Founders of Delta Sigma Theta

Winona Cargile Alexander, Madree Penn White, Wertie Blackwell Weaver, Vasti Turley Murphy, Ethel Cuff Black, Frederica Chase Dodd, Osceola McCarthy Adams, Pauline Oberdorfer Minor, Edna Brown Coleman, Edith Motte Young, Marguerite Young Alexander, Naomi Sewell Richardson, Eliza P. Shippen, Zephyr J. Chisom Carter, Myra Davis Hemmings, Soror Mamie Reddy Rose, Bertha Pitts Campbell, Florence Letcher Toms, Olive Jones, Jessie McGuire Dent, Jessie Bugg Middleton, and Ethel Carr Watson.

On January 13, 1913, these twenty-two women have chartered Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The sorority, found out of the need for change, has become one of the largest Black women's organizations in the world with members numbering over 195,000 members. Since the inception of the Alpha Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta has not only spread nationwide, but also worldwide with chapters in West Germany, Liberia, the Republic of Haiti, the Virgin Islands, the Carribean, and Korea. Delta Sigma Theta's objective "To establish and maintain a high standard of morality and scholarship among women." Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, incorporated in 1930, wanted to provide an immediate means of serving the community, region, and nation so as to present herself as a public organization rather than a social organization.

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