Kappa Alpha Order
Kappa Alpha Order, commonly known as Kappa Alpha, KA, or simply The Order, is an American social fraternity founded in 1865 at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Along with Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Nu, the order constitutes the Lexington Triad, a trio of national fraternities formed in the same era. Kappa Alpha initially spread in the Southern United States but later added chapters elsewhere in the United States.
Because he was president of the college when the fraternity was formed, Robert E. Lee served as an advisor and "spiritual leader" of sorts for the fledgling fraternity. In 1994, KA formalized its connection to Lee by adding him into its mission statement. This connection and the organization's early adoption of a Lost Cause narrative led to activities that are interpreted as controversial or racist in the modern era.
As of December 2015, the Kappa Alpha Order listed 133 active chapters, five provisional chapters, and 52 inactive chapters. Since its establishment in 1865, the order has initiated more than 150,000 members. The fraternity is a founding member of the Fraternity Forward Coalition. Its national headquarters is in the historic Mulberry Hill in Lexington.
History
Kappa Alpha Order was founded as Phi Kappa Chi on December 21, 1865, at Washington College,, in Lexington, Virginia. James Ward Wood, William Archibald Walsh, and brothers William Nelson Scott and Stanhope McClelland Scott are the founders of the fraternity. Scott was selected as its first Number 1 or president.The founders wanted a lodge or fraternity that would maintain and foster Southern gentlemanly conduct. Soon after the fraternity's founding, the Washington College chapter of Phi Kappa Psi protested the name "Phi Kappa Chi", due to its similarity, leading Wood to change the name to KA by April 1866.
The fraternity's ritual, written by Wood, was expanded by a new member Samuel Zenas Ammen within a year. As a master mason, Ammen brought knowledge of fraternal ceremonies to Kappa Alpha, as well as a fondness for the romance of knights and chivalry. The resulting new ritual and constitution turned KA into the Kappa Alpha Order, modeled as a Christian knighthood seeking the highest level of character and personal achievement, including "virtues of chivalry, respect for others, honor, duty, integrity and reverence for God and woman". Ammen also revised the ritual in 1871, 1893, 1904, and 1921. For his efforts, Ammen was given the title of "Practical Founder" by the fraternity.
A second chapter, Beta, was established at the adjacent Virginia Military Institute in 1868. That same year, Gamma was chartered at the University of Georgia. Additional chapters were established at Wofford College, Emory University, and Randolph–Macon College in 1869. Until 1870, the fraternity was governed by the Alpha chapter at Washington College. At that time, Kappa Alpha created a system of governance that included conventions of representatives from each chapter that elect a national executive council.
By 1899, the fraternity initiated 2,954 members, mostly at institutions in the Southern United States. The Cyclopædia of Fraternities noted that the Kappa Alpha had numerous chapters "some of which are not at institutions of the first rank...explain why its membership is, as a whole, of the highest social or scholastic grade". However, this opinion may simply reflect a Northern publication's perspective on Southern colleges at the time.
In the years that followed, the fraternity continued to spread throughout the former Confederacy, adding a few chapters outside that area in California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, and Texas. The fraternity had 65 active chapters, 9 inactive chapters, and 21,954 members by 1930. Because of its status as a national fraternity, KA is part of the Lexington Triad, a trio of national fraternities formed at the same institution in the same era.
Kappa Alpha Order became a member of the North American Interfraternity Conference on November 27, 1909, but withdrew on January 31, 2020. In May 2020, it was one of five founding members of the Fraternity Forward Coalition . FFC maintains that local oversight by universities and colleges is not needed and infringes on the Constitutional right of fraternities to assemble.
The Kappa Alpha Order national administrative office has been located at Mulberry Hill in Lexington, Virginia since 2004. Robert E. Lee spent his first night in Lexington at Mulberry Hill, after arriving to take over as president of Washington College. Mulberry Hill is a Virginia Historic Landmark, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Mulberry Hill also houses the Kappa Alpha Order Educational Foundation.
Symbols
The bulk of Kappa Alpha Order's symbols were selected by Ammen, including its motto, crest, coat of arms, seal, flag, badge, and flowers. The Kappa Alpha Order motto is Dieu et les Dames.The colors of KA are crimson and old gold. The colors represent the blood sacrificed and the money spent in defense of the country. The fraternity's flag consists of three vertical bars, with an eight-pointed cross in the center of the white field. The fraternity's flowers are the crimson rose and the magnolia blossom. The crimson rose represents masculine might and the white magnolia blossom represents purity.
The flowers of the order and a ribbon featuring the order's motto adorn the bottom of the crest. The crest itself is representative of several things; the hand holding the axe represents the continuing power of the Knight Commander and the order. The Helmet was, at one time, a symbol used by the Knight Commander of the Order. The badge is featured at the center of the crest, and the lions on either side represent different things. The lion on the left, looking away, symbolizes "rampant", meaning magnanimous. The lion on the right, looking towards you, symbolizes "regardent", which means cautious or circumspect.
