2024 -- H 7807

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LC004724

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2024

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

RECOGNIZING THE THETA PSI OMEGA CHAPTER OF ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA

     SORORITY, INCORPORATED, FOR THEIR SERVICE, SISTERHOOD, AND

SCHOLARSHIP NATIONALLY AND IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

     Introduced By: Representatives Henries, Shekarchi, Blazejewski, Chippendale,
Speakman, Kennedy, McGaw, Bennett, Cortvriend, and McNamara

     Date Introduced: February 29, 2024

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, Theta Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was established

internationally in 1908, and in Rhode Island in 1969, and is the oldest Black Sorority in the

Nation; and

     WHEREAS, Founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., the

Alpha Kappa Alpha Society was established as Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and became the first

Greek-letter organization founded by African-American college women; and

     WHEREAS, Through the years, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, has grown

from the sixteen original trailblazing women to an international sisterhood with more than

355,000 members consisting of chapters dispersed throughout the United States, Africa, Asia and

Europe; and

     WHEREAS, On October 19, 1969, in the City of Providence, sixteen tenacious women

chartered the Theta Psi Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, guided

by the principles of high scholastic and ethical standards, unity, sisterhood and service to all

mankind; and

     WHEREAS, To this day, Alpha Kappa Alpha continues to carry out the vision of its

Founders with more than 50 years of dedicated service to the State of Rhode Island; and

     WHEREAS, Contributing and notable members of Alpha Kappa Alpha include Vice

President Kamala Harris and in the Rhode Island Chapter, Beverly Ledbetter, retired Vice

President of Brown University; Attorney Susan Pires, and Ann Clanton, founder of the Rhode

Island Black Film Festival and a founding member of the Southern New England Association of

Black Journalists; and

     WHEREAS, The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Theta Psi Omega Chapter have

been cultivating and encouraging “high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and

friendship among college students” in order to be of “Service to All Mankind” for 116 years, and

they are eminently deserving of our recognition and gratitude; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

recognizes and thanks the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the Theta Psi Omega Chapter of the

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated for their service, sisterhood, and scholarship

nationally and in the State of Rhode Island; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Roxann Johnson-Nance, President of the Theta

Psi Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Society.

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LC004724

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