AKA Upsilon Omega

SA-139

On 24 Oct. 1925, Upsilon Omega became Richmond’s first chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the first Greek-letter organization founded by Black women. This graduate chapter, following the sorority’s principles of scholarship, leadership, and service, focused on supporting students in public schools. Inaugural chapter president Dr. Zenobia Gilpin battled racial inequities in health care and organized clinics in Black churches that were emulated elsewhere. Other members included Janet Ballard, international president of AKA, and Dr. Grace Pleasants, the first Black national program director of the Girl Scouts of the USA. The chapter began meeting at Fifth Baptist Church in the 1980s.

Department of Historic Resources, 2025

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Upsilon Omega Chapter Archives Committee, Preserving Upsilon Omega’s Treasured Legacy through Timeless Service, 1925-2013 (Richmond: Northlight Publishing Company, 2014). Evelyn Lightner, ed., The Ivy Leaf (May-November, 1926). Deborah Riley Draper, Twenty Pearls: The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (2022). Upsilon Omega Chapter https://www.akaupsilonomega.org/ “Agents of Change: Female Activism in Virginia from Women’s Suffrage to Today,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 128, no. 2 (2020). Alabama Tribune, 18 June 1948. Earnestine Green McNealy, Priceless Pearls: Dimensions of Sisterhood and Service in Alpha Kappa Alpha (Chicago, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, 2019). Richmond Times Dispatch, 21 Jan., 21 May 1958, 26 Jan. 1967, 8 March 1970, 1 Jan. 1973, 13 June 1985, 22 Feb. 1993, 29 Dec. 1996. Richmond Planet, 30 April, 18 June 1927. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 19 June 1948