We thank everyone that’s logged on this is uh the divine nine an introduction to african-american fraternities and sororities that is the title of this presentation today and first we want to introduce ourselves um this presentation is with uh missy and myself uh you know misty is a member of um delta sigma theta
Um she’s part of the spring 1995. the theta zeta chapter eastern illinois the joliet area south suburban alumni chapter again my name is phil davis uh you know i pledged in the fall i’m a member proud member of phi beta sigma fraternity incorporated and my chapter is epsilon kai sigma
Alumni chapter located in chicago illinois so right now i just want to talk about um the importance of brotherhood um brotherhood is you know pretty much the essential part of any fraternity is the soul of the fraternity um you know brotherhood means to keep one’s word have integrity
And always assist your brothers whenever they’re uh in a crisis of any sort uh what is a fraternity a fraternity is a group of men who are part of a brotherhood built on common goals and aspirations that make a commitment to each other’s life all of the the crests that you see below
We’re going to speak about later on in the presentation so the importance of sisterhood sisterhood is an association of women things which are considered to be feminine it is a state or relationship of being a sister or sisters sisterhood is the quality of being sisterly it is a society especially
A religious society of women sisterhood is an association of unification of women in a common cause a sorority is a fellowship or association of women as for a benevolent or a charitable purpose or at a college it can also be known as a body or group of women united for some common aim
As to promote education social welfare or the arts it can also be known as a social club for female undergraduates one thing is that i always see with students is they always get the fraternity and the sorority confused so just remember fraternity is for males sorority is for females
True indeed okay so this is the um a little bit a brief history of black greek letter organizations uh african american students form their own greek fraternities and sororities to foster communal balance and increase professional opportunities after collegiate careers but also to provide community service to the african-american community
Service and active activism are central principles of black greek organizations ideas of racial uplift were prominent at the time people founded many of these organizations the founders of black greek organizations created their organizations to benefit the african-american community across the united states they would charter chapters at multiple universities those
Both nationally and internationally to spread their mission and so now we’ll break down um each of the organizations by chapters so yes you do have the nine organizations but like i said they are broken down by chapters each national sorority and fraternity um they have individual chapters of their organization
At different colleges and universities so most of these organizations are at four-year colleges and they have um undergraduate and graduate so before i explain the chapters i’ll just talk about undergraduate student means that these are any students that have not received a four-year bachelor’s degree
Yet so you are in college but you have not received your bachelor’s degree yet a graduate student is any student who is has received their four-year college degree so for an undergraduate chapter if you wish to be a member you must attend a four-year college and you are in the process of
Completing a four-year degree the service and events are provided throughout the campus community if you would like to become a member through a graduate chapter you must have obtained a four-year bachelor’s degree from a four-year college and the service and events are provided throughout the surrounding community that you reside in
So the undergraduate chapters because you’re on a college campus your focus is the college community and for the graduate chapters because you are i’m pretty much you have your degree you’re working in your community so the services and the events are focusing on the community that you reside in
So the divine nine the divine nine are historically black greek letter organizations that make up the national panhellenic council collectively these organizations are referred to as the divine nine each of these fraternities and sororities are rich in history and they are simply called the divine nine because there are nine organizations
Okay so i’m gonna run through some of the uh divine nine uh starting with the the fraternities so first we’re gonna start off with alpha phi alpha uh they were founded in december on december 4th 1906 at cornell university in ithaca new york uh the objectives of alpha phi alpha
Is to stimulate the ambition of its members to prepare them for the greatest usefulness in the cause of humanity freedom and dignity of the universe of the individual and also to encourage the highest and noblest form of manhood kappa alpha psi founded in january 15 1911 at indiana university
In bloomington indiana the mission for the kappa alpha psi is to provide support for their members and others in service to communities with particular emphasis on african american communities omega sci-fi was founded november 17 1911 at howard university in washington dc um omega’s uh motto or you know their mission is primarily
