Stephen Alonzo Jackson is regarded as possibly the most
important man in Kappa Sigma's history. Through his efforts a
struggling local fraternity became a strong national organization. He
was the architect of our Ritual, writer of our Constitution, and was
our first Worthy Grand Master. The following is an excerpt from the
Bononia Docet, our pledge manual:
Stephen Alonzo Jackson was born September 22, 1851. He was left
motherless in his infancy and was raised by his grandmother. A close
associate and brother, Francis Nelson Barksdale, recalled him with
these words:
"Gentle as a woman, firm as a rock - a perfect bundle of
nervous energy. His love of the Fraternity knew no bounds, and his
enthusiasm was so contagious that it influenced everybody who came
within his reach. His one ambition was to make Kappa Sigma the leading
college fraternity of the world, and to that end he thought and worked
by day and night, until the end of his busy life."
During the Fraternity's second Grand Conclave in 1878 in Richmond,
Virginia. Jackson was re-elected as Worthy Grand Master. In his speech,
he expressed his ideal and goal of an enduring and expanding
brotherhood as he addressed the Order:
"Why not, my Brothers, since we of today live and cherish
the principles of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, throw such a halo around
those principles that they may be handed down as a precious heirloom
to ages yet unborn? Why not put our apples of gold in pictures of
silver? May we not rest contentedly until the Star and Crescent is the
pride of every college and unviersity in the land!"
Jackson died on March 4, 1892. His legacy to the Fraternity
included its Ritual, a revised Constitution, a precendent-setting Grand
Conclave, the first southern Fraternity to extend a chapter to the
north, and above all else, a spirit for expansion.
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