During the early decades of its existence, the original campus of Indiana University did not encourage the assimilation of Blacks. The administration maintained an attitude of indifference as Blacks slowly matriculated and were likewise swiftly forgotten. The percentage of Blacks on campus was less than 1%. Blacks could go weeks without seeing one another on campus. Blacks were not allowed to reside in on-campus dormitories, were not afforded off-campus accommodations, were denied the use of all other university facilities, and were barred from participating in contact sports. Track and Field was the only sport in which Black students could demonstrate their athleticism.
In the school years of 1910-11, a small group of Black students attended Indiana University. Most of them were working their way through school. The number of places where they might assemble was limited. Realizing that they had no part in the university’s social life and were drawn together by common interests, they decided that a Greek letter fraternity would do much to fill the missing link in their college existence.
Two of these men, Elder Watson Diggs and Byron Kenneth Armstrong, previously attended Howard University and came into contact with men belonging to the only national Black Greek letter fraternity currently in existence. Their experiences at Howard gave rise to the chief motivating spirits that sowed the seed for a fraternity at Indiana University and crystallized the idea of establishing an independent Greek letter organization.
Consequently, eight other men met with Diggs and Armstrong for the purpose of organizing such a fraternity. The charter members were Elder Watson Diggs, Byron K. Armstrong, John M. Lee, Henry T. Asher, Marcus P. Blakemore, Guy L. Grant, Paul W. Caine, George W. Edmonds, Ezra D. Alexander, and Edward G. Irvin. The Founders sought one another’s company between classes and dropped by one another’s places of lodging to further discuss the means of formulating the fledgling fraternity in an effort to relieve the depressing isolation. They found that through these close interactions, they had common interests, and a close bond began to emerge. The organization was given the temporary name of Alpha Omega while they further developed the formation of the organization. Diggs presided as president, while Irvin was assigned as interimsecretary of Alpha Omega. Alpha and Omega, the Greek alphabet’s first and last letters, correlate to Christ and the Founder’s relationship and connection to the church.