Happy Founder Day’s to the ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated! 101 years of scholarship, sisterhood, and service. Since their founding in 1922, the ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho have been dedicated to influencing positive change and uplifting the community. Showing love to the ladies in that royal blue and gold, let’s dive into the history of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.

In 1922 at Butler U

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was founded on November 12, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana on the campus of Butler University by seven educators:  Mary Lou Allison Gardner Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian Irene White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Annette Dulin Redford, Bessie Mae Downey Rhoades Martin, and Cubena McClure.

The organization was incorporated as a national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when the Alpha chapter at Butler University was granted a charter. Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. is the only sorority in the NPHC not founded at Howard University and the only sorority founded at a predominately white institution.

National Programs

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., has been committed to helping those in need and improving communities all around the world. The sorority works with organizations such as the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), the National Urban League, and The United Negro College Fund (UNCF)  along with many others. Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. has five national programs: Operation BigBookBag, Women’s Wellness Initiative, Swim 1992, Project Cradle Care, and the Annual Youth Symposium.

Operation BigBookBag is a program that was created to address the needs, challenges, and issues that face school-aged children who are educationally at-risk, in local homeless shelters, and extended-care hospitals and facilities. With this program, educational materials, equipment, and school supplies are collected and donated by members and chapters. The Women’s Wellness Initiative is a collective effort that permits chapters to focus on health issues that affect women; specifically women of color.

Swim 1922 was created in response to the CDC statistic that approximately 10 people drown every day in the United States, in addition to that 70 percent of Black children and 60 percent of Hispanic children do not know how to swim in the US. In a partnership with USA Swimming, Sigma Gamma Rho aims to address this by having members of the sorority and Olympians teach water safety as well as how to swim.

Project Cradle Care is an essential program of the sorority created to “raise awareness of disparate and inequitable maternal and infant health outcomes Black women endure through community outreach, advocacy, education, and implicit bias training. In so doing, we aim to mitigate outcome and life-course disparities in our communities.” The Annual Youth Symposium which takes place on the second Saturday of March simultaneously by Alumnae Chapters across the country acts as a unifying effort during the sorority’s Sigma Week.

The Symposium highlights some of the prevalent concerns that negatively affect the youth such as drugs, abuse, self-harm, and human trafficking. Undergraduates and affiliates support this program as well.

Quality over Quantity

Although Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. is the smallest sorority of the Divine 9, they have chapters all over the country and the world. There are over 100,000 members in the organization both domestically and abroad. Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. has over 500 chapters in the US, Bahamas, Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, Canada, Germany, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and its newly chartered chapter in Tokyo, Japan.

Notable members include the R&B group Brownstone, Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel, Carol’s Daughter Founder Lisa Price, HIV/AIDS activist Hydeia Broadbent, and many more.

In honor of Founder’s Day we asked some members what they loved most about their sorority here are some of the answers:

“I’ve only been in Sigma for about 19 months and I’ve grown so much with the organization through my sisters and sorors that has helped mold me into becoming the woman that I’ve always dreamed of and more.”

– Alyssa Spann, Beta Pi Sigma Durham Alumnae Chapter Spring 22

“What I love most about my sorority is how strong my founders are and the uniqueness that comes with us. We are the only sorority founded at a PWI during the rise of the KKK. With all the adversity they faced still pulled through.”

 – D’Anna Layne, Virginia State University Spring '19

“I love the fact that all of our founders were educators and quality over quantity just because we may not come in big groups doesn’t mean the job still won’t get done”

– India McCall-Taylor, Virginia State University Spring '19 

“ I  love about  SGRho is my founders are all educators as I am an educator as well. I love how my founders paved the way for women like me who don’t typically fit any stereotypes. I love being an SGRho because I can be myself and not have to live up to any crazy standards or stereotypes.”

 – Chelsea Harrison, Virginia State University Spring '19