More Than Letters: Honoring The Women of Delta Sigma Theta on Founders Day

Today is Founders Day for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and for me, it’s far more than a historic milestone. It’s personal and generational. It’s the legacy of women who taught me scholarship, service, and sisterhood long before I ever wore crimson and cream.

My relationship with Delta Sigma Theta began as a little girl in Virginia Beach.  Some of my earliest memories are of my mother going through her process. Our home became a space where women gathered around tables, books open, with history being learned and poured into every conversation. I watched them study, serve, debate, and grow. Back then, I didn’t have the language for what I was witnessing, but I knew it was powerful. Those women, my Delta Aunties, modeled excellence, sisterhood, and service long before I knew I would one day follow in their footsteps.

Years later, life came full circle. Those same Delta Aunties became my sorority sisters when I was initiated into the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University in the Spring of 2002. I am #61, known to my sisters as 'Unstoppable'.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded on January 13, 1913, on the campus of Howard University by 22 visionary collegiate women committed to scholarship, service, social action, and sisterhood. Just weeks after their founding, they participated in the 1913 Women’s Suffrage March, boldly declaring that Black women would not be silent, invisible, or sidelined.

Delta’s work is organized around its Five-Point Programmatic Thrusts and brought to life through signature initiatives such as Delta Days at the Nation’s Capital, Delta Sigma Theta May Week, Delta GEMS, scholarships, arts-based programming supporting higher education, and global service initiatives. Through political advocacy, education, health equity, and economic empowerment, Delta’s service is intentional and measurable. As part of the historic Divine Nine, Delta Sigma Theta has helped produce generations of leaders, activists, educators, lawmakers, artists, and organizers, especially during times when opportunities were intentionally denied to us.

Delta lives through its members and I am who I am because of the Deltas in my life. My mother, Yvonne Williams, showed me what commitment looks like long before I ever understood its weight. My grandmother, Lucy Glymph, and my great aunt, Thelma Wyatt, anchored our family in strength and tradition. When I crossed, my mother gifted me Aunt Thelma’s hand-knitted crimson and crème afghan, a piece of her Delta journey that remains my most treasured Delta item.

Women like Nettie Faulcon, a former Regional Director who wrote one of my recommendation letters, saw Delta qualities in me before I fully saw them myself. My mother’s line sisters, Jacque Wilson, Grindly Johnson, and Zeddie Gibbs, were constant examples of sisterhood in action.

At JCSU, my advisors Dr. David Haywood, Krista Terrell, and Regina Boyd guided me with wisdom and accountability, while my big sisters, Jessica Davis, Dr. Danielle Kelly, and Keke Timmons loved, protected, and pushed me. And my line sisters, The 83 Tragedies, will forever be my heart.

Delta Sigma Theta is not just something I joined…it is something I live. It is history, service, sisterhood, accountability, and responsibility.

On this Founders Day, I honor the 22 extraordinary women, Osceola Macarthy 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, who founded our illustrious sorority.