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Ethel Hedgeman Lyle (born Ethel Hedgeman, February 10, 1887 - November 28, 1950) was a founder of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA) at Howard University in 1908. It was the first sorority founded by African-American college women. Lyle is often referred to as the "Guiding Light" for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Lyle had a forty-year career as an educator and was active in public life. She was national treasurer of the sorority for more than twenty years, and founder and first president of Omega Omega, its first alumnae chapter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lyle also founded the West Philadelphia chapter of the League of Women Voters and the Mothers Club in the city. In 2000, the Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Academy, a charter school in St. Louis, Missouri, was founded in her honor. All these activities helped create social capital in the city in a time of rapid growth and population changes. Lyle demonstrated in her committed life how African-American sororities supported women "to create spheres of influence, authority and power within institutions that traditionally have allowed African Americans and women little formal authority and real power."〔Tamara L. Brown, Gregory Parks, Clarenda M. Phillips, ''African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision''. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005. p. 342.〕 ==Early life== Ethel Hedgeman was born in 1887 in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout her elementary and high school career, Hedgeman attended public schools in St. Louis. In 1904, Hedgeman graduated from Sumner High School with honors. She gained a scholarship to Howard University, considered the top among historically black colleges. Hedgeman demonstrated her ambition and abilities by the scholarship to Howard at a time when only one in three hundred African Americans and 5% of whites of eligible age attended any college.〔James D. Anderson, ''The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1988, p. 245.〕 In 1904, Hedgeman entered Howard University. However, due to illness in her sophomore year, Hedgeman had to take a break from her studies. Throughout college, she belonged to Howard's choir, YWCA, and the Christian Endeavor, as well as participating in drama plays. She was described as lively and charming, despite her delicate health.〔("A Visionary Woman": Ethel Hedgeman Lyle ) Accessed November 18, 2007. 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ethel Hedgeman Lyle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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