Another Depression-era initiative was the Sigma Gamma Rho Employment Aid Bureau to assist members in finding jobs to improve their life.īy the war years, Sigma Gamma Rho established the Sigma Teen Town program to address juvenile delinquency gripping the nation in absence of father figures. In the 1930s, it sponsored literary contests to give books to young African American students and created the National Vocational Guidance program to help them start careers. Sigma Gamma Rho’s early leaders saw the importance of fighting for equal rights when it came to African-Americans’ educational needs. The sorority adopted “Greater Service, Greater Progress” as its slogan, royal blue and old gold as its colors and the yellow tea rose as its flower. The seven founding member – the “seven pearls” – were all educators. The Ku Klux Klan had a strong presence in Indiana, so its formation in November 1922 was a bold undertaking.
Sigma Gamma Rho is the lone African-American sorority established at a predominantly white institution – Butler University in Indianapolis. The chapter, which is inactive, also sponsored seminars in self-defense and group dynamics. Members also worked locally with Habitat for Humanity and campaigned for the March of Dimes. In keeping with Sigma Gamma Rho’s national ideals, the UMES chapter supported over the years the NAACP, National Council of Negro Women, National Pan Hellenic Council, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Urban League, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, National Mental Health Association, United Negro College Fund, Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, Black Women’s Agenda and American Association of University Women. Tutoring and mentoring young boys at the Boxing Association was among the early community service initiatives the UMES chapter took on.
The Nu Delta chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore was chartered in the fall of 1992 with 16 members.
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