LaConnie Taylor-Jones

FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT

Edith Motte Young - an accomplished pianist from North Carolina, Ms. Young was the first Recording Secretary of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Alpha Chapter. Upon graduation from Howard University, she moved to Youngstown, Ohio. Later, Mrs. Young taught at Claflin College in Orangeburg, South Carolina and went on to receive her M.A. Degree in Biblical Literature from Oberlin College in Ohio.

Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy
Dr. Betty Shabazz’s Delta Academy (“Catching the Dreams of Tomorrow, Preparing Young Women for the 21st Century”) is designed for girls ages 11 to 14, who have an interest in developing leadership skills. The program is named in honor of sorority member, the late Dr. Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X.

Participants of this program demonstrate potential for success, but may not have support systems or access to financial resources. The program exposes girls to math, science, technology, and non-traditional careers. The Delta Academy sessions may also include service learning activities, field trips and book clubs. The Delta Academy’s symbol is the dream catcher, which is a Native American culture and symbolizes the power to capture bad dreams and entangle them into a web. Thus, the good dreams pass through the dream hoop’s center into the person.

Born Betty Dean Sanders (May 28, 1936 – June 23, 1997), in Detroit, Michigan, Soror Shabazz was an adopted child and grew up in a fairly sheltered, middle-class household. Her early social life consisted of the local Methodist church with her parents on Sundays, parties on some Saturday nights with church friends, and movies on Fridays. After graduating from high school, she attended Tuskegee Institute and encountered her first racial hostilities, which she didn’t understand, and her parents refused to acknowledge. “They thought [the problems] were my fault,” Soror Shabazz later wrote in an autobiographical portrait printed in Essence magazine. After two years in Alabama, she moved to New York City to attend nursing school at Brooklyn State Hospital.

After the death of her husband, Malcolm X, Soror Shabazz raised and educated her daughters, but still managed to further her education. Between 1970 and 1975, she completed a master’s degree in public health administration and received a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 1976, she joined the faculty of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn as associate professor of health administration. Shortly thereafter, she became director of the school’s Department of Communications and Public Relations.

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Sisterhood is the essence of all the wisdom of the ages,
Distilled into a single word.
You cannot see sisterhood,
Neither can you hear it nor taste it
But you can feel it a hundred times a day.

It is a pat on the back,
A smile of encouragement,
It’s someone to share with,
To celebrate your achievements.

What is a sister?
She is your mirror shining back at you with a world of possibilities
She is your witness who sees you at your worst and best
And love you anyway.
She is your midnight companion,
Someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark.

If you should feel sorrow or pain,
She will share it with you,
If you should feel happiness or joy
She will rejoice
Every tear that you weep,
She shall catch
Every smile that you smile,
Will lighten her load,
And traveling at the speed of light,
Will return to you threefold.

We are joined through sisterhood.
As generations of women gone before,
We are as individual as the sun and moon,
But tempered of the same fire – The Torch of Wisdom
Therefore we are as one.

Our power is in our strengths combines,
We are Delta Women.

By Soror Darrylyn Swift

The year was 1912 when twenty two African American women came together on the campus of Howard University to start Delta Sigma Theta, a sorority dedicated to serving others. By then, over 5000 African Americans had been lynched, with sixty-one being lynched in that year alone. The National Urban League was started the year before 1912, and the NAACP started three years before that. In 1912, segregation was legal in the United States, and the great migration of Southern African Americans to the north with hopes of living a better life had began. By the time our founders stood on the steps of Howard University in 1913 to pose for the infamous Founder’s Day picture, Harriet Tubman was in her final days — she died on March 10, 1913 — while Rosa Parks had yet to be born.

Two months after posing for the infamous founder’s day picture, our sorors participated in the Women’s Suffrage march that occurred on a rainy day in Washington, D.C., in March of 1913. But because of the legalized Jim Crow laws in place at that time, our founders were required to march at the very back of the line.

