The District’s highest court has revived a lawsuit that charges that improper payments of more than $250,000 were made to the president of the country’s oldest black sorority. Alpha Kappa Alpha was started in 1908 at Howard University. Since then it has expanded nationwide and now has more than 260,000 members. Its governing body, known as the Boule, continues to meet in the District on a biannual basis. At those meetings, the Boule makes policy decisions that are then acted on by its administrative arm, the Directorate.

In 2009, eight members of AKA sued, saying the sorority’s Directorate “violated rules and procedures set forth in AKA’s constitution and bylaws by making several large expenditures without Boule approval.”