging to the only national Black Greek-Letter Fraternity currently in existence. Their experiences at Howard gave rise to the chief motivating spirits which sowed of the seed for a fraternity at Indiana University and crystallized the idea of establishing an independent Greek-letter organization.