Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Holds National Convention In Dallas

Jet, August 7, 2000

Some 10,000 members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA) recently assembled at the Dallas Convention Center for the organization's national convention.

The theme for the convention, held every two years, was Blazing New Trails, which provided a forum for discussion of issues of importance to Black women.

Highlights of the week-long event included presentation of the AKA's Septima Poinsette Clark Award to Evelyn Lowery, civil rights activist and founder/national board chair of the SCLC/Women's Organizational Movement for Equality Now, Inc.

Her Excellency Edith G. Ssempala, Uganda's ambassador to the U.S., was recipient of AKA's International Service Award, and the AKA's Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Medallion of Honor was presented to Linda Johnson Rice, president and COO of Johnson Publishing Company.

In addition, AKA's Millennium Trailblazer Awards were presented to Atty. Willie E. Gary, founder of the Florida-based law firm Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finny, Lewis, McManus, Watson and Sperando; William H. Gray III, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund; and Rodney E. Slater, U.S. Transportation Secretary.