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Black Women in the Frontlines:
Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going and
What We Should Be Concerned With Once We Get There

The title of my blog entry is an attempt to capture in one long phrase, kudos and praises as well as a slight nudge of warning. It is meant to highlight the very rich legacy, strides, and contributions that Black Women have made in the United States and beyond. But it is also meant to warn that there is indeed no rest for the weary. History has shown us that there will always be injustices to rail against, struggles to fight and win. But the contemporary times that we live in are telling us with resounding clarity that our current battles have to be fought even more diligently or there won’t be any lives left.

Black women have been the backbone, the base, the foundation, and the rock for every single moment for Black freedom in the United States. Freedoms have been won based on our hard work and endurance. And as all my sorors know, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and the strong individual women who make up this illustrious sisterhood, have been there as well, working with their sisters and brothers, fighting for justice and fighting against injustice. From the inception of our organization we have been about doing the work. That is why it doesn’t surprise me that the sorority’s “Healthy Lifestyle: Fit for the Future Initiative” has started to heed the call of the HIV/AIDS crisis in our communities. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a threat we can no longer ignore. Our health as black women is not an issue that we can ignore. When we look at the roles that black women have played in the black community in making sure that the community remains whole and strong, we realize all the more how truly important our health is.

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A Thread in the Cloth of Sisterhood

The Founder’s of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority were exceptional women. Frankly, anyone who dared to assemble together to increase the strength of individuals for the betterment of the community at that time, was exceptional. Each Founder represented a thread of values, ideals, principles, convictions and character that, when combined with the others created a sisterhood that has endured for almost 100 years.

Delta Sigma Theta, to me, is like a big beautiful quilt which is held together by the individual ‘threads’ that are the sorority sisters. Each of us contribute to her enhancement and longevity and in return, she gives us cohesion, solidarity, a pattern to follow, standards to uphold, comfort and all other things a physical quilt might. The quilt needs each thread to grow and thrive. Her splendor and beauty is made more apparent by each strand that weaves together and creates a new panel. The contribution of each thread varies in its unique talents, aspirations and circumstances. But, when brought together it changes the shape, color and outlook of things.

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Answering the Call

As a little girl I would watch in awe as my mother dressed for the annual Delta Ball. Beautiful she was. I could not wait to grow up so that I could be a Delta, get dressed up, and wear a fabulous red evening gown.

During my teenage years in the 70’s, seeing the positive response and respect that the community had for what was to be my sorority, I began asking my mother questions about what she, my aunt, and that group of women did and why they sometimes called each other soror. She told me how twenty-two women in 1913, college students at Howard University, felt the call of sisterhood and came together to form Delta Sigma Theta sorority. This organization was dedicated to making a difference for African-American women, bringing rebirth to the pride of being a woman of color. So no longer did I think that being a Delta was just about wearing a red evening gown.

There was a call to sisterhood to bring about change and make a difference, to be a Renaissance woman. When my mother became president of her local chapter, I was able to see first hand what it really meant to be a Delta. The dedication my mother had to the causes the sorority supported in the community moved me to a new level of understanding. Here on earth God made us keepers of each other and responsible for seeing to humanitarian needs. By the time I was pinned by my mother, I was more than just a legacy – I had joined a force of women in a position to bring about change and new birth. I too was a Renaissance woman.

Twenty-five years later I pinned my own daughter, another one to carry the torch for the next generation of our family answering the call. For the fourteen women forming the “Crimson Tide” of our family, we are more than legacy. For three generations we have been true to the call to serve our communities, to bring about social change, and stand at the forefront of issues for the betterment of our nation. It is that energy that makes me proud to wear crimson and crème. No longer is it just about an evening gown.

Sisterly,
Soror JA Adams

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I have a confession to make: When I left for college in 1981 I didn’t know what a “fraternal organization” was. So it follows that I knew nothing about greekdom, pledging or Delta Sigma Theta. During my first months on campus, the women bonded by red, white and community service remained an awe-inspiring mystery to me that slowly unfolded my freshman year and led me to seek them out the next.
I pledged in the spring of 1983 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, with nine other young women. Like them, I learned the history of our sorority and the lives of its founders. In the years since, I’ve looked to both the strength of our first 22 and the successes of others who have followed in their footsteps.

