– Today is a momentous occasion as we honor and celebrate the National Pan-Hellenic Council by dedicating our Divine Nine Plaza. [Tammara Durham] The National Pan-Hellenic Council is composed of nine international Greek letter sororities and fraternities, affectionately called the Divine Nine. The predominantly black fraternities and sororities
That make up NPHC is a testament to the fact that despite hardships, African Americans still rise. What you see before you started with students. This campaign started because they wanted a space dedicated to their organizations, its members, and the rich history here at KU. [Kendrick Jackson] It’s definitely extremely important,
Especially since each chapter has put in a lot of hard work and dedication to improve the community here at the University, especially historically when it comes to desegregation on the campus. To see that we have something that’s permanently here, to be dedicated to our council
For all their hard work, definitely means a lot. [Nikita Haynie] Now that we have this plaza, it’s a great way to show that they exist and they’re here, in conjunction with the shields that we have right behind us as well. Within the National Pan-Hellenic Council, you have what we call Single Letter Chapters,
And what that means is that if you are a Single Letter Chapter then you are, your chapter is the oldest of that particular organization. So something really unique for KU is that we have four Single Letter Chapters here. The National Pan-Hellenic Council came into establishment around the early 1930’s.
During that time a lot of racial segregation, black people not having the rights to do certain things, so it really came out of the struggle of what was going on during that time. It goes deeper than just the social aspect of it, it’s more of political, fighting for political rights as well.
And just that source of activism I would say, when you bring attention to something then people can educate themselves more for those that may not be aware of why they’re in existence. I just think it’s a great way to highlight that.
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