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Deltas Celebrate 100 Years with Seattle ‘Torch Tour’
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s Seattle
Alumnae Chapter members, left,
Sonia Bell and 17th National President
Mona H. Bailey
Past Far West Region Regional
Director Tressa Williams with Delta
friend
Members of Portland Alumnae Chapter
Members of Portland Alumnae Chapter
C
elebrating 100 years, the Delta
Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., gathered
last weekend in Seattle for a region-
al celebration that is literally traveling
across the country, lighting a “torch” at
important stops along the sorority’s history.
The single largest African-American
women’s organization in the country, the
Deltas’ 22-city international “torch tour”
commemorates the group’s founding by 22
African-American women in 1913 on the
campus of Washington, D.C.’s Howard Uni-
versity.
An actual flame, the torch will visit the
hometowns of the sorority’s living past
national presidents and current Executive
Committee members.
Velma Johnson and Marion Gilmore,
Portland Alumnae
Having fun at Friday evening
celebration
Deltas from Far West Region enjoy informal get
together at NW African American Museum
ing served as one of the district’s assistant
superintendents from 1986 to 1990. Before
that, Bailey served for 12 years as the assis-
tant state superintendent of public instruc-
tion for the State of Washington.
Seattlewas also the home of one of the 22
founders,
Bertha
Pitts
Campbell
(1889–1990). Acknowledged as a promi-
nent civil rights leader and activist, she was
honored by the Washington State House of
Representatives for her life and work on
May 11, 1987. The following month, Seat-
tle proclaimed June 13, 1987, as Bertha
Pitts Campbell Day. On her 100th birthday,
the King County Council declared it to be
Bertha Pitts Campbell Day throughout the
county.
Celebratory torch activities in
Seattle included a day of sci-
ence, technology, engineering
and math activities for youth at
the Pacific Science Center, as
well as a viewing of local Delta
history at the Northwest African
American Museum.
College members of Delta
Sigma Theta also held a canned-
food drive to benefit Northwest
Harvest and presented a history
through a step-and-dance “yard
show” on the University of
Washington campus. The week-
James end activities culminated with a
gala at the Four Seasons Hotel,
with Bailey as keynote speaker.
In addition to the scheduled stop in Seat-
tle, tour stops include Denver; St. Louis;
Oklahoma City; Dallas; Little Rock, Ark.;
Chicago; Detroit; Cleveland; Mobile, Ala.;
Atlanta and Augusta; Tampa, Fla.; Greens-
boro and Charlotte, N.C.; New York; Balti-
more; and New Orleans, the home of
Cynthia M. A. Butler-McIntyre, the current
national president of the public service
organization. The 22-city journey will cul-
minate at the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s
51st National Convention in Washington,
D.C., July 11–17.
The torch will then be passed to the
national president, signifying the start of the
convention. Find out more about the Deltas
at http://www.deltasigmatheta.org.
We not only want to
celebrate our Centennial
founding nationally and our
many accomplishments, but
also want to recognize the
impact that our organization
has had right here in the
Pacific Northwest
—Jeanette
“We are immensely proud to have been
selected as a host city for the Delta torch,”
said Jeanette James, president of the Seattle
Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta.
“Delta has been a presence in the Seattle
area since 1933.
“We not only want to celebrate our Cen-
tennial founding nationally and our many
accomplishments, but also want to recog-
nize the impact that our organization has
had right here in the Pacific Northwest,”
James said.
Seattleis home to the sorority’s 17th
national president, Mona Humphries Bai-
ley. A long-standing Mercer Island resident
and veteran educational leader, Bailey
served as deputy superintendent of Seattle
Public Schools from 1990 to 1994 after hav-
January 30, 2013
The Seattle Skanner Page 5