Manhood scholarship perseverance and uplift those were adopted as their cardinal principles and here we have you know my uh my wonders band phi beta sigma fraternity was founded january 9 1914 at howard university in washington dc um phi beta sigma uh we believe in our model is basically culture for
Service and service for humanity so we’re really really big on serving the community and always doing community service iota fire theta they were founded in september 19 september 19th 1963 at morgan state university in baltimore maryland uh on september 19 1963 at morgan state 12 students founded what is now the
Nation’s fifth largest predominantly african-american social service fraternity and that is uh iota phi theta fraternity incorporated okay so now we will talk about the sororities um so before we start i just want to um highlight that if you do notice that most of these organizations their founding dates um were basically between
Uh like the early 1900s so as you can imagine an african-american student on a college campus in those days had a lot of different issues that they had to deal with so you could only imagine how difficult it was to start these organizations so like i said they were mostly founded
In the early 1900s so we’ll start with the first sorority which is alpha kappa alpha also known as aka they were founded january 15 1908 at howard university as you guys can see here their colors are salmon pink and apple green all information on all of these organizations can be found on their
Websites as you guys see here also on the slides um alpha kappa alpha has humble beginnings as the vision of nine college students at howard university since then they have flourished into a globally impactful organization of nearly 300 000 college trained members they’re bound by the bonds of sisterhood
And empowered by a commitment to servant leadership both domestically and internationally okay the next organization or the next sorority is delta sigma theta which is um the organization that i am a member of um delta sigma theta was founded january 13 1913 um also at howard university as you can
See here their colors are crimson and cream or red and white basically delta sigma theta is also a private nonprofit organization whose purpose is to provide assistance and support through programs in the local communities and also internationally we have a sisterhood of more than two hundred thousand uh predominantly black educated women
Um and we are focusing on scholarship and service the next organization is zeta phi beta um this is founded january 16th 1920 also at howard university uh their colors are royal blue and pure white i will say that the one unique thing about the sorority zeta phi beta
Is that they are the only official um sisters of phi beta sigma they have an official relationship with um the sigmas um their belief system reflects at its core the desire to provide true service to embrace scholarship to set a standard of sisterly sisterly love to define the noble concept of finer womanhood
And they’ve always been very active in community affairs okay the next organization is sigma gamma rho sigma gamma rho was founded november 12th 1922 in indianapolis indiana their colors are royal blue and gold their aim is to enhance the quality of life within the community public service public service leadership development
And education of youth are the hallmark of the organization’s programs and activities so you can see here that um basically all the fraternities all of the sororities um their main focus is community service um service to the local community service internationally um so what it also brings you to question why
Join an organization why join a fraternity why join our sorority so here are some different reasons why one would like to join um first you can cultivate leadership skills a lot of the activities that you do on campus or either in the community you learn how to run an organization you
Learn how to plan events um so you will learn several different leadership skills from doing those activities you gain a sense of social identity you learn to work with others on a team um you provide community service you gain opportunities and connections um you have a diverse networking
System you are able to be able to communicate with all different types of people whether it be for a fraternity whether it be a sorority whether it be in your career field you also are provided support and mentorship and then also you have a sisterhood and a brotherhood
I will share with you really quick the reason why i joined the organization when i went to college i went to eastern illinois university i had very little knowledge of fraternities and sororities basically just you know watching uh like school days watching different tv shows that’s the only thing i knew about
Different organizations so when i went to college i started just kind of watching the different things that were going on campus so when you’re at a four-year college a lot of the black organizations are the ones that host all the events um they provide a lot of the service on campus
So i just kind of started seeing the different activities that delta was doing on campus also i was assigned to a mentor when i first started as a freshman and that mentor just happened to be a member of delta sigma theta so i was kind of introduced um
To the sorority um at an early stage and then even though i had that direct contact with delta sigma theta i still kind of you know watched the organizations just to see what they were about but it just always had a connection with delta and that’s why um
