The Southeastern Province of Kappa Alpha Psi® Fraternity, Inc. was created by the last Grand Chapter at which the late illustrious J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr., presided. As a result of extensive study, the Grand Board of Directors, meeting in Kansas City, MO, in 1950, recommended that the Southeastern Province, then the most extensive province in Kappadom, comprising, as it did, the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, be partitioned. At the same session of the Grand Chapter in Kansas City, a proposal to partition the Southwestern Province was defeated. After much debate and compromise was made whereby the Southwestern Province remained intact, comprising the states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The new elected Grand Polemarch, Frank M. Summers, proceeded immediately to effect the reorganization of the states, following the directive of the Grand Chapter. Upon the recommendation of Province Polemarch W. Dickerson Donnelly, the Grand Polemarch asked the Keeper of Records and Exchequer of the Southeastern Province, Toussaint L. Hale, to assume the office of Provincial Polemarch of the newly created Southern Province. Hale of the Birmingham Alumni Chapter accepted the appointment and proceeded to formulate a joint meeting of the two provinces to be held in the city of Jacksonville, Florida, October 18-21, 1951, as the guest of the Jacksonville Alumni Chapter.
Kappa Alpha Psi®, a college fraternity, was born in an environment saturated with racism. The state of Indiana became the 19th state of the Union in 1816, and it founded Indiana University in Bloomington four years later. This city was largely populated by settlers from below the Mason-Dixon line and, therefore, found many sympathizers of the Southern cause. Consequently, the few Blacks who took up residence in Bloomington in those early years were socially ostracized and encountered extreme acts of prejudice and discrimination.