As a creative soul, I’ve been drawn to the artistry of poet Nikki Giovanni, dancer Judith Jamison, singer Roberta Flack, and athlete Wilma Rudolph. I have leaned on my own line sisters over the years for uplift in life’s hard times and to celebrate its goodness.

Perhaps my most eye-opening moment as a Delta came recently when my son, now a college junior, decided to pledge a fraternity. Unlike me, he left for college with some knowledge of Greek life. Yet, true to the stubbornness inherent in our family, he approached becoming a member as a privilege and conducted in-depth research into how and where he felt he best fit – focusing first on community service.

He’d also seen the recent movie Stomp the Yard, which portrayed one young man’s struggle to find himself and how that evolves through fraternity. Yet, once my son had made his decision and the time came to begin his personal journey, he came to me: “Mom, what was pledging like?”

For the first time in many years, I had the chance to reflect on days and nights, words and dreams, recitation and singing, from a wholly different perspective. I recounted my memories not from the seasoned perspective of a woman fully grown and 25-plus years removed, but as an anxious coed, stepping into and unknown but welcome future.

I closed our conversation by reminding him that though subsequent years have scattered us, many of us remain in touch today and the experience continues to sustain me. “I wouldn’t trade those days for the world,” I told him.

Sisterly,
Soror Stefanie Worth

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It has taken me a long time to write this blog. The weight of the subject was a bit daunting. “Renaissance Women 1913-2010: A Sisterhood Called to Serve.” Wow!

In our day to day life, it is sometimes easier to look ahead – to pay attention to things that lay before us, rather than take the time to consider things that came before us. We spend time on goal setting and planning. We make resolutions. We make lists. For many of us, what we are going to do tomorrow is just as important, if not more important than, what we are going to do today. Once yesterday has passed, we tend not to look back.

Writing this blog has given me an opportunity to look back. I have a chance to look back at all the women who came before me who said, “Just because we’ve always done it this way, doesn’t mean we have to keep doing it this way.” I have a chance to look back at the women who came before me who decided they wanted to make a difference, not just in their communities, but in the world. These women are woven into every fabric of my life. That drive, that passion, that strength, that determination, that fortitude was present in both my grandmothers and in their mothers. I was an adult before I recognized it in my mother, but it’s there. I see it blossoming in my daughters. I’ve seen it in my teachers and in the women they taught me about in school. I wanted to be one of “those” women when I grew up.

Little did I know that in the fall of 1991, on the campus of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX, I would have an opportunity to become one of “those” women. I was initiated into a legacy of change, service, sisterhood and “righteous rule-breaking.” If you don’t like the system, change the system. The desire to change is not always equal to the ability to change, nor is it always met by a system that is open to change. It is this struggle that helps develop character. Romans 5:3-4 (NKJV) says it this way, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

It is the perseverance, character and hope of the 22 founding women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority that makes me proud to follow the trail they blazed. I appreciate the opportunity to look back. I invite you to look back with me. Be thankful for all the trailblazing women in your life who prepared an opportunity for you long before you ever existed.

I also invite us to look ahead. What are we leaving on the trail we set that people will celebrate 97 years from now?

Sisterly,
Soror Tracie Jae

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FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT

Naomi Sewell Richardson – a native of Washingtonville, New York, Ms. Richardson was extremely involved in social activism and civic service. She was appointed to the East St. Louis public school system after graduation by Dean Lewis B. Moore. Later, she taught in Illinois, Princeton, New Jersey, and New York City. Mrs. Richardson was the last surviving founder when she died in 1993.

