Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Founder of AKA
AlPha Kappa Alpha .
Throughout the fall of 1907, Hedgeman was instrumental in founding Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, America's first Greek-letter organization established by Black college women. Hedgeman was inspired by the accounts of Tremaine Robinson, a faculty member at Howard who shared her sorority experiences at Brown University.
Hedgeman was also aided in her efforts by her friend George Lyle, whom she had dated since high school. He was a charter member the Beta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Howard in 1907.
To establish a sorority, Hedgeman began recruiting interested classmates during the summer of 1907.
Together, the nine classmates founded Alpha Kappa Alpha on January 15, 1908
Hedgeman served as vice-president of the sorority, since she was a junior, and designed the insignia for the sorority. Starting in the 1920s, as national treasurer of Alpha Kappa Alpha for more than 20 years, Lyle (by then married) continued to guide the sorority and its growth.
In addition to her work as an educator, Lyle was active in public life. She helped found civic institutions such as the West Philadelphia League of Women Voters and the Mother's Club of the city.
In addition Lyle was a member of the Republican Women's Committee of Ward 40 and active in her church.
As national treasurer of Alpha Kappa Alpha from 1923 to 1946, Lyle helped lead the sorority through years of rapid social change, including the Great Migration of more than a million African Americans from the South to the North, the Depression and challenges of World War II.
In Philadelphia, in 1926 she chartered and was the first president of Omega Omega, the first alumnae chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha in Philadelphia. (Eighty years old and with 400 members in the 21st century, the Omega Omega chapter continues to provide services to women and children in the city.
