The Mu Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. will honor two of its own in a special ceremony Saturday at Traveler’s Rest M.B. Church on Bowmar Street that includes unveiling a marker commemorating the two women who served as national presidents of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, a national service organization for black women.

The 11 a.m. program honors the lives of B. Beatrix Scott and Ida L. Jackson, who served as Alpha Kappa Alpha national presidents from 1925-1927 and 1933-1936, respectively. They are the only two women from Mississippi to serve as national president of Alpha Kappa Alpha in the organization’s 107-year history.

“To be president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is an extreme honor,” said Zelmarine Murphy, the project’s chairman. “These two ladies, Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Jackson, were born and reared in Vicksburg, Miss. Mrs. Jackson grew up on Bowmar Avenue, and both of their families were well-known families in the community.”

“These ladies were born in the late 1800s at the turn of the (19th) century, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha at a time when it was not proper for any black woman to do anything important,” Murphy said. “These black women were college-educated and made an impact in society.”

She said Scott graduated from Tougaloo College, while Jackson graduated from Rust College in Holly Springs. She said the president of Tougaloo and a representative from Rust will attend the ceremony.

Murphy said Scott was instrumental in introducing a nationwide vocational education program to the sorority so women who did not have college educations to find successful employment.

“She started with getting women to choose a vocation,” she said.

Jackson was instrumental in bringing the sorority’s health initiative to the Delta.

“In the Delta, out on the plantations, Afro-Americans and some whites, like overseers, could not afford or they (the owners) did not let them have health care,” she said, adding doctors and nurses affiliated with AKA from across the country would come to Mississippi in June, July and August to provide health services.

“That was a novelty in the Delta to see folks who looked like me being able to do this,” she said. “It is one of our signature programs nationwide, our health initiative.”

According to information from the Mu Xi Omega, the marker has been approved by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Board of Trustees and will be added to the state registry of markers honoring other notable state residents.

Besides members from the local chapter, Dorothy Buchanan Wilson, international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and Mary Conner, southeastern regional director of Alpha Kappa Alpha, and national, state and local leaders will attend the ceremony and the unveiling of the marker.

Murphy said invitations have been sent to local businesses and officials, adding Gov. Phil Bryant is sending a proclamation, state Sen. Briggs Hopson III is sending a proclamation from the Legislature, and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Bolton, is also sending a letter.

“We’re going to be having people from Wisconsin, Chicago, Alabama, Tennessee,” she said.

“We have been working on this for 18 months,” Murphy said, adding chapter president Anitra Nichols and project co-chair Gayla Carpenter-Sanders were instrumental in the planning.

She said the program will also help dispel some of the myths about Mississippi and showcase Vicksburg, but more importantly “we want to make people aware of the contributions these African-American women made.”