This article is the second part of a two-article series highlighting Black Greek life in the Midwest. The first article can be found here. In the years following the end of the First World War, African Americans saw several changes in the landscape of higher education. The most prominent was the dramatic increase in the […]
This article is the first part of a two-article series highlighting Black Greek life in the Midwest. The Midwest is a critical site for understanding the history of African Americans and higher education. Thus, studying the Midwest provides an even more complex story of Black Greek life during the early 1900s. Contrary to popular belief, […]
August 20th, 2020 celebrates 100 years since the 19th Amendment, which prohibited denying suffrage to anyone on the basis of sex, was ratified and adopted into the United States Constitution. Black women were an integral part of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, advocating that all women be enfranchised despite race. Small pockets of Black women were […]
Did you know that Julia Carson was a Zeta? Carson was a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Julia May Carson represented Indiana’s 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1997 until her passing in 2007. She was the first woman and the first African American to represent Indianapolis […]
Did you know that Sonia Sanchez is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha? Sanchez pledged the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Sonia Sanchez (born Wilsonia Benita Driver) is an African-American poet, writer, and professor of American literature. She was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement and has written over a […]
Did you know that Roxie Roker was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha? Roker pledged the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Roker is best known for her role as Helen Willis, half of the first interracial couple to be shown on American prime time television in 1975. After growing up in Brooklyn, New […]
Did you know that Olympic gold medalist Chryste Gaines is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha? Gaines pledged the Alpha Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Chryste Gaines was born in Lawton, Oklahoma. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in 1992. In addition, she earned her MBA from Coles College […]
Did you know that sports icon Althea Gibson was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha? Gibson pledged the Beta Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Althea Gibson was a tennis star who became the first African American to win a Grand Slam title. She is often compared to Jackie Robinson due to the […]
This week, Google for Startups announced its list of 50 recipients for its second Black Founders Fund and seven of the founders named are members of Black fraternities and sororities. The seven founders who represent Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi and Delta Sigma Theta each received $100,000 in non-dilutive funding for their respective […]
The following is an Op-Ed from 2019 by Trés McMichael. As an openly gay Musical Theatre major from the suburbs of Maryland, I was more interested in pliés and Shakespeare than probates and step shows. I knew who I was, who I loved, and the challenges that came with being a black gay man at […]