History

  • Founders of the sorority with crest in the middle

     

     Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was organized on November 12, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana by seven school teachers on the campus of Butler University.

     

    These Seven Magnificent Women were:

    Mary Lou Allison Gardner Little

    Dorothy Hanley Whiteside

    Vivian White Marbury

    Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson

    Hattie Mae Annette Dulin Redford

    Bessie M. Downey Rhoades Martin

    Cubena McClure

     

    Sigma Gamma Rho was the first sorority of Black Women on a campus that is not a Historically Black College/University. The group became an incorporated collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to Alpha Chapter at Butler University. From that cold day in November, Sigma Gamma Rho has progressively evolved into a thriving sisterhood that comprises more than 75,000 college-trained women in more than 400 chapters across the United States, Virgin Islands, Africa, Germany, and the Bahamas.

     

    In keeping with the ideals of Sigma Gamma Rho, the sorority has supported the following organizations: NAACP, National Council of Negro Women, National Pan Hellenic Group, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Urban League, National Mental Health Association, United Negro College Fund, Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change and Black Women's Agenda.

     

    Soaring to greater heights around the world the women of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. continue their mission of Service, Sisterhood, and Scholarship. Wherever you find a group of Sigmas note that their leaving their mark of service throughout the community.