CHAPTER NEWS CENTENNIAL
“ THE JOURNEY OF KAPPA ALPHA PSI® IN WASHINGTON, DC, BEGAN ON THE CAMPUS OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY, FOUR YEARS BEFORE DC ALUMNI’S ESTABLISHMENT IN 1920, WITH THE XI CHAPTER’S CHARTERING.”
accurate rendering of the Washing- ton (DC) Alumni Chapter’s original charter which was lost decades earlier. The soirée also featured a display of DC Alumni historical artifacts. The brothers conducted the Oath of Rededication Ceremony following the reception. The journey of Kappa Alpha Psi in Washington, DC, began on the campus of Howard University, four years before DC Alumni’s establish- ment in 1920, with the Xi Chapter’s chartering. Twelve of the 15 Wash- ington (DC) Alumni Chapter charter members included brothers who earned degrees from Howard Uni- versity. A mere two years after DC Alumni’s chartering, they co-hosted the Fraternity’s 16th Grand Chapter Meeting with Xi Chapter and were received by President Calvin Coolidge on the White House lawn. An excerpt from an article written by Grand Polemarch W. Ellis Stewart in the January 1927 Kappa Alpha Psi Journal underswcores DC Alumni’s meteoric rise. “The progress shown in 1926 reveals the fact that what we have done in the past has been sound and that it is only up to the men to continue to plug away along the same line of endeavor to finally carry to successful fruition the many hopes and ambitions revealed in the program of the organization.” On this occasion, then Washington (DC) Alumni Chapter Polemarch (who would later become our 10th Grand Polemarch) James E. Scott reflected on DC Alumni’s development and impact on the Fraternity, “The Kappa Fraternity was hardly known, and
Clockwise: President Coolidge received the 16th Grand Chapter Meeting delegates on the White House lawn, on December 27, 1926 ( Kappa Alpha Psi Journal , January 1927). L to R: Grand Polemarch Earl B. Dickerson, President Calvin Coolidge, Washington (DC) Alumni member Mortimer Harris, Past Grand Polemarch W. Ellis Stewart on White House lawn. Xi Chapter group photo (1937).
from the organization of Xi Chapter in 1920 to date, KA Ψ Fraternity has been looked upon as a Western organiza- tion. Now, KA Ψ Fraternity is known through the East, all along the Eastern
Coast, the Middle West, Central West, and far West, and the pin is a badge of admission to all things social and intellectual.” ♦ Continued on page 48
46 THE JOURNAL ♦ WINTER 2024-2025
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