Last Updated on November 14, 2021
Now that Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated has joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated in the “Centennial Club,” the one-hundred year mark is within sight for both Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated. With each passing year, the membership of each National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) sorority grows, as do their extraordinary successes.
Still, the women of the “Divine Nine,” like their fraternity counterparts, are beginning a new century of service with more than a few challenges. Like the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on which most of them were founded, these black sororities increasingly face questions about their very relevance. Despite the sometimes prejudiced origins of these questions, black sorority members must be ready, willing, and able to confront these challenges comprehensively and convincingly.
Here are five challenges critical to the persistence of black sororities in 2014:
1. Sharing Your Narrative
Please realize that not everyone knows the greatness of black sororities, especially if all they see is line dancing and step shows. As part of your life-long membership you should be willing and able to excitedly share the history of your national organization with your classmates, co-workers, church members and children. You are your sorority’s story. It is a story that grows daily with the actions or inaction of each member. Merely memorizing your Founders’ names in alphabetical order forwards and backwards, while impressive to your prophytes, isn’t remotely enough. Even members of black sororities who aren’t financially active need to find other ways to serve their sorority’s mission until they can be. Know your national officers and programmatic initiatives. Join the service efforts of your local chapter. Stay committed.
2. More Inter-organizational Cooperation Between Black Sororities
I don’t know about you, but as a child my mother always told me: “Charity begins at home and ends abroad.” Perhaps this is why I can’t for the life of me understand why so many collegiate members pride themselves on calling other black sorority members out of their names in public forums such as new initiate presentations and step shows. Collegiate chapter advisors have to do a better job discouraging this increasingly popular misogynistic behavior between black sororities. Not only is it mean-spirited, it’s also self-demeaning and plain old stupid.
3. “Mannish” Ways
Yes, I said it. Your sorority is not a fraternity. While it’s perfectly okay to show the brothers love through shout outs, too many new initiate presentations and step shows have become battlegrounds for proving that your sorority is “hard.” I’m pretty sure being “hard” is not a tenet espoused by any NPHC sorority. And while we’re at it, don’t wear your symbols on the colors of your brothers—unless, of course, you’re a Zeta, which exempts you from this rule. Much love to Omega Steve Harvey, but please refer to your Founders for examples of how to think like a lady—and how to act like one too.
4. Counter Popular Images of Black Women
In an age when reality television is anything but real and scripted dramas featuring black women who can’t “have it all” are all the rage, members of black sororities have endless opportunities to be living, breathing examples of black female achievement. Putting the politics of black respectability aside, there are still girls all over this nation and the world who could benefit from the example of the fictional Clair Huxtable, played by the very real AKA Phylicia Rashād. We need to demand and support positive images of black women during primetime television, and in music too, for that matter.
5. Hazing
Stop it. You are not entitled to make someone’s life miserable, or worse, to make them risk their very lives, because someone did it to you. NPHC sorority leaders must recognize that because of the secretive nature of these organizations, despite how many times you say that hazing is wrong, prospective members still think it’s part of the “secret.” Barring prospective members from even a chance of membership for reporting that they have been victims of hazing only contributes to these reckless practices. Pretty much everyone thinks that the national leaders of all black sororities, including the Founders, were hazed, which is completely nonsensical. I challenge leaders of black sororities to publicly debunk these myths. Now, if they allowed themselves to be subjected to hazing, they should admit that were wrong in doing so, and so too is the practice of hazing for that matter.
A member of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Incorporated, Dr. Crystal A. deGregory is the executive editor of HBCUSTORY.com. She teaches in the history, political science, geography and Africana studies department at Tennessee State University, and she is a co-host of Black Docs, a radio show featuring four African-American trailblazing female doctors from different fields. Follow her on twitter at @HBCUstorian and follow HBCUSTORY, Inc. at @HBCUSTORY.
Dr. Crystal, Sistah-Greek. THANK YOU! This is refreshingly written article mixing class, eloquence and grassroots of the foundation or Divine Nine Sororities. You have successfully penned brilliance and truth to paper. Thank you Sis. ~ych of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
Excellent article As an advisor I will be sharing the article with my collegiate chapter
The shield representing Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., is wrong. While it closely resembles the AKA shield and the errors invisible to the “untrained eye,” it is not the sorority’s official, registered shield.
Fiskite! This is a great article! I often speak about when we were students at Fisk, that all of the Greeks supported each other and respected each others organization. Thank you for addressing the hazing issue, how we are portrayed in the media, and to stop acting like we are men! Kudos to you and this article!
Good job, Crystal! I appreciate your fearless approach. Here’s to creating productive conversations among Black Greek women to advance NPHC sororities to the next level sooner than later.
I appreciate this commentary. I am especially supportive of the idea of inter organizational collaboration and the idea of countering popular (negative) images of Black women. However, the “mannish ways” idea is problematic to me. What does it mean to be “hard?” Concepts such as being “ladylike” are problematic because it puts women in a box often not defined by them. This box of being ladylike also perpetuates the notion that women cannot be aggressive and cannot exhibit behaviors that are commonly expressed by men (and celebrated in men). For educated, Black women, this notion of being ladylike causes problems when we are silenced and pushed to the margins in a variety of environments. In those instances we must push back and often that “push back” is labeled negatively as “mannish.” I step “hard,” am admittedly “assertive” and I do not subscribe to such notions of lady likeness. With that said, we also need to be cognizant of how we promote heteronormative values and attitudes in our organizations and how that impacts the experiences of people within our community that do not fall within these narrow confines. Finally, I would add that the negative portrayal of Black women in media raises another issue we need to take on as a community. The assault on our sisters in this country and globally is real and we can leverage these negative images to engage in discourse on the underlying issues from which such behavior emerges. Fatherless daughters, competition for men, limited employment opportunities, objectification, sexual violence, etc. all need to be addressed and the only people who can/will bring these issues to the center of our concern is sisters. Thank you for putting forth this charge. I think this is a valuable and important part of the discussion we need to have in our community.
