![]() She has served as a Phi Sigma Chapter member undergraduate advisor to Epsilon Lambda Chapter at Bowie State University and Alpha Phi Chapter at Howard University chartering undergraduate advisor to Eta Beta Chapter at the University of Maryland, College Park committee chairwoman and Basileus (president serving three times). I have watched her show up in her life as an educator, musician, mother of four, and wife to an entrepreneur as well as work in her local chapter, Phi Sigma. Over the past five decades, I have witnessed firsthand my mom’s ability to serve and lead with humility. As a young wife and mother of three children with one on the way, she helped to charter Gamma Psi Sigma, a tri-city chapter for Saginaw, Flint, and Bay City, Michigan (now based in Saginaw) in 1967. Her undergraduate experience shaped her commitment to “Greater Service, Greater Progress (the sorority’s motto), membership development, and leadership. My mother, Theresa learned how to become a part of the solution and to thrive from two of SGRho’s founders, Hattie Redford and Dorothy Whiteside, during her Alpha Chapter pledge process at Butler University in 1959. Drawing on their collective strength, they learned to move past survival. Women like their mother, Sarah Jones Washington their grandmother, Jane Washington and the seven founders of SGRho: Mary Lou Allison Little, Vivian White Marbury, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford, Bessie M. In order to become a part of the solution, I know Florida and Lillian had to lean into the strength of the women who came before them. Also, she became a charter member of the Epsilon Chapter (later became Alpha Sigma Sigma Chapter) in Gary, Indiana. She served as a national officer in the role of Grand Anti-Grammateus from 1927 to 1929. (SGRho) is an African-American sorority that was founded by seven young educators on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1922.įlorida J, a social worker, a dressmaker, a mother of a daughter and a son, and a wife to a barber shop owner, joined SGRho in its early days. In case you didn’t know, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Sorors: my great grandmother, Florida Jones Leake (changed to Leeke) affectionately known as ‘Florida J” my great grand aunt, Lillian Jones Brown, the sister of Florida and my mother, Theresa B. Three of my sheroes happen to be my Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. These brave folks are my sheroes, heroes, and theyroes. ![]() ![]() That choice came from them tapping into their ancestral legacy of resilience.Īncestral legacy of resilience is the strength of the people in my family, community, and culture who overcame adversity, faced challenges, and navigated change. They made a choice to live fully as they moved forward. ![]() As I learned about my family and looked at different photos, I saw the faces of Black people who carved out a life for themselves, their families, and their communities despite what was happening. How were their family, friends, work, and community service impacted by the isolation, quarantine, limitations on public gatherings, and use of disinfectants? How did they deal with the loss of about 675,000 lives in the United States? How did they move forward into the roaring 1920s? My questions led me to my family history and photos. I wondered how they coped with the changes in their daily life. After my first several weeks of teletherapy, I started thinking about how my ancestors made it through the the 1918 influenza pandemic known as the Spanish Flu. ![]()
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