I had an interest and so i went ahead and uh joined that organization so phil you want to kind of talk about why you are yeah sure yeah mine is almost similar to misty’s um when i first went away to college i went uh down to russ college
Which is a hbcu down in holly springs mississippi and that’s where i first got wind of of sigma uh there was a brother there and a couple of brothers there that were that were doing they were like tutors and they did a lot on campus
And i ended up helping them uh move this it was a professor on campus that she needed help you know moving her furniture to her new new residence and i i rode with them and they would you know just telling me uh asking me if i would be
Interested in learning more about sigma and i thought they were really really down to earth brothers so um right before i was about to you know go through the process a lot of stuff happened in between you know life situations so i ended up coming back to chicago but i never oh
I still had sigma in my heart i always wanted to be a part of the organization because i always saw them out there uh doing community service you know doing all kinds of things so i wanted to be a part of that and um so uh as as fate will have it
I end up uh still reconnecting with sigma and and um joining the alumni chapter here in chicago and uh it’s been it’s been an awesome experience um i’ve been you know working with jesse jackson rainbow push correlation um you know i’m the social action chair of my chapter
Uh so a lot of there’s been a lot of benefits uh once i joined a fraternity so that’s my story and i just wanted to also add really quick um that there is even if when it comes time for questions um the one difference that we do have is that
Um i joined the organization at the undergraduate level and uh phil joined at the graduate level so we do have um similar experiences but at just at different levels of our education yeah all right let’s see okay so i know misty um spoke on a little bit but these are the requirements for
Membership to any uh bglo uh the requirements for memberships fraternities sororities are for the most part very similar uh you have to have an adequate grade point average uh 2.5 2.7 on a 4.0 scale i mean um you’re you’re a college educated man you’re a college educated woman so that’s really important
You must have had to perform some type of community service whether it’s uh you being the the president of the black student union or anything that you’re doing on campus uh would be would help the candidate must be a student of an accredited four-year college or institution or undergraduate chapter uh if the
Student is applying for membership to a graduate chapter uh the candidate must possess a four-year degree uh from an accredited college or institution so these are pretty much the um you know the basic requirements to uh for membership one other thing i want to add to the requirements um
Is that when you are at an undergraduate uh chapter or undergraduate college and you are interested you also most of the organizations will not take you until you are a sophomore in college you cannot come in as a freshman um and pledge a fraternity or sorority um they want you to understand
That your education is the most important and should be your priority so they want freshmen to be able to come in um get adjusted to college life you know make sure that your focus is education and then you know start thinking about joining the organization um through sophomore year
Well next we’re going to go over this is the most common terms that are used by fraternities in sororities um the first one we have is an active member so basically an undergraduate member um this should also be a graduate member who has been initiated by their chapter
And they have paid their local international dues um so basically yes money is associated with organizations um each organization has a different price spent for the membership um that in order to be active you must um have paid your dues i mean this is true for any even if it’s a professional organization
Something that’s related to your career um even to a hop for a hobby most national organizations will require you to pay some type of dues um we mentioned bglo so if you ever hear bglo that’s black greek letter organization it’s just a shorter term to say black greek letter organization
Frat this is a term used by um one brother and a fraternity to refer to another brother in that same fraternity so they might not say their name they might just say you know hey frat intake or membership intake this term uh the term groups used to bring
New members into an organization so basically when it’s time for you to become a member of the organization you must participate in a process and so this is called intake or membership intake um a line these are the individuals going through the membership intake process together so for example um i uh
Pledged my sorority with 15 other people so there were 16 of us during my year in 1995 that wanted to join the organization together so our process was together and we were all so our whole line we we did everything together and so for my line they actually give
You names so my line is um called uh ds sweet 16. so every organization they have a line name so phil d what was your line name yeah my line was uh infinite six and my line my line name was shogun blue yes so you have
So your whole line has a name and then each individual person has a their actual online name so my actual individual line name was alibi um neophyte or a neo this is a new member of the paternity or sorority so this is someone um so like i pledged my sorority in spring 1995
