LOOK BACK KAPPA HISTORY
“... EARLY GRAND CHAPTER MEETINGS WERE HELD ON COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES, VERY SIMILAR TO TODAY, AS NUMEROUS PROVINCES HOST C. RODGER WILSON LEADERSHIP CONFERENCES.”
9th Grand Chapter Meeting, April 1920, held at the University of Illinois, Champaign, IL.
Grand Chapter Meeting at West Vir- ginia State College, Institute, WV, was its small attendance. Approximately one hundred members stood for the group photo, contrasting with four hundred at Indianapolis in 1928. The Depression was undoubtedly a factor in the small showing. The “out-of- the-way” location of the school may have been another. The Tau Chapter served as the host for this Conclave. The Vocational Building, now called Campbell Hall, on the West Virginia State College campus, was the venue for the business sessions for this Grand Chapter Meeting. Dr. John W. Davis, President of West Virginia State College, welcomed delegates to campus and delivered the principal address at the start of the Conclave in the college auditorium.
Although not a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, University President John W. Davis of West Virginia State College has been one of the most active participants in planning for the enter- tainment of the 22nd Annual Grand Chapter ... It was with his urgent invita- tion coupled with that of the brothers at the West Virginia State College that the fraternity set a precedent by meet- ing for the first time in two decades on a college campus [December 1932 Kappa Alpha Psi Journal pg. 13]. 26th Grand Chapter Meeting Howard University, Washington, DC December 27-30, 1936 Howard University welcomed del- egates to the 26th Grand Chapter Meeting with a brightly lit electric
sign, “Welcome Kappa Alpha Psi” emblazoned across the campus. The President of the United States, Frank- lin D. Roosevelt, initiated the tone of the 26th Grand Chapter in Washing- ton, D.C., December 27-30, 1936, with a telegram that read: “Please extend to the members of the Grand Conclave my hearty felicitation and warmest personal greetings. I trust that the meeting will be of great constructive benefit.” Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson, President of Howard University, sounded a simi- lar note in an address to the delegation when he warned against a convention restricted to “eating, drinking, and making merry.” He urged the member- ship to continue “the strenuous efforts you have made to do vigorous things characteristic of intelligent men.”
SUMMER 2024 ♦ THE JOURNAL 37
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