The Kappa Alpha Society is the oldest college fraternity in the United States. It was formed at Union College in Schenectady, New York on November 26, 1825 by a group of college students. Kappa Alpha was the first to combine aspects of secret Greek-letter societies, literary societies and formalized student social groups and is thus considered the first modern fraternity. Kappa Alpha is also the oldest secret collegiate society still in existence.

Kappa Alpha is part of a larger secret society movement that arose in the 1820s at a summit in Kinderhook, N.Y. Present at the initial meeting were early members of Kuklos Adelphon, the Order of the Dark Steed, and Illuminati groups. Quibbles over control of New York City's political machines led to a perceived need to found secret societies paralleling Kappa Alpha at Yale and William and Mary later in the 1830s.

This organization is not to be confused with the Kappa Alpha Order, a completely separate (and much larger) fraternity that operates exclusively at schools in Southern and border states.

Famous Members of the Kappa Alpha Society

• William Lyon Mackenzie King, University of Toronto, 1893. Prime Minister of Canada, 1921-1926, 1926-1930, and 1939-1945.

External link

• Kappa Alpha, a history