So i was a neo until we brought some a new line in for the next year that’s a neophyte a pro fight who is someone is someone who has been a member of the organization for a year or more so i’ve been a member of my organization for 25 years
So now i’m considered a new er i’m sorry a pro fight and really i’m considered old school so um sore sore war is um kind of similar to frat for a sorority um so basically it’s a term i would use to refer to another sister in the sorority
So i would say you know hey soror um the yard um the yard is a term used by in by the black greek letter organizations to indicate the campus so eastern illinois university you know you go out on campus you go out on the yard um so this is pretty much where the
Organizations kind of hang out um you know they might be um you know just doing chants or doing songs and things like that but they just call it the yard um a chant a chant is a call used by members of these organizations if you’ve been to step shows or if you
Watch different movies you’ll see that um usually the organizations have a chant or a call that they do um just kind of like a you know a greeting for their other brothers or sisters and then we also have hand signs signs that are only used by the member of the organization
They usually have a deep meaning to each individual organization um so usually we’ll have it goes along with the chance so you have a hand sign and you have a chant and and misty i just wanted to mention too uh i know misty mentioned sorrow soror um since zeta 5 beta
They’re constitutionally bound to phi beta sigma and we refer to them as our sorrow and they refer to us as frac so these are just some most common terms that you will hear even though you may not be in an organization if you are if you’re hanging around them and you’re having interest
In these organizations you will start to hear these different terms so just a little information for you guys okay so these are the we’re about to talk about the do’s and don’ts i’m gonna talk about the dues when seeking out membership so whenever you start your journey on seeking out membership for any
Uh organization you have to research the organization and find out as much as you can about its history the founders the programs and the initiatives and the mission um once you’ve decided on the organization you have an interest in inquire about possibly volunteering your time with the chapter at an event
Or cubic or a community service project so this is key um you know even even in in my journey uh it’s best to you know make make yourself seen you know so let them see your face um and and sincerely you know seek out uh befriending some of these
Uh the people that are in the chapter uh achieve academic success we talked about that earlier uh make sure your grades are up to par and you have an adequate gpa support the organization you choose in any and all events they host this will allow you the opportunity to
Learn how the chapter operates and handles their business affairs and also it will provide you opportunity to possibly speak with a member or members and just introduce yourself and this is definitely key save your money uh because this this is extremely important because greek life is not cheap
So make sure you have uh an adequate amount of funds on reserve uh once you uh take that step okay so now we’ll discuss the don’ts when seeking out membership this probably goes more for um students who are at an undergraduate level um you’re on a
College campus um so one thing you don’t want to do is you don’t want to publicly advertise your interest um specifically on social media um especially during these days social media and just you know on the yard on a college campus um so when we say publicly advertise you
Don’t have to go around saying oh i want to be a delta oh i want to be a sigma and you just let the whole campus know that um when you want to deciding what organization you want to be in that is your decision something that you need to make on your own
You need to um explore on your own you don’t need to have outside influences to help you to make your decision imitate calls signs and handshakes this is a true sign of disrespect so this is i work with high school students and these are always questions that we have especially going on
Um like college tours um the signs the handshakes the calls even wearing and the next one here is wearing the greek letters is something that is only for people who are in the organization to do it’s a true sign of disrespect and the only reason why they say that is because
Um for one there’s a lot of history black history behind um the reason for all of these things and also because you you had to go through a process to earn the right to do these things so we just feel like it’s a sign of disrespect because
Someone worked hard to get to this level and so it’s kind of disrespectful to have someone just come in and you know start doing these things and imitate these things if they haven’t went through the process and i always kind of compare it to anything that you do
Um let’s say you are um in an honor society um and you know you had to work hard you had to get you know a certain grade point average you had to do maybe some community service to to become a member of an honor society and someone just comes in and starts you
Know reaping the benefits that you have of being in the honor society but they are not they don’t have the same uh grade point average that you have and things like that so it just kind of shows that this is something that you worked hard for and it’s something that you deserve to
