The Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority was established in 1908 at Howard University, Washington, D.C. The sorority's founder, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, conceived the idea of the sorority as a means of enriching college life by encouraging social and intellectual interaction among students and associates. AKA became recognized as America's first Greek-letter society in the United States established for and by African American college women. It was formally incorporated in 1913 as a perpetual body, and today has its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.

From a single undergraduate chapter, AKA has grown into the 21st century as an international organization with over 175,000 women in more than 900 chapters. The mission of AKA and its affiliates is to encourage and to cultivate high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and friendship among college women, to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women, to maintain a progressive interest in college life, and to be of service to all mankind. Candidacy for membership into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is open to qualifying women who are pursuing or have completed courses leading to a degree from an accredited college or university. Emphasis is upon excellence in scholarship, leadership and service. All chapters are to be involved in their respective communities in the following areas known as the Education, Health, the Black Family, Economics, and the Arts.

The auxiliary, Alpha Theta Omega Chapter of AKA (Raleigh, N.C.) was founded on June 15, 1928 by Ethel L. Clarke, Sarah Cochran, Eloise Cooke, Helen B. Davis, Amanda Jones, Susie Vick Perry, Ella Ryalls, Minnie D. Turner, and Celia Wortham. In 1937, Alpha Theta Omega added to community service projects the sponsorship of a debutante program. Over the years, the program has involved young women from Raleigh, the surrounding area, and sometimes from other states and foreign countries. By the end of the century, the sorority had contributed more than one million dollars in scholarship aid to debutantes matriculating at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

In 1924 Alpha Kappa Alpha had organized the various auxiliary chapters into geographic regions. Alpha Theta Omega, in 1928 joined all other North Carolina chapters and Virginia chapters as co-members of the AKA South Atlantic Region. At the 1953 convention in Newport News, Va., the Mid-Atlantic Region was formed, with North Carolina and Virginia members as its constituents.

At the 13th Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in Raleigh in 1966, Alpha Theta Omega first gave recognition to the local outstanding male in the Raleigh area. Subsequently, in 1969, the Mid-Atlantic Region established a Man of the Year Award for the entire region. Beginning in 1981, this award title was changed to Citizen of the Year for both the Raleigh chapter and the region.

In 1967 the Alpha Theta Omega Chapter purchased property and began the renovation of a building that became its first sorority house. In 1991 the sorority dedicated a new quarter-million-dollar facility located in the heart of Southeast Raleigh African American community. At this sorority house and at other locations, sorority members support motivational programs for students such as the Walnut Terrace Housing Project programs, the AKA’s On Your Side with a series on Parenting Skills, the Black Family, Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Breast Cancer, Teenage Pregnancy, Politics,and Finance.

The national AKA created in 1980 the Educational Advancement Foundation as a not-for-profit organization to provide ongoing support for its major service: education. In 2004 the Raleigh sorority established the Alpha Theta Omega Charitable Foundation, Inc. During the first years of the 21st century, the chapter's contributions to the local community have averaged fifteen thousand dollars yearly, including support of thirty service causes. These include but are not limited to the following: the Educational Advancement Foundation, the YMCA-Back A Child Program, YWCA-Back To Our Roots Program, North Carolina Symphony, Children’s Concert Series, St. Augustine College, Shaw University, NAACP, United Way, Mental Health, Cerebral Palsy, and the Student Emergency Loan Fund. Additionally, the chapter is one of nine demonstration sites selected by the national AKA office, for implementation of an after school/Saturday morning reading initiative for at-risk students in grades 1-3. Known as the Ivy Reading AKAdemy, the program is funded by a federal grant, and typically serves students in a small group or in a one-to-one tutorial program.