Delta Days in the Nation’s Capital
In 1989, the National Social Action Commission instituted Delta Days in the Nation’s Capitol. Delta Days is an annual legislative conference to increase sorority members’ involvement in the national public policy-making process. The annual conference includes legislative briefings, issue forums, and developing advocacy skills. Featured speakers include key policy makers, members of the United States Congress, staff members, and national policy experts.

In 2009, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority celebrated their twentieth anniversary of Delta Days in the Nation’s Capital. The theme was “Advocacy in Action: Strengthening Our Legacy”. Topics included empowering membership to be effective social action advocates in the areas of quality education, affordable health care, Census 2010, and economic viability.

Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer (October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader.

Mrs. Hamer was instrumental in organizing the Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She later the chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and attended the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Her plain-spoken manner and fervent belief in the biblical righteousness of her cause gained her a reputation as an electrifying speaker and constant champion of civil rights, with the phrase: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired,” becoming her epitaph.

When I hear the names of the founders of my organization, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated – Osceola McCarthy Adams, Marguerite Young Alexander, Winona Cargile Alexander, Ethel Cuff Black, Bertha Pitts Campbell, Zephyr Chisom Carter, Edna Brown Coleman, Jessie McGuire Dent, Frederica Chase Dodd, Myra Davis Hemmings, Olive C. Jones, Jimmie Bugg Middleton, Pauline Oberdorfer Minor, Vashti Turley Murphy, Naomi Sewell Richardson, Mamie Reddy Rose, Eliza Pearl Shippen, Florence Letcher Toms, Ethel Carr Watson, Wertie Blackwell Weaver, Madree Penn White, and Edith Motte Young – I immediately think of my pledgeship and how my line sisters and I had to learn those names…in alphabetical order. I remember the days and nights studying who they were and why they were so important to us. I also remember the pride that I felt knowing that I would be a part of an organization founded by such illustrious women of color.

These women have inspired me to go on to higher heights. As a Delta, you are expected to be better, know more, and do more. When you read what our founders accomplished in their lifetimes, it makes you want to aspire to greatness.

The founders were great educators, well organized, and artistic. The reason we exist is because of service. Several of the founders were dissatisfied with the lack of service in the organization they left to found Delta. Being a Delta means you are willing to give back to your community in an inventive and innovative way. Many great Sorors are known because of their service – service to their country and service to their craft. Sorors like Shirley Chisholm, Ruby Dee Davis, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, Barbara Jordan, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Gwendolyn Boyd, Vashti McKensie, Natalie Cole, Wilma Rudolfph, Cicely Tyson, and our own illustrious president, Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre, to name a few.

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The Bond of Sisterhood

Recently, I attended the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City. Having achieved the goal of being both a self-published and traditional author, I was there to learn how to build my marketing platform to take my writing career to the next level. The buzz word was social media. According to Joseph Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis, Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests. As I sat there listening to the oral presentations, my mind drifted back to over forty years ago when I was a young student at Howard University on the threshold of my career.

In the sixties, we didn’t have computers and social media. But we had something that was just as powerful, if not more so—sororities and fraternities. I was in my senior year when I pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and several months later I graduated. Forty years later, the Tantalizing 28, met for their fortieth reunion during the 2007 Howard University Homecoming. I hadn’t seen most of my line sisters since 1967. I was excited about the reunion, but also apprehensive. Would they remember me? I wondered. I was only with them such a short time.

When I walked through the door of my soror’s home for the Friday night meet and greet, I cried as so many arms reached out and embraced me that no amount of online social media networking could accomplish. A weekend of activities gave us the chance to get acquainted again, but always knowing that the bond was still there as evident by the next day’s event. My book signing at the Howard University Bookstore was overflowing with sorors in their red and white. I know that social marketing has its place in today’s high tech world. But it is the human contact and bond of my sorors that has touched my heart.

In 2013, Delta Sigma Theta will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. I look forward to seeing my line sisters again. I am grateful for the 22 women who probably never heard of the phrase social media, but knew that the bond of sisterhood could never be a broken link.

Sisterly,
Soror June Michael

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