AKA Fact

Nellie Quander was an incorporator and the first international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Her family could trace its lineage and sense of purpose for three hundred years in Maryland and Virginia. The Quanders are considered to be one of oldest free African American families whose ancestors had once been enslaved in America.

Quander along with Smith, Norma Boyd, Julia Evangeline Brooks, Nellie Pratt Russell and Ethel Jones Mowbray moved to incorporate Alpha Kappa Alpha on January 29, 1913. After leading the initiative to incorporate the sorority, Quander served as president of Alpha Kappa Alpha. In 1918, at the first Boulé at Howard, she was officially elected president. After having served six years, at the next Boulé in 1919 at Chicago, Illinois, she resigned. During her tenure, she wrote the constitution's preamble and appointed fellow members to implement the sorority's expansion. Later, Quander was the first director of the North Atlantic Region of AKA