Delta Sigma Theta: sorority, founded at Howard University, stresses service, scholarship and the arts

Ebony, Feb, 1990 by Marilyn Marshall

DELTA SIGMA THETA

THE members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., are very serious about public service, and it's been that way for the past 77 years.

From the beginning, Deltas have worked on local, regional and national levels to help serve mankind, while promoting scholarship and leadership among their members. In the '20s and '30s, Deltas manned soup kitchens, served as hospital volunteers, worked to counteract "Jim Crow" laws, and established scholarships.

In the '80s, the organization turned its attention to such pressing social issues as illiteracy, international human rights, single parenting, drug abuse and AIDS.

Yvonne Kennedy, Delta national president since 1988, says that's what the organization is all about. "We've always been a public service sorority rather than a social sorority because of our concern for the welfare of humankind everywhere," she says.

She adds that is exactly what Delta's 22 founders had in mind when they established the sorority on Jan. 13, 1913, at Howard University. The organization has since grown to include more than 175,000 members worldwide.

Dr. Kennedy, president of Bishop State Community College in Mobile, Ala., and a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, is Delta's 19th national president. She has followed in the footsteps of some illustrious Black women, including Sadie T.M. Alexander, Delta's first president, who was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in the United States, and was a member of President Harry S Truman's Commission on Civil Rights; Dorothy I. Height, who is now president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW); and Frankie M. Freeman, the sorority's 14th president, who was the first woman appointed to the Civil Rights Commission.

Other famous Deltas have included former congresswomen Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm, cabinet member and ambassador Patricia Roberts Harris, school integration pioneer and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, poet Nikki Giovanni, opera star Leontyne Price, singers Roberta Flack and Leslie Uggams, and magazine executive Eunice W. Johnson.

As for the organization itself, it has a long list of accomplishments.

At its 1922 national convention, Delta established a scholarship and tuition loan fund for female collegians. In 1937, the sorority sponsored the first traveling bookmobile, and in 1942, it became one of the first organizations to support the Association of Cancer Control, now the American Cancer Society. Delta was also one of the first organizations to support NCNW through the leadership of its founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, who was an honorary Delta.

In 1954, Delta opened its first national headquarters in Washington, D.C., with Patricia Roberts Harris as executive director. Also in the '50s, the sorority launched a nationwide voter registration drive, and began efforts to build a maternity wing in a Nairobi (Kenya) hospital.

During the '60s, the Deltas established a Social Action Commission, which provided support for the Civil Rights Bill with a massive letterwriting campaign. In the '70s, the sorority received funding for a program to rehabilitate women offenders and a program on health careers for minority youth. In the same decade, Deltas created a Commission on Arts and Letters and produced a major movie, Countdown at Kusini.

The sorority ushered in the '80s with a national women's summit, followed by a single-parenting summit, a forum in Nairobi, and an international conference in Nassau, Bahamas. Another '80s milestone was the formation of the Delta Research and Educational Foundation, which concentrates on family welfare, educational development and international awareness.

Dr. Kennedy is excited about one of the organization's newest ventures, "School America," which helps children learn to read. The program will enlist the efforts of registered readers nationwide to aid children ages six through 10.

The Delta president believes Black Greek-letter organizations must play a key role in Black communities. She says that in the beginning, "The need was there for persons to band together who had similar goals and objectives in life centered around academic pursuits."

Dr. Kennedy adds that the need still exists. "In order to help our communities," she says, "we must prepare ourselves educationally, but not to just go into the suburbs and put our degrees on the wall. We have to put what we've learned into action so that we can make a difference in a very positive sense."