I agree with you 100% Dr. Govan. I find the notions of femininity and lady-likeness to be narrowly construed and unduly restrictive in which roles we are allowed to inhabit in life. I was surprised to see that the author included that point when she appears to have some understanding of Respectability Politics as mentioned in point number four. Where’s the awareness of how so-called lady-like behavior fits into the politics of respectability?
Overall, I’m glad folks are thinking of the challenges that face sororities and BGLOs in general. I have my own ideas of what the challenges are but this is a good start to at least get the conversation going. I fear, however, that it rests in the same safe spaces that many of our orgs have been comfortable in for years (more than a century in some cases).
Well written and on point!
Could not have summed it up any better… thank you!
Old school Zeta Phi Beta, 1979, WMU, Kalamazoo, MI
I am impressed!!! I am an AKA that truly appreciates the greatness of this information. Go……GREEK LIFE!
When we decide our communities are equipped, our Public school truancy rates have decreased and I standardize Test score are at record heights (Reading Writing and Math) are more important than stroking our Greek Ego then we will Continue Status Quo. Greek Renaissance!!!!
Thank you for your feedback. Let me say first, that I believe in respectability, black, white or otherwise. I have academic friends who don’t for a variety of reasons, but as a historian, and as a person, I value an awareness that what, when, and where we do, what we do, matters.
I also have friends who have taken issue with the phrase “mannishness.” Fraternities and sororities are, by they very nature, born out of histories and generalizations that prospective members and members identify with. If something is so inherently wrong with the notion of being lady-like in sorority life, I can’t personally see how not being lady-like is any better.
Still, that’s not what I’m taking issue with either. Notions of masculinity, like the “hardness” that is born of it, are inextricably linked with violence, the kind of violence that both fraternities and sororities must end. It is my essential point that if we are to have a future, we must eradicate violence and the slippery slope that leads to it.
Good afternoon,
Was it an oversight that the sorority affliation of the new president of FAMU was not mentioned in the article ?
Sororities and Fraternity members are poster children for identity crises, weak character, and low self-esteem.
I didn’t fully realize this until I stepped foot on my HBCU campus. The wholesome image they TRIED to put out was in direct conflict with the screaming reality of these groups (cults). I’ve seen my fellow classmates get beat, humiliate, go to the hospital, fight, develop alcoholism, fail classes, start becoming uppity, go broke, etc etc all in the name of “greekdom”. I constantly witnessed the most ridiculous and immature behavior with this junk, for instance I witness these groups harass people just because they were wearing colors of their respective organizations, as if they owned the trademark rights to certain colors. They were and still are a complete hot mess and mess people up, these organizations become the gods of many, it so pathetic. These people are satan pawns and don’t even know it …. I witness some of the most demonic behavior with them. With the Death Marches probates, guys foaming at the mouth/slobbering everywhere at probates, girls seriously acting like men at step shows and probates, girls seriously and violently shaking their heads as if they’re possessed. It’s not funny nor cute, it’s disturbing and silly …..
So when I was finally recruited by the 3 of the 5 frats on campus I said absolutely not to them all b/c I truly felt way too mature and above what they were about. I was too wise by the grace of God to not fall for their lies and get caught up in the idolatry and foolishness of these hypocritical groups.
Dear Listen Up,
I’m really sorry that you had a bad experience. Let me say this to you, there are bad apples everywhere. And when they feaster, they do indeed spoil the bunch. I do think that I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this bad behavior and the personal struggles from which it stems, is not unique to black fraternal culture. There is a lot of bad behavior on record in and out of the church. As for idolatry, there is a lot of that in the church as well. Don’t be deceived, the Black Church, like the Black schoolhouse and Black fraternal organizations have pursued righteousness while demanding justice right here on Earth. Their successes are now the privileges you enjoy on a daily basis.
– HBCUstorian
Dear Countess,
Not necessarily an oversight, there are many black sorority members doing great things–including Dr. Elmira Mangum!
– HBCUstorian
Dear Lottie,
Thanks so much! GREEK LOVE!
– HBCUstorian
Dear Dr. Roz,
Many thanks Sister Fiskite. We’re on the battlefield together!
Yours in Fisk,
Crystal
Dear Mr. #BlackGreekSuccess,
I’m on the battlefield with you. I don’t know that it was a fearless as it was needed to be said! I appreciate your feedback, the work of the Black Greek Success Program…and you!
Crystal
Dear Lorraine,
Many thanks for reading, and for your support! GREEK LOVE!
– @HBCUstorian
Dear Mr. Seals,
Thanks for reading and commenting. I agree, there is much work to do. We cannot however, throw out the baby with the bath water. We can and must be better!
– HBCUstorian
As a new initiate of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority incorporated, this article was very informational and refreshing. Yes, Many institutions, even HBCUs, are questioning the relevance of BGLOs. Therefore, it is for us to take a proactive stand to educate and defend our organizations at which we hold dear to our hearts.
Thank you for this I will be passing it along 🙂 <3
Awesome issues here. I am very glad to see your article.
Thank you so much and I am looking ahead to touch you.
Will you kindly drop me a e-mail?