40 Fun Facts About Delta Sigma Theta

Which animal is Delta Sigma Theta's unofficial mascot, a nod to the collection kept by founder Florence Letcher Toms?

The elephant caught on because Toms collected them, and the hobby spread to Deltas all over the world. It has never been one of the sorority's official symbols.

Weeks after its 1913 founding, Delta Sigma Theta made which Washington, D.C. event its first public act?

A women's suffrage march down Pennsylvania Avenue on March 3, 1913 drew members of the new sorority, who walked in its college section. It was held the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

Which two colors, said to stand for courage and purity, are the official colors of Delta Sigma Theta?

Crimson and cream are worn by Deltas everywhere, and Niagara Falls was lit red in February 2013 to honor the sorority's centennial.

Delta Sigma Theta was founded on January 13, 1913 by students at which historically Black school?

Howard University in Washington, D.C. is where every founder studied, and more than 12,000 Deltas returned to its campus in January 2013 to celebrate the centennial.

Which Delta Sigma Theta member became the first Black woman elected to Congress and ran for president in 1972?

Shirley Chisholm joined the sorority as a student at Brooklyn College, where she also won prizes for debating. She went on to represent a Brooklyn district in the House for seven terms.

Which Detroit-raised music legend was made an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta?

Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, was an honorary Delta, as were Lena Horne, Ruby Dee and Cicely Tyson. The honor goes to women who have made significant contributions to society.

Which US president spoke at Delta Sigma Theta's Golden Anniversary luncheon, urging equal education for all?

John F. Kennedy addressed the Deltas on January 12, 1963, the day before their fiftieth Founders Day. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke to them at a reception the following day.

Delta Sigma Theta began its centennial as the first Black Greek-letter organization with a float in which parade?

The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena carried the sorority's float on January 1, 2013. City officials gave the national president a proclamation honoring 100 years of public service.

Members of Delta Sigma Theta address one another by which title, taken from a Latin word?

Soror is Latin for sister, and Deltas use it both when referring to a fellow member and when speaking to her directly.

How many founders does Delta Sigma Theta honor, a number echoed in the cities of its centennial torch tour?

22 women founded the sorority in 1913, and ten of them attended its Golden Anniversary celebration fifty years later.

Delta Sigma Theta belongs to which umbrella body of nine Black Greek-letter groups, nicknamed the Divine Nine?

The National Pan-Hellenic Council was formed in 1930 with the Deltas among its five founding members. Author Lawrence Ross later made the Divine Nine nickname the title of his history of the groups.

Several Delta Sigma Theta founders had first belonged to which older sorority, whose name they voted to change?

Alpha Kappa Alpha members among the founders wanted a new name, colors and symbols in 1912. Former president Nellie Quander opposed the change, so the women reorganized under new letters.

Which quality does Delta Sigma Theta's six-word motto call the Torch of Wisdom?

Intelligence is the Torch of Wisdom, runs the motto, and the torch became a symbol in its own right: one toured the country during the 2013 centennial.

Which bloom, commonly sold as a house plant, did Delta Sigma Theta choose as its official flower?

The African violet is not closely related to true violets: it belongs to a different plant family and grows wild in the mountains of Tanzania.

Which Delta Sigma Theta national president went on to lead the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years?

Dorothy Height was Delta president from 1947 to 1956, and in 1994 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton.

Which virtue names the metal sculpture of a striding woman unveiled in 1979 to honor Delta Sigma Theta's founders?

Fortitude stands on the campus where the sorority began, and Lady Fortitude became its symbol of strength, courage, hope, wisdom, beauty and femininity.

In 1992 Delta Sigma Theta became the first national Black organization to partner with which Georgia-based nonprofit?

Habitat for Humanity and the Deltas went on to build homes across the United States, and in 1996 members travelled to Ghana to put up forty more.

In 2003, Delta Sigma Theta became the first Black sorority given special consultative status with which world body?

The United Nations credentials were accepted by president Gwendolyn Boyd before 150 UN members, and an annual Delta Day at the UN followed.

Which Texas congresswoman and Delta Sigma Theta member won national fame at the televised Nixon impeachment hearings?

Barbara Jordan pledged the sorority at Texas Southern University, where she became a national champion debater. In 1976 she was the first woman to keynote a Democratic National Convention.

Which Delta Sigma Theta sprinter won three gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics while a Tennessee State student?

Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman to win three track and field golds at one Olympics, having worn a leg brace as a child after a bout of polio.

Which charter member of Delta Sigma Theta's Harvard chapter became the first Black woman US Attorney General?

