Archived Newsletters

History of Kappa Sigma

Around the year 1400, students from the University of Bologna joined together for their mutual protection against Baldassarre Cossa, an unscrupulous governor of the city of Bologna. Manuel Chrysoloras was the teacher of these students. There were many, but his full time disciples numbered exactly five. These five sons considered themselves from the same father, or Brothers. These Brothers came together to create Kappa Sigma.

 

Tradition holds that Cossa practiced extortion and robbery against the students, that he levied fees upon foreign students. Chrysoloras and his disciples stood against those forces on the strength of their bonds in Kappa Sigma.

 

Known as “The City of Letters,” among the legion of historic figures associated with Bologna and its university are Gratian, the law-giver and teacher; authors Dante and Petrarch; astronomers Galileo and Copernicus; Pope Gregory XIII, reformer of the calendar; Galvani, discoverer of the conductivity of electricity; and, in more recent times, Marconi, inventor of the wireless telegraph.

 

During the reign of Cossa, the medieval community was protected by a wall that was accessible by twelve gates. The streets leading through the gates into the city were narrow and crooked. Among these are Strada San Donato, Strada Stefano, and Strada Sargoza. Along these streets were towers such as the Torre degli Asinelli and its leaning neighbor, Torre Garisendi.

 

Through the Renaissance, tradition holds that Kappa Sigma existed at the other great universities in Europe. Although today there are student organizations at some European universities, which drive from those at Bologna, by the middle of the 19^th century, the Order was barely alive. It was time for the tradition established by Chrysoloras and his disciples at the dawn of the Renaissance to reach America.

 

                                                    In the mid 1800s, an American traveler in Europe                                                     was told by his noble host, “My colors fade…for                                                       want of wearers,” alluding to the inactivity of                                                            Kappa Sigma. From that charge to never allow                                                         Chrysoloras’s legacy fade, Kappa Sigma came to                                                     North America.

 

                                                    On a cold December evening, December 10, 1869,                                                     five friends enrolled at the University of Virginia                                                     met at 46 East Lawn to draft a constitution and                                                         found the Kappa Sigma Fraternity in          North America. These five friends bound themselves together by an oath and preserved their union with secret work. This RITUAL made them brothers, restoring the luster to the colors long-fading in Europe. The five friends were: William Grigsby McCormick, George Miles Arnold, Edmund Law Rogers, Frank Courtney Nicodemus, and John Covert Boyd.

 

In 1869, none of the Five Friends and Brothers was

 older than nineteen, and the youngest, Nicodemus,

 was under seventeen. The friendship and brotherly

 feeling these five young men had has grown into a

 brotherhood which surely they hoped for, but the

size and strength of it would be beyond their wildest

dreams.

 

After that year, a few more men were initiated.

One of whom was William Cornelius Bowen, was

 determined to keep the Order alive. He explained

quite frankly to his first initiate, Goodwin Williams,

 that he was the sole survivor of the chapter from

the previous year. Williams worked with Bowen

to select additional men, employing methods

that continue to be sound yardsticks for choosing

members.

 

One man that was almost denied membership was Stephen Alonzo Jackson. The “Golden-Hearted Virginian” is the single most influential man on the Fraternity. On an autumn night in 1872, this man was initiated by Grand master Goodwin Williams. From the moment of his initiation, Jackson became a true leader of Kappa Sigma. His efforts perfected the Ritual of Kappa Sigma, created the Supreme Executive Committee, the tradition of the Grand Conclave and Kappa Sigma’s finest hour and bestowed upon every Kappa Sigma the charge to ”not rest contently until the Star and Crescent is the pride of every college and university in the land!”

 

From that point on, Kappa Sigma has grown into the best Fraternity in the land. She is unmatched in historical impact, determination, and performance.