Today, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. celebrates the 93rd anniversary of its founding. The sorority was founded on November 12, 1922 by seven young women educators in Indianapolis, Indiana. On December 30, 1929, a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter at Butler University making the organization a national college sorority. It is the only one of the National Pan-Hellenic Conference sororities not founded at Howard University, site of the Alpha chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, and Zeta Phi Beta.
Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha chapter, 1924
Sigma Gamma Rho was founded in a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity at a time when Butler University had quotas on the number of African American students it would admit. Nine African American women educators, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Mary Lou Allison Little, Vivian White Marbury, Bessie M. Downey Martin, Cubena McClure, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford, and Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, gathered together and formed Sigma Gamma Rho. At that time, Butler was located in Irvington and not on its current campus, about 10 miles northwest of the original Butler campus.
Irvington was the home of David Curtiss Stephenson, the Grand Dragon of the Indiana Branch of the Ku Klux Klan. It must not have been a welcoming environment for the young Sigma Gamma Rho women. In 1925, Stephenson’s henchmen kidnapped a young teacher, Madge Oberholtzer. Stephenson assaulted Oberholtzer and it played a role in her death. After she died, he was convicted of killing her. The trial and the sensation it caused helped reverse the growth and influence of the KKK (see http://wp.me/p20I1i-1RY).
In July 1939, when the Los Angeles chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho was founded, actress Hattie McDaniel was a charter member. Her role as “Mammy” in Gone With the Wind earned her the 1940 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She was the first African American woman to win the award.
Hattie McDaniel with her Oscar, February 1940.
McDaniel was also the first African American woman to sing on American radio. She has been honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her contributions to radio and the other for her contributions to motion pictures. In 2006, she became the first African American Academy Award winner to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp.
Breast cancer claimed McDaniel’s life in 1952 at the age of 57. Sigma Gamma Rho created the Hattie McDaniel Cancer Awareness and Health Program in her honor and memory. The mission of the program is to provide education and support of early detection of breast, prostate, ovarian, colon and other cancers as well as research for prevention of the cancers.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
