Kappa Alpha Psi is, in the fraternity's own words, "the crystallization of a dream." It was founded on the night of January 5, 1911, on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana — a predominantly white institution — by ten African-American college men of vision and conviction.

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Chartered originally as Kappa Alpha Nu on May 15, 1911, the fraternity adopted the name Kappa Alpha Psi by resolution of the December 1914 Grand Chapter, effective April 15, 1915. Its constitution has never contained a clause excluding any man on the basis of color, creed, or national origin.