The Kappa Alpha badge is a gold shield with a black shield superimposed on top of it and containing a circle and the Greek letters ΚΑ in gold. This was the second version of the fraternity's badge; the original badge consisted of a shield with the circle, Latin cross, and the Greek letters ΚΑ in black enamel. Neither version of the badge contains any jewels. The recognition pin of the Military Division of the Order features the Maltese cross, utilizing KA's colors crimson and old gold, and has eight points in the cross, which symbolize the chivalric virtues of loyalty, piety, frankness, bravery, glory and honor, contempt of death, helpfulness towards the poor and sick, and respect for the church.
The fraternity's magazine is The Kappa Alpha Journal, first published in December 1879. Its membership manual is The Varlet, a scarlet volume that includes KA's laws, history, and structure. Chapter presidents are referred to as Number 1, the Grand Master, or Knight Commander
Robert E. Lee
The founding members of Kappa Alpha Order enrolled at Washington College in the spring semester of 1866. Robert E. Lee was the president of the college from the summer of 1865 until he died in 1870. James Ward Wood, one of the founders of the order, fought with Lee and the Confederacy in Company F of the 7th Virginia Cavalry. Material published by the organization describes Lee as "a true gentleman, the last gentle knight." At the 1923 Convention, Lee was designated as the "Spiritual Founder" of the order by member John Temple Graves.Lee became the spiritual founder in 1923 and part of the KA Mission Statement in 1994. Before this, the fraternity maintained no formal ties to Lee, but fraternity manuscripts mentioned Southern culture and Lee's influence on the fraternity in many ways. For example, the History and Catalogue of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity describes the organization's founding:
Conceived and matured at a college of which Gen. R. E. Lee was president, at the close of a fateful military conflict; in the Valley of Virginia made dear to Southern hearts by its vigor in battling for Southern rights...plundered and wrecked by the infamous Hunter's invading force; among the people with whom Stonewall Jackson lived till duty called him to arms... with this environment it was but natural that the Order should be of a semi-military type and have for its aim the cultivation and graces conceived to be distinctively Southern.
According to some early twentieth-century KA's, Lee directly helped the fraternity expand its chapters, allowing members to “leave their academic duties... to install chapters in other colleges.” In one member's words, Lee promoted KA's "extension work," while The Kappa Alpha Journal reprinted others who believed Lee helped KA expand. In the 1915 review of The Birth of a Nation in The Kappa Alpha Journal, the reviewer wrote that Lee's personality helped to give the Ku Klux Klan's and Kappa Alpha's shared ideals a "stamp and character which have since connected the name of Kappa Alpha with all that is best of Southern chivalry.”
Kappa Alpha's 1891 history, notes, "Southern in its loves, it Kappa Alpha took Jackson and Lee as its favorite types of the perfect Knight." It is with this context that the organization named Robert E. Lee the spiritual founder in 1923. There are four justifications the fraternity provides for Lee's placement on a pedestal within the organization:
- Lee's coming to Washington College as president: Lee served as an emblem of honor and duty for his students.
- The 1915 Convention in Richmond Virginia: Here, the founding Scott brothers and Colonel Jo Lane Stern, a former aide to Lee in the Civil War, testified to Lee's influence in the genesis of the organization.
- The 1929 convention in Louisville, Kentucky: The general body at this convention changed the convivium date to Lee's birthday, January 19.
- Graves' 1923 Toast: At the 1923 convention in Washington D.C., former knight commander John Temple Graves gave a toast that described and solidified Lee as a spiritual founder from that point into the present day. Graves' toast was firmly rooted in the pro-Confederate and Lost Cause of the Confederacy ideology to which Kappa Alpha of this era subscribed. The toast nearly deified Lee, comparing him to Jesus Christ. The toast said that the KA Creed was born with Lee. On December 29, 1923, Graves pronounced:
The real toast to the real founder has never been written or spoken. Let us speak it here tonight With unbroken regularity and with unfailing reverent tenderness the Kappa Alpha Fraternity yearly celebrated the Nineteenth Day of January. Upon that day was born the noblest character that has lived in mortal flesh since the Babe was born in Bethlehem of old Judea. Upon that day was born Robert Edward Lee of Virginia. Upon that day was really born the Creed and matchless Ritual of the Kappa Alpha Order. For when Lee was born the Creed was born, or the inspiration for the Creed... Robert E. Lee inspired and visualized in actual living the matchless Ritual of our Fraternity, and his name will live in our hearts and in human history forever. Ammen was the practical Founder...Lee was the spiritual Founder...But the spirit of Lee inspired the spirit of Ammen; the life of Lee had fired the heart of Ammen; the fingers of Lee had touched the fingers of Ammen who wrote the Creed. Knights, Gentlemen, Brethren: Lift your glasses here to-night, and in the liquid spotless as his fame let us pledge for all time the Spiritual Founder--the first, last, and incomparable Knight Commander of the Kappa Alpha Order--Robert Edward Lee of Virginia.