Our Beloved Founders

Below is a POEM dedicated to our 22 dynamic founders!!

FABULOUS FOUNDERS!!

I am HONORED to call their names!
Names of such world-changing character
WARRIOR Names! On Community battlefields!

OUR SORORS...
In Texas, FREDERICA CHASE DODD became one of the state's
earliest Black social workers with United Charities.

FLORENCE LETCHER TOMS - was active in many civil
rights organizations and is also remembered for contributing
her collection of elephants to the Deltas.

MYRA DAVIS HEMMINGS - first President of the Alpha
chapter of Delta, active in the NAACP and the National Council of Negro Women.

These are names that evoke images of:
ARMOR against injustice!!
SWORDS against segregation and separatism!!
SENTRYS for service and scholarship!!

HUMMPH!!
FABULOUS FOUNDERS!
FABULOUS FIRED-UP FOUNDERS!

Targeting their talents toward Truth!
Talent??!!
Talk about Talent!!!
Talent!!!

T - Teacher at Claflin College, South Carolina - EDITH MOTTE YOUNG.

A - An Actress - Brilliant on stage, we're told - OSCEOLA MCARTHY ADAMS.

L - Last Founder to make her journey "Home" in 1993 at 100 years of age - NAOMI SEWELL RICHARDSON.

E - Earning both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Howard University,
she was national treasurer of the National Association of College
Women - JIMMIE BUGG MIDDLETON.

N - Novelist - wrote "The Valley of the Poor" - WERTIE B. WEAVER.

T - Texan - one of two Texan founders of DST, her portrait
is on permanent display for her civic contributions to the
City of Galveston, Texas - JESSIE MCGUIRE DENT.

These Sisters SERVED their communities!!!

HUMMPH!
FABULOUS FOUNDERS!
FABULOUS FIRED-UP FIERCE FOUNDERS!!

Can you grasp the magnitude???
Each one reached one way back then!
The Deltas filtered into the community
touching those less fortunate than ourselves
marking the doors of our people with DELTA

Can we help?
Sister, here's a hand;
Brother, let's lock arms and fight for progress...
Founding Delta Sigma Theta on Christian principles
The Faithful, spirit-filled women of DST!

PAULINE OBERDORFER MINOR - hymn writer and soprano soloist.

BERTHA PITTS CAMPBELL - Leading Civil Rights Activist - had her
Homegoing Service at 100 years old! Tell me that the Lord didn't
spare her for a century because she had a job to do!

HUMMPH!
FABULOUS FOUNDERS!
FABULOUS FIRED-UP FIERCE FAITHFUL FOUNDERS!!
Strong names!
VASHTI TURLEY MURPHY - active with the Baltimore Alumnae Chapter, had 4 Delta daughters;

MADREE PENN WHITE - designed the sorority's pin and had 1 Delta daughter, Ms. Grace White Ware.

ETHEL CUFF BLACK - a social studies teacher who married a black
real estate agent - BACK IN THE DAY!

HUMMPH!
FABULOUS FOUNDERS!
FABULOUS FIRED-UP FIERCE FAITHFUL FEMININE FOUNDERS!!

Magna cum laude and Doctor of English Literature, ELIZA P. SHIPPEN.

MARGUERITE YOUNG ALEXANDER - a French and Spanish corporate secretary.

Though she journeyed from THIS life in her early 30's
MAMIE REDDY ROSE was an acclaimed dramatic reader.

Teacher and musician, OLIVE JONES!

Alpha Chapter's FIRST CUSTODIAN, from Columbus, Georgia by way of
Jacksonville, Florida, WINONA CARGILE ALEXANDER!

Teacher, security officer, and chorus singer for film and tv shows, ZEPHYR CHISOM CARTER.

Outstanding physics professor, native of Washington, DC,
and wife of one of the founders of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, EDNA BROWN COLEMAN.

Teacher, dramatic performer, and at her leisure, ceramic artist,
floral arranger, AND painter, ETHEL CARR WATSON.

THESE 22 FOUNDED
DELTA SIGMA THETA SORORITY, INCORPORATED ON JANUARY 13, 1913!

HUMMPH!
FABULOUS FOUNDERS!
FABULOUS FIRED-UP FIERCE FAITHFUL FEMININE FOUNDERS of D-S-T!!
HUMMPH!
FABULOUS FOUNDERS!

Written by Soror Crystale Stevenson Marrow