HR0975 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0975 LRB103 43645 LAW 76992 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated on the occasion of its 114th anniversary on January 5, 2025; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi was founded by 10 religious, serious-minded men on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana on January 5, 1911; later that year, it became the first incorporated Black Greek letter organization in the United States, once granted a charter by the Indiana Secretary of State on May 15, 1911; today, the organization is the second oldest existing collegiate historically Black Greek letter fraternity; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi's founders, Elder Watson "The Dreamer" Diggs, Byron Kenneth Armstrong, John Milton Lee, Henry Tourner Asher, Marcus Peter Blakemore, Guy Levis Grant, Paul Waymond Caine, George Wesley Edmonds, Ezra Dee Alexander, and Edward Giles Irvin, sought one another's company between classes and visited one another's places of lodging to further discuss the means of formulating the fledgling fraternity in an effort to relieve the depressing isolation they were experiencing at Indiana University, which, at the time, did not encourage the assimilation of African Americans into the student body; and

WHEREAS, Prior to Kappa Alpha Psi's inception, the percentage of African Americans at Indiana University was less than 1%, and these students could go weeks without seeing one another on campus; African American students were also not allowed to reside in on-campus dormitories, not afforded off-campus accommodations, denied the use of all other university facilities, and barred from participating in contact sports; and

WHEREAS, Realizing that they had no part in Indiana University's social life and being drawn together by common interests, Kappa Alpha Psi's founders decided that a Greek letter fraternity would do much to fill a void in their college existence; and

WHEREAS, While Kappa Alpha Psi's founders further developed the formation of the fraternity, the organization was given the temporary name of Alpha Omega, taken from the Greek alphabet's first and last letters and in correlation with the founders' Christian faith and their relationship and connection to the church; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi officially became known as Kappa Alpha Nu in 1911, possibly as a tribute to the Black students of Alpha Kappa Nu Fraternity of 1903, which preceded the founders' own at Indiana University; the fraternity's founders decided their group would be more than any other social organization and the only Greek letter organization founded with the concept of achievement; the fraternity began uniting college men of culture, patriotism, and honor in a bond of brotherhood, and its name was officially changed to Kappa Alpha Psi on April 15, 1915; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi has five objectives, which are to unite college men of culture, patriotism, and honor in a bond of fraternity, to encourage honorable achievement in every field of human endeavor, to promote the spiritual, social, intellectual, and moral welfare of its members, to assist the aims of colleges and universities, and to inspire service in the public interest; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi's members strive to fulfill its motto, "Achievement in Every Field of Human Endeavor", while providing pathways to success for youth through several national programs, including "Guide Right", a program that prepares and mentors high school students for college through graduation, "Kappa League", a program that serves male students from grades sixth through twelfth with educational, occupational, and social guidance, "Achievement Academy", a program that enhances the social, professional, and leadership experiences of the fraternity's collegiate members, "Room to Read", a program in which selected fraternity chapters partner with an under-resourced primary school in their area and each participating chapter will read aloud, conduct reading activities, and donate books to that school, "Learn 2 Live", a collaborative national social justice initiative which provides immediate grassroots training that will equip current and future generations of young persons of color with information, education, and instruction on law enforcement and community policing, an individual's legal rights, and a set of law enforcement rules of engagement, "Lead Kappa", a highly-structured and intense leadership experience designed to train participants with capacity-building skills in the fraternity, on college/university campus, in the community, and in corporate America, "G.L.A.D.", or Greeks Learning to Avoid Debt, a financial literacy program, and "Are You Ok?", a program designed to prioritize mental health in the African American community; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi has over 250,000 members, 700 undergraduate and alumni chapters in nearly every state of the United States, including 14 undergraduate chapters and 21 alumni chapters in the State of Illinois, and 13 international chapters in Nigeria, South Africa, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Panama, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Abu Dhabi, Canada, and Japan; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi proudly boasts of members who epitomize the essence of its motto, "Achievement in Every Field of Human Endeavor", including Wilt Chamberlain, Arthur Ashe, Johnnie Cochran, John Singleton, Alcee Hastings, Bill Russell, Montell Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Cedric the Entertainer, Marvin Sapp, Colin Kaepernick, Marc Lamont Hill, Bernard Harris, Kenny Lofton, Penny Hardaway, and many others; and

WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi's membership includes federal, state, and local elected officials, including U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, Governor Albert Bryan of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Mayor Andre Dickens of Atlanta, Georgia, Illinois State Senator Christopher Belt, Illinois State Representative William Davis, and Illinois State Representative Jawaharial Williams; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated on celebrating its 114th anniversary, and we wish the organization and its members continued success.