Be able to do so everybody that works hard should be able to do this only if they go through that same process um don’t be interested in an organization based only on superficial reasons um so don’t be interested just because your favorite color is red and white
Uh don’t be interested because they step the best you know they run the yard on campus um your friend is pledging that organization okay please make sure that you are joining the organization because of you know personal reasons for yourself um you know they have the same passion that you have
In providing service um you know things like that not because they have the same your their colors are your favorite colors do not chase the organization getting to know the members and stalking them are two different things so getting to know the members would be you know going to support the organization’s events
Volunteering with the organization that would be getting to know them stalking them would be you know you’re basically always trying to be where they’re at if on social media you’re trying to friend them you’re trying to tag yourself in everything that they do okay those are things that you don’t
Want to do and i also kind of like to compare um seeking out membership into a fraternity in sorority i like to compare it to um even if you’re seeking a job if you are going on a job interview you want to be able to research the job
You want to be able you know find out all that you know about the organization what is is the focus what is the mission of that organization so you kind of treat it the same way as if you were seeking out membership into a fraternity or sorority all right
Okay so now we get to some more fun stuff so the history of stepping i know there’s many movies out there stomp the yard and all these other movies about stepping but from my research the african gumboot dance performed by dancers and boots is said to be one of stepping’s biggest influences
His modern day roots began in the early 1900s when organizations of the national panhandle council held greek scenes the organizations of the nhpc used songs and dance as a call and response to uplift audiences it has also become a way for organizations to show pride and unity in their group so that
Information was coming from miss veronica hilbring from essence magazine so now i want to we want to share with you all uh a video uh this is a some really old footage back in the 90s but uh all of the divine nine are actually performing in this piece so uh here we go
The first black return in history 1906 alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated founded in 1948 sigma theta sorority incorporated founded in 1913. omega side five returned incorporated founded in nineteen eleven zeta five beta sorority incorporated founded in nineteen twenty five and a stigma fraternity incorporated found in 1914 and sigma gamma rho squared incorporated
Founded in 19. the stars like my frat and it ain’t gonna be no stuff like that you know why cause they can’t stop like us oh [Applause] okay [Applause] aah hey [Applause] [Applause] okay well god oh foreign [Applause] okay i hope you guys enjoyed that um here are some
Here are two books uh for further study if you want to answer if you’re interested in learning more uh one book uh i have this on my shelf it’s called the divine nine the history of african american fraternities and sororities by lauren c cross jr a very comprehensive book
Uh goes into detail about each each fraternity and sorority uh even even talks about the the famous um individuals that have actually uh joined uh the fraternities and sororities another book is entitled black greek letter organizations in the 21st century our fight has just begun this book was edited by
Gregory s parks this book also another comprehensive piece that goes into detail about uh each each organization and gives specifics surrounding the history and how they were founded and so forth so right now we want to just open it up for questions if you all have any questions for misty and myself
Um i do have a question i was wondering um was it harder to gain like um i don’t want to say friends but like brothership i guess when you joined after college no not really um because you know this it’s always it’s still it’s still a process a lot of people think that
You know graduate chapter i mean graduate chapter is has is different from undergrad but in a way it’s not um but the one thing that i did gain uh from the graduate chapter is that most of the brothers in in grad chapters are you know they’re already
You know established most of them are professionals um you know one one uh a member of my chapter that i’m at now brother randy connor he’s actually the head of the you know the water department here in the city of chicago so you get to network with a lot of
Professional brothers which has actually helped me but i mean as far as establishing a bond um you know i still i’m still you know in contact with my line uh we do a lot of things uh outside of sigma um you know our our our families know each other so
That’s the most important part to me and i and i didn’t i didn’t see that being any different from uh going the undergraduate route thank you you’re welcome hi i have a question for both of you um what would you say has been the biggest impact that joining a fraternity or a
Sorority has had on your life um i know a lot of people say that they’re like lifelong endeavors which i believe so what’s something you would say that really impacted your life misty you go first okay um for myself just a couple of things for one um i don’t have any sisters
