{"id":452,"date":"2026-05-23T09:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/famous-delta-sigma-theta-members-deltas-who-made-history\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T09:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:37:14","slug":"famous-delta-sigma-theta-members-deltas-who-made-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/famous-delta-sigma-theta-members-deltas-who-made-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous Delta Sigma Theta Members: Deltas Who Made History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Delta<\/figure>\n

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated<\/a> was founded on January 13, 1913, by 22 women at Howard University who marched in the Women’s Suffrage March just weeks later. In the 113 years since, the sorority has grown to more than 350,000 members across 1,000 chapters worldwide. The women who have carried the crimson and cream have shaped courtrooms, stages, newsrooms, and civil rights history in ways that still echo today. Here is a look at some of the most famous Delta Sigma Theta members and the legacies they built.<\/p>\n

Government and Political Trailblazers<\/h2>\n
\"Famous
Notable Deltas have led in politics, law, and public service across generations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shirley Chisholm<\/h3>\n

Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress in 1968, representing New York’s 12th congressional district. Four years later she became the first woman and the first African American to seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, running on a platform her campaign slogan captured plainly: “Unbought and Unbossed.” Chisholm pledged Delta Sigma Theta while at Brooklyn College, and her presence in the sorority’s legacy is inseparable from the broader story of Black women in American politics.<\/p>\n

Barbara Jordan<\/h3>\n

Barbara Jordan was the first African American woman elected to the Texas Senate and the first Southern Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Her delivery during the 1974 Watergate hearings, where she argued the constitutional grounds for impeachment with uncommon precision, introduced millions of Americans to her voice. Jordan pledged Delta Sigma Theta at Texas Southern University, and her career set a standard for ethics in public life that continues to be cited decades later.<\/p>\n

Patricia Roberts Harris<\/h3>\n

Patricia Roberts Harris broke two barriers at once when she became the first Black woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter and later Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Before her cabinet appointments, she served as the first Executive Director of Delta Sigma Theta itself, a role that put her at the center of the organization’s institutional growth.<\/p>\n

Loretta Lynch<\/strong> served as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States under President Barack Obama, becoming the first Black woman to hold that office. Ketanji Brown Jackson<\/strong> made history in 2022 when she was confirmed as the first Black woman to serve as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Marcia Fudge<\/strong> served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was a former Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; she also served as a national president of Delta Sigma Theta after pledging at Ohio State University. Keisha Lance Bottoms<\/strong>, the 60th Mayor of Atlanta, led the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 racial justice movement and is the only Atlanta mayor in history to have served all three branches of city government; she pledged at Florida A&M University.<\/p>\n

Civil Rights Icons Who Changed America<\/h2>\n

Dorothy Height spent decades as the president of the National Council of Negro Women and worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the key organizers behind the 1963 March on Washington. Often referred to as the “Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement,” she was a former national president of Delta Sigma Theta and joined the organization while living in New York City. Her work connected the sorority’s Five-Point Programmatic Thrust<\/a> to the broader freedom movement in direct, practical ways.<\/p>\n

Myrlie Evers-Williams carried the cause forward after the 1963 assassination of her husband, Medgar Evers, eventually serving as chair of the NAACP Board of Directors and helping reinvigorate one of the country’s most important civil rights organizations. Alexis Herman<\/strong> served as U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton and is recognized across the sorority’s official Notable Deltas list for her career in public service. Sherrilyn Ifill<\/strong> served as president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, shepherding major voting rights and criminal justice cases through federal courts.<\/p>\n

Entertainment and Music Legends<\/h2>\n
\"Delta
Deltas in entertainment have won Grammys, Emmys, Tonys, and Oscars across generations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aretha Franklin<\/strong>, the Queen of Soul, was inducted as an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta in 1992. Her decades of recordings and her visibility during the Civil Rights Movement made her one of the most recognized voices the sorority has ever claimed. Cicely Tyson<\/strong> redefined portrayals of Black women in Hollywood across a career spanning more than 60 years; an Emmy and Tony Award winner, she was an honorary Delta who lived to the age of 96. Angela Bassett<\/strong> joined as an honorary member in 2013, bringing her reputation for playing powerful Black women in film and television into the sorority’s tradition. Natalie Cole<\/strong> pledged the Upsilon chapter at the University of Southern California and went on to win multiple Grammy Awards, most memorably for her 1991 recording of “Unforgettable” alongside her late father Nat King Cole.<\/p>\n

Sheryl Lee Ralph<\/strong>, who won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Abbott Elementary, is a member of the sorority. Roberta Flack<\/strong>, whose recording of “Killing Me Softly” became one of the defining songs of the 1970s, is also a Delta. Ledisi<\/strong> (Leddy Young) and Andra Day<\/strong> both appear on Delta Sigma Theta’s official Notable Deltas roster, representing the sorority’s continued presence in contemporary music.<\/p>\n

Words and Voices That Endure<\/h2>\n
\"Jasmine
Deltas in media, literature, and education have shaped how America tells its own story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mary McLeod Bethune<\/strong> was inducted as an honorary Delta in 1923 at the sorority’s national convention. She founded what is now Bethune-Cookman University, served as a key advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on issues affecting African American youth and women, and wrote the poem known as the “Delta Girl,” a piece that became woven into the sorority’s cultural identity. Nikki Giovanni<\/strong>, the poet, author, and activist whose work explored race, justice, and Black empowerment for more than five decades, became an honorary member in 1973 and passed away at the age of 81.<\/p>\n

Joy-Ann Reid<\/strong> and Abby Phillip<\/strong> appear on Delta Sigma Theta’s official Notable Deltas list under journalism, representing the sorority’s footprint in political media. April Ryan<\/strong>, the veteran White House correspondent, is also listed among the organization’s notable journalists. Susan L. Taylor<\/strong>, the longtime editor-in-chief of Essence magazine who shaped how a generation of Black women saw themselves in print, is a Delta, as is television producer Mara Brock Akil<\/strong>, who created Girlfriends and Being Mary Jane. Ruby Dee<\/strong>, the actress, poet, and playwright who stood alongside her husband Ossie Davis in the Civil Rights Movement, was an honorary Delta and served as honorary co-chair of the sorority’s National Commission on Arts and Letters.<\/p>\n

A Legacy That Keeps Growing<\/h2>\n

The women listed here represent a fraction of the more than 350,000 Deltas who have carried the sorority’s mission of scholarship, sisterhood, service, and social action into every corner of American life. From founding members who marched for women’s suffrage in 1913 to sitting Supreme Court justices and Emmy winners today, Delta Sigma Theta has consistently produced leaders who refuse to let history stay where they find it. The crimson and cream keeps showing up, decade after decade, in the rooms where the work gets done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Shirley Chisholm to Aretha Franklin, these famous Delta Sigma Theta members prove why Deltas have shaped American history for over a century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greek-life-divine-nine"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}