Lucy Diggs Slowe Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center

Lucy Diggs Slowe quickly became a high-achieving member of the Howard community when she arrived as a student in 1904. She excelled in her classes as well as on the debate team and on tennis and basketball courts. During the summer and autumn months of 1907, she helped to plan and organize the formation of the nation's first collegiate sorority for African American women. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was founded on January 15th, 1908, in the attic of Miner Hall by Slowe and eight other noble women. Slowe became its first president before graduating in the spring air of 1908.

She moved back to Baltimore to accept a teaching position at her alma mater. Although her duties as an educator following her graduation kept her busy, Slowe maintained a strongly supportive relationship with the sorority and her fellow founders, including her old roommate, Anna Easter Brown. "I hope that whenever you come through Washington, you will look me up for, I certainly should like to talk over all times with you," Slowe wrote in a 1937 letter to Brown.