Um i just have a brother so um so one thing that has truly impacted my life is being able to have you know a sisterhood yes you have your best friends yes you have you know family members cousins and things like that but um just someone that i can call my sister
That have shared the same experience that i have shared um that has you know went through the same process that’s something that has been very impactful for myself um and then also just to be able to be supported by and to see uh other black women um in their professional settings
Um whether it’s in my career or just in any type of career field so just being able to see how successful and how powerful black women can be and also you know to be able that they support each other because it’s always as black women it’s always a stereotype that you know
That we always have conflict that we’re we don’t support each other um so just being able to see other black women um you know share something that you have all right and i think um thanks misty and i think for me the biggest impact would be the networking piece
Um you know it’s so profound because if we have chapters you know all across the united states and i know for sigma we even have a chapter in in ghana in africa so it’s it’s really profound that if if by chance i was ever in africa
And i connect i can connect with that chapter out there or or brother or brothers out there and um you know it wouldn’t be it’ll just be a natural occurrence you know hey i’m a sigma from the united states and you know and um you know they will they would put me up
As a as if i would you know i would do the same i would put them up if they ever were here um so the networking is key and then just just meeting um so many different professionals like the professionals that are in my chapter and learning uh from from the elders
From the you know the older uh sigmas hearing their stories uh specifically about uh you know we were founded in 1914 and in 1914 it was a lot going on you had world war one starting in europe um you know unfortunately during that time in 1914 you know 51
You know black americans were lynched that’s when the whole lynching thing started to happen and and it’s funny because a year before that uh harriet tubman died um in 1913 i think march 10th so just being just being a part of something historic is profound to me and
Uh being able to network with brothers across the united states and the globe is something really monumental thank you you’re welcome any more questions uh yes so you mentioned something about uh the duels and the fees so greek life isn’t cheap how not cheap are we talking okay
Missy you wanted to take that one so um as far as an undergraduate chapter um and i can’t even remember how much my dues were um but they the dudes at your undergraduate level are not as expensive as um your graduate level um because you’re basically just focusing on
Just your college campus chapter but um i want to say mine may have been like 700 that was like local and national dues but that was back in you know 1995. so i don’t know what it would be now but basically the dues are covering
Um just the fees that are needed to help um the organization run because you know you’re not just in it to you know wear the t-shirt you know be able to dance around the parties if it’s an actual organization you actually have to run run the organization you have to put events on
You have to conduct business so those dues are for to help your organization run and um so i spoke to our coordinator earlier this week and i know the purpose of this was to make sure that students have the information so i just want to ask on the opposite side of that why
Can you repeat that question yes so um i know the purpose of this me this uh live was to make sure that students have the information that they need to so i wanted to know like why do you think the information goes so um like why why is it that if
Information is easy to get as far as so this publicity goes uh when the organizations are nationwide okay so you’re saying why is the information um hard to get because even though they are national right i think uh mainly because of the fact that it is um a selected uh you know the
Collective process um for the organization so um and also unfortunately it’s a black organization um so you know a lot a lot of information is out there nationally um but though i will say that um the majority of the organizations have been able to celebrate their hundred year celebrations
So that has been able to put out more information um for our organizations but um so i i could basically just say that it’s because it is a selective process for these organizations um and you know it’s a it’s a black organization so they don’t get as much um publicity as other organizations
Do we have any additional questions okay if we don’t have any additional questions i would first like to thank misty williams and phillip davis for an important introduction to african american greek letter organizations i would like to give you guys a few reminders that we have one more black history month event
Next tuesday at 5 00 p.m it is the black student association social and that event is exclusively for students only if you are interested in attending before you leave the meeting um i will input my email directly in the chat so you can receive the invitation link to that particular meeting
But again i would like to thank everyone for attending today’s event and i hope that this information was very very beneficial to you all thank you thank you all yes thank you you
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