Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Shield
The founding of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. occurred on this date in 1922. It was the first Black sorority founded at a predominantly white college.
Sigma Gamma Rho was organized at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN, by seven school teachers: Mary Lou Allison Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford, Bessie M. Downey Martin, and Cubena McClure. The group became an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter at Butler.
Its first three years were devoted to organizing. Now, Sigma Gamma Rho continues to grow through Sisterhood, Scholarship, and Service. The sorority has supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Council of Negro Women, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Urban League, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, National Mental Health Association, United Negro College Fund, Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, Black Women's Agenda, and American Association of University Women.
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. now has over 400 chapters in the United States, Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and Germany.
