HERSTORY OF SIGMA GAMMA RHO

SIGMA GAMMA RHO Sorority Inc. was founded on November 12, 1922 by seven young black women on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. In a time when education for African-Americans was difficult to attain, the founders of SIGMA GAMMA RHO SORORITY Inc.; Mary Lou Allison Gardner Little, NannieMae Gahn Johnson, Vivian White Marbury, Bessie H. Downey Martin, Cubena McClure, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford and Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, became educators. They saw the need to promote greater service to all people, excellence in education and fellowship among all women. They believed that self-respect, knowledge, and discipline gained through study would help individuals to recognize their duty and responsibility for their society.

SIGMA GAMMA RHO Sorority Inc. is a non-profit collegiate organization dedicated to the encouragement and promotion of high scholastic attainment, community service, and the improvement of the quality of our lives and the society in which we live. Sorority membership is open to quality women of any race who share it's principles and meet it's requirements. The purpose of the Sorority is expressed in it's slogan,"Greater Service, Greater Progress."

More than 400 undergraduate and alumni chapters with over 72,000 members have been established through out the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean. The national headquarters of SIGMA GAMMA RHO Sorority Inc. is located in Chicago, Illinois. Sisterhood, Scholarship and Service are the principles that bond Sigma women. Promoting unity is the common purpose of our sisterhood that is a lifetime committment to the acquisition of knowledge and community service for the betterment of society. Our founders believed that promoting higher education of women ensures the stability of the future. As such, SIGMA GAMMA RHO Sorority Inc. is shaping the future by preparing its membership and the community as a whole for it today.