{"id":410,"date":"2026-05-22T03:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/delta-sigma-theta-sorority-complete-guide-history-traditions-culture\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:37:28","slug":"delta-sigma-theta-sorority-complete-guide-history-traditions-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/delta-sigma-theta-sorority-complete-guide-history-traditions-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Delta Sigma Theta Sorority: A Complete Guide to History, Traditions, and Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Delta<\/figure>\n

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated turned 113 in January 2026, and it remains the largest African American women’s organization in the world. The full picture sits at the intersection of history, traditions, and culture, and three of those threads run from a single Howard University meeting on January 13, 1913 to the more than 1,000 chapters operating today.<\/p>\n

This guide walks through where Delta started, why its founders left another sorority to begin it, the symbols members carry for life, and the programs that turned the organization into a fixture of civic and academic life across the country.<\/p>\n

Founded by 22 Women at Howard University in 1913<\/h2>\n

Twenty two undergraduates at Howard University chartered Delta Sigma Theta on January 13, 1913. They were college educated Black women writing a sorority into existence at a moment when Jim Crow laws, lynching, and disenfranchisement defined daily life for African Americans. The founders included Osceola Macarthy Adams, Bertha Pitts Campbell, Myra Davis Hemmings, Vashti Turley Murphy, Madree Penn White, Florence Letcher Toms, Ethel Cuff Black, Naomi Sewell Richardson, and Pauline Oberdorfer Minor, among 13 others.<\/p>\n

Their very first public act was political. Members marched as the collegiate section of the Women’s Suffrage March in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913, less than two months after the sorority’s founding. The march set the tone for everything that followed, sisterhood paired with public action.<\/p>\n

Why Delta Split From Alpha Kappa Alpha<\/h2>\n
\"Delta
Delta Sigma Theta has roots in Howard University activism since 1913.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of Delta’s founders had been members of Alpha Kappa Alpha<\/a>, the first Black sorority, founded at Howard in 1908. In 1912 a group of AKA members proposed changing the sorority’s name, colors, symbols, and direction. According to Delta historian Paula Giddings, the group also believed AKA lacked a charter and therefore had no legal authority to incorporate or charter new chapters, which would have capped the organization’s growth.<\/p>\n

The past president, Nellie Quander, asked the group to table the discussion. They voted instead to reorganize, and on January 13, 1913 they named the new sorority Delta Sigma Theta and decided to incorporate. The Alpha chapter incorporated on February 18, 1913, and the Grand Chapter was nationally incorporated on January 20, 1930, giving the organization authority over every chapter under its banner. A direct comparison of the two sororities is in the AKA vs Delta Sigma Theta guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Core Principles and the Five-Point Programmatic Thrust<\/h2>\n

Delta’s modern programming sits inside a framework called the Five-Point Programmatic Thrust, adopted in 1955 under 10th National President Dorothy Height. Every chapter program, from Howard to West Africa, ladders up to one of these five areas. This is what most members mean when they refer to the five pillars of DST.<\/p>\n