International History

Kappa Sigma is based on over 600 years of tradition and history. Our international founding is based in Bologna, Italy. At the University of Bologna, a teacher began to form a strong bond with some of his full-time students. This man was Manuel Chrysoloras. He had exactly five of these students. After a while of learning together, they formed a close bond. One of the “disciples” of Chrysoloras has written, “Community with this most illustrious Chrysoloras, a man distinguished by old virtues and discipline, created among us a sort of bond … we accepted as one accepts being born from the parents into a family.”

 

At this time, Baldassarre Cossa, the governor of Bologna, was attacking and robbing from the people of his city. This persecution of the people greatly angered Chrysoloras. In 1400, at the University of Bologna, Manuel Chrysoloras and his disciples formed a society for mutual protection. To protect themselves, they developed special signs, words and forms - a ritual. Their work inspired the Ritual and the modern-day fraternity of Kappa Sigma.

 

National History

 

Kappa Sigma had its American founding more than 125 years ago. On December 10, 1869, William Grigsby McCormick and four friends (Frank Courtney Nicodemus, Edmund Law Rodgers, John Covert Boyd, and George Miles Arnold) occupied his room at 46 East Lawn at the University of Virginia to create Kappa Sigma. These five friends bound themselves together my taking an oath and they preserved their union with secret work. It was this Ritual that brought them together as Brothers.

 

In 1872, a man named Stephen Alonzo Jackson came to UVA. After much debate, it was decided to let him join the fraternity. Jackson led this fraternity on its way to becoming the great Brotherhood we are now. He helped to establish the first satellite chapter at Trinity College, which is now Duke University. From there on, Kappa Sigma has expanded to 198 chapters and 8 colonies internationally. Today, we strive to rise to the challenge that Stephen Alonzo Jackson put forth in his “Apples of Gold” speech to the 1878 Grand Conclave: “May we not rest contentedly until the Star and Crescent is the pride of every college and university in the land!”

 

Chapter History

 

 

The Beta-Eta chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity was formed on the 20^th of January 1900. The chapter was formed by a group of ten students who were led by Malcolm Alfred Beeson. At the time of its establishment Kappa Sigma became the 7^th fraternity at Auburn University. The first meeting place of the chapter was a room above Toomer’s Drug Store which was shared with several other fraternities. In 1905, Kappa Sigma became the first fraternity to have a house. The house was a two story home that was located at the corner of Gay Street and Magnolia Avenue, the present location of the Auburn National Bank. In establishing the new chapter at Auburn Stephen Alonzo Jackson’s challenge: “May we not rest contentedly until the Star and Crescent is the pride of every college and university in the land!” was beginning to become a reality.