About the Fraternity
Kappa Alpha Psi® Fraternity was founded in a deeply racist environment. Indiana, admitted to the Union in 1816, established Indiana University in Bloomington soon after. The town, influenced by Southern sympathies, was hostile to its small Black population. Racial discrimination was widespread, with Indiana becoming a stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan. Black residents faced violence, social exclusion, and severe obstacles to education.
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Though Indiana University offered a high-quality, tuition-free education, few Black students could stay long due to financial and social pressures. The university was largely indifferent to their presence. Black students made up less than 1% of the campus population, were barred from dorms and most facilities, and excluded from contact sports—Track and Field being the only exception.
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In 1910–11, a small group of Black students, isolated and working their way through school, recognized the need for unity and support. In response, they established a Greek-letter fraternity to create community and improve their college experience.
Achievement in every field of human endeavor.
In the beginning
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Two of these men, 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 that sowed the seed for a fraternity at Indiana University and crystallized the idea of establishing an independent Greek letter organization.
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Consequently, eight other men met with Diggs and Armstrong for the purpose of organizing such a fraternity. The founding members were Elder Watson Diggs, Dr. Ezra D. Alexander, Dr. Byron K. Armstrong, Attorney Henry T. Asher, Dr. Marcus P. Blakemore, Paul Waymond Caine, George W. Edmonds, Dr. Guy L. Grant, Edward G. Irvin, Dr. John M. Lee.
