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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING THE 114th YEAR FOUNDERS DAY OF KAPPA ALPHA PSI FRATERNITY, INC
WHEREAS, On January 5, 1911, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., originally known as Kappa Alpha Nu, was founded with the vision to connect men of culture, patriotism, honor, and leadership through a bond of fraternity; and,
WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. is the second oldest historically Black Greek letter fraternity and the first intercollegiate fraternity incorporated as a national body; and,
WHEREAS, the fraternity is the first Greek letter organization to establish its first chapter on Indiana University’s campus; and,
WHEREAS, the fraternity has grown to a population of over 250,000 members with 700 undergraduate and alumni chapters nationwide and thirteen international chapters in Nigeria, South Africa, Bermuda, Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Panama, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Abu Dhabi, Canada, and Japan; and,
WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. invokes outreach that affects local communities and places by feeding the homeless, providing scholarships to college students, mentoring boys and young men, participating in blood drives, and serving as hosts of seminars for public health awareness; and,
WHEREAS, Kappa Alpha Psi’s members have proudly served in the military since WWI while raising funds to assist those in need following natural disasters worldwide, including hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, and earthquakes; and,
WHEREAS, of its ever-growing membership, some of the few notable members include Dr. Elbert Frank Cox, first African American to earn a Ph.D. in pure mathematics, Dr. John Silvanus Wilson, eleventh president of Morehouse College and former executive director of the White House’s Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tavis Smiley, talk show host and political commentator, Jim Vance, author and news anchor for the NBC affiliate WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., Roger Wilkins, journalist, professor, and civil rights leader; Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, and locally Kwame Raoul, Attorney General for Illinois, and Jesse White, former Secretary of State of Illinois; and,
WHEREAS, the men of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. embody their public motto, “Achievement in Every Field of Human Endeavor” and the vison of founders Ezra D. Alexander, Byron Kenneth Armstrong, Henry Tourner Ashe, Marcus Peter Blakemore, Paul Waymond Caine, Elder Watson Diggs, George Wesley Edmonds, Guy Levis Grant, Edward Giles Irvin, John Milton Lee; and,
WHEREAS, Cook County is home to the Chicago Alumni, Maywood-Wheaton Chapters, and newly chartered Oak Park-River Forest Alumni Chapter with Eric Bitoy as a charter member, that will serve the 1st district with an emphasis on the Westside; and,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Cook County Board of Commissioners, on behalf of the residents of Cook County, offers congratulations to Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. on its 114th Founders Day and celebrate its legacy of public service; and,
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be tendered to the local alumni chapters, as a token of the esteem in which she is held by the President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and the Cook County Board of Commissioners.
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