Dorothy Smith was a college freshman in Little Rock, Ark., when the historic drama of school desegregation there sealed her resolve to become part of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation's oldest black sorority.
That was more than a half century ago, in 1957.
Federal troops escorted nine black youngsters, who would become known as the “Little Rock Nine,” into the city's main all-white high school to begin enforcing a federal court order desegregating all the nation's schools.
And few whites were happy with the decision.
“I was at Philander Smith College (in Little Rock) when (the Army's elite 101st Airborne Division) got those nine young kids to Central High,” Dorothy, a 68-year-old retired college English professor, recalls – almost as if it all happened yesterday. “Gov. (Orval) Faubus was standing at the front doors of the school, vowing not to let the (black) kids in, and crowds of angry whites were (yelling and screaming) in the streets. There were threats of lynchings.
EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune
Gladys A. Williams (center) is highly respected among her sorority sisters, including Salimisha Logan (left), Lisa Williams (right) and Lan Jefferson (rear).
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“It was a very tense time in Little Rock, and blacks had to look out for where they went and what they did.”
But amid all that, she says, the 10 women of the AKA chapter at her school seemed to draw great strength and support just from being around each other. And they used that to help buoy and guide her and other younger blacks on campus.
Years later, lessons from the experience often guided soft-spoken, tough-minded Dorothy through heated confrontations she faced while a trustee and president of the San Diego city school board through most of the 1980s.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which was founded on Jan. 15, 1908, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
With more than 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapters worldwide today, it is internationally known for community service and strong ties among its sisterhood.
EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune
As Epsilon Xi Omega's historian, Lisa Williams (left) always has something of interest to pass on to sorority sisters, such as Lan Jefferson (center) and Dorothy Smith.
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AKA chapters touch others through a range of programs related to family, health, education and business.
Dorothy and a few of her sisters in the local graduate chapter – Epsilon Xi Omega – have gathered at her cozy home in Oak Park to talk about carrying forth their sorority's colors – pink and green.
Lan Jefferson, 38, who is working on a doctorate at UCSD and was initiated into the sorority at the University of Missouri in 1990, is first to arrive.
Lisa Williams, 30, Salimisha Logan, 52, Ashley Clark, 26, and Gladys A. Williams, 78 (no relation to Lisa), will all come in later.
Lan is a Vietnamese orphan who was adopted at age 4 and raised in St. Louis. Almost immediately, on first contact with AKA, she saw the sorority as an ideal vehicle through which to serve others.
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ABOUT AKA
 Nine women founded the sorority at Howard University in 1908.
The sorority's national headquarters is in Chicago.
The organization financially supports historically black colleges and universities through its Advocates for Black Colleges program.
AKA has had numerous honorary members through the years, including former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams.
– OZZIE ROBERTS
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She learns a lot, she says, from Dorothy and other sisters who have come before her.
Lan slides into an easy chair and smoothly picks up on Dorothy's focus.
“When I was in high school or junior high school, I saw some (AKA) women (doing things for the needy) at a community event,” Lan says. “I was impressed with their dedication. And now it gives me a sense of empowerment and pride to be a part of such a strong and well-established organization that does so much good for others.
“One hundred years – most businesses, most organizations can't say that they've lasted 100 years.”
Now Dorothy returns to her Little Rock days.
“Those sisters (in AKA) were a big presence on the Philander Smith campus for us freshmen,” she says. “Daily, they kept us informed in dormitory meetings about what was going on around us. They helped us to understand the situation at Central High and around the country.”
“They even volunteered to escort us any time we wanted to go somewhere off campus,” Dorothy adds, “and that always made us feel secure and protected.”
She became initiated the following year – 1958.
Now Gladys Williams moves through the front doorway with the aid of a walker.
She grew up in Oil City, Pa., and became one of the 13 sisters who founded Epsilon Xi Omega at San Diego State College 59 years ago. The graduate chapter also provides guidance and other support for its nine-member undergraduate sister chapter, Mu Iota.
Gladys is one of the longest serving of Epsilon Xi Omega's 175 members, and she's long been a mentor and guide for Dorothy.
Gladys remembers how the sorority would rally around Dorothy in her runs for the school board between 1981 and '88.
She also recalls seeing her sister stand up, with the strength she'd clearly drawn from her Little Rock experience, for sometimes unpopular ideas that she believed would lead to equal education for all kids.
“I've always believed in education and helping others,” Gladys says, smiling from a seat near the center of the room. “I've always liked this sorority's focus – I love the sisterhood, the camaraderie.”
Now Lisa Williams, the chapter historian and business organizer, notes that one of the chapter's most recognized projects is its annual debutante ball and leadership program. Since 1955, “sisters have helped prepare (hundreds of) young ladies (between 16 and 18 years old) to cope with many of the responsibilities of adulthood.”
The ball begins this year at 6 p.m. Saturday at Town and Country Resort & Convention Center in Mission Valley, she says, just before Salimisha adds the perspective of a newer member. She was brought in on Feb. 1, 2004.
And even though her late mother, Hope Logan, a well-known local community activist, was a member of AKA, and Salimisha has aunts in the organization, she had steered clear of sororities and fraternities.
“I was of a more radical persuasion, and I thought then that sororities were bourgeois,” she says. “But a few years ago, as I got more and more exposure to (AKA), I started doing more research on” the sorority.
“I learned what the sisters have done in situations like Little Rock. And then seeing all the (genuine) camaraderie and fellowship made me recognize that this organization” stands for something.
