Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. members honored one of its six incorporators, Nellie Pratt Russell, with a historical marker located near the Brunswick County Museum Historical Society in Lawrenceville.

Several dignitaries from Virginia and North Carolina were in attendance. A ceremony and reception, held at Southside Virginia Community College in Alberta, included a speech by the Honorable Carla Archie, Superior Court Judge from District 26 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Russell graduated from Howard University in Washington, D. C. She later taught at Saint Paul’s College in Lawrenceville. While a student at Howard, she became a member and incorporator of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

The incorporation of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which occurred on Jan. 29, 1913, ensured the perpetuation of the sorority, which the power to organize, institute and charter subordinate chapters whose particular purposes and objectives would be to promote an intellectual standard and mutual uplift of its members.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is an international service organization founded at Howard University in 1908 whose motto is “Service to all Mankind.”