Loretta Lynch helped charter the Xi Tau chapter while a Harvard student, and Barack Obama later chose her to succeed Eric Holder at the Justice Department in 2015.

Which honorary Delta Sigma Theta member founded a Florida college and the National Council of Negro Women?

Mary McLeod Bethune started the council in 1935 and wrote the poem Delta Girl, which is said to embody the ideals of a Delta woman.

Cosby Show star Keshia Knight Pulliam joined Delta Sigma Theta as a student at which Atlanta school?

Spelman College awarded Pulliam a sociology degree in 2001, years after she earned an Emmy nomination as a child for playing Rudy Huxtable.

Which first national president of Delta Sigma Theta was also the first Black American woman to earn an economics PhD?

Sadie T. M. Alexander led the Deltas from 1919 to 1923, then became the first Black woman to earn a University of Pennsylvania law degree and to practice law in that state.

Which civil rights pioneer and honorary Delta Sigma Theta member is credited with writing its oath in 1914?

Mary Church Terrell mentored the young Deltas after serving as the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, and she was a charter member of the NAACP.

Which Delta Sigma Theta variety show, first staged in Boston in 1925, raises money for scholarships?

Jabberwock mixes music, skits and dance by local talent, and the sorority formally adopted and copyrighted the show in 1947.

Which annual Delta Sigma Theta observance, created in 1920, urges Black women to pursue higher education?

May Week was first observed by chapters in 1921, and it sets aside a week each spring for programs that celebrate academic and professional achievement.

During Delta Sigma Theta's membership intake, initiates belong to a club named for which ancient monument?

The pyramid gives the Pyramid Club its name, and it doubles as one of the sorority's official symbols alongside the torch.

In which African country did Delta Sigma Theta help finance the Thika Maternity Hospital in the early 1960s?

Kenya had just gained its independence when the Delta-financed hospital in Thika opened, and it is now known as Mary Help of the Sick Mission Hospital.

Delta Sigma Theta's Delta Academy for girls aged 11 to 14 is named for which civil rights widow and educator?

Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, joined the sorority's New York Alumnae chapter in 1974, a year before she earned her doctorate.

Which Delta Sigma Theta founder, later a film actress in San Antonio, became the sorority's first president in 1913?

Myra Davis Hemmings taught in San Antonio for fifty-one years, and she played the martyr Sister Caroline in the Spencer Williams film Go Down, Death!

Which Delta Sigma Theta founder taught Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte at the American Negro Theatre?

Osceola Macarthy Adams, who acted as Osceola Archer, was one of the first Black actresses on Broadway, and the sorority's arts award, The Osceola, carries her name.

Which Delta Sigma Theta founder, at age 92, led 10,000 members down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1981?

Bertha Pitts Campbell refused the limousine laid on for her and walked the route. She spent most of her adult life in Seattle, where she was the first Black board member of the local YWCA.

Delta Sigma Theta's Beta chapter, its second, was chartered in 1914 at which school in Ohio?

Wilberforce University, founded in 1856 and named for a British abolitionist, is one of three historically Black universities established before the Civil War.

Which Delta Sigma Theta founder sued the Galveston school district in 1943 and won equal pay for Black teachers?

Jessie McGuire Dent had taught in Galveston for 30 years yet earned about 20 percent less than white teachers when her federal lawsuit forced the district to equalize salaries.

Which Delta Sigma Theta founder, a New York City teacher who lived to 100, was the last of the founders to die?

Naomi Sewell Richardson died in 1993, eighty years after the founding, and in 2019 a park named for her was built on the site of her original home.

Which Harlem Renaissance poet and honorary Delta Sigma Theta member co-wrote the official Delta Hymn, adopted in 1924?

Alice Dunbar Nelson shared the credit with Florence Cole Talbert, an opera singer credited as the first Black woman to sing the title role of Aida in a European staging.

Which 1988 history of Delta Sigma Theta was written by member and historian Paula Giddings?

In Search of Sisterhood is subtitled Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement, and it followed Giddings's 1984 study of Black women's impact on race and sex in America.

Which first executive director of Delta Sigma Theta became the first Black woman to serve in a US presidential cabinet?

Patricia Roberts Harris ran the sorority's headquarters for six years, later served as ambassador to Luxembourg, and joined Jimmy Carter's cabinet in 1977.

Delta Sigma Theta's national headquarters sits on New Hampshire Avenue in which Washington, D.C. neighborhood?

Dupont Circle has housed the headquarters since the sorority left its first home on M Street, and in 2013 the city renamed the 1700 block outside Delta Sigma Theta Way.