March 2021 Drum Newsletter: Women's History

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Table Of Contents 4 - Black AND Female: Intersectionality of the Black Woman

Maryah Burney 5 - “Advice to Black Girls”

Student Submissions

6 - Overlooked Women in History

Natia Frisby

7 - Women’s Organization Scramble 8, 9, 10, 11 - NPHC Sororities 12 - “Phenomenal Woman”

Maya Angelou

13 - “Advice to Black Girls”

Student Submissions

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Black Caucus Communications Committee 2020-2021

Jeanelle Loiseau Junior - Biochemistry/Molecular Biology She/Her

Maryah Burney Second year, Digital and Print Journalism, She/Her

Larra Lopez Freshman, Broadcast Journalism, She/Her

DeAndre Malcolm Junior - Public Relations He/him

Maya Robinson Sophomore - Photojournalism She/Her

Maryanna Diallo Freshman, Public Relations, She/Her

Natia Frisby Freshman - Public Relations She/Her

Black AND Female: Intersectionality of the Black Woman

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By Maryah Burney

The United States of America has dedicated the month of March to celebrate the history and accomplishments of American women, since its congressional declaration in 1987. From the women who fought for rights based on sex, to women who were pioneers in their respective industries, the month of March has been revered as a time that should set the standard for always, celebrating the storied history of women.

Women have been an essential piece in furthering American values like unity and freedom since colonization. From the moment the first enslaved Africans set foot on the shores of North America over 400 years ago, Black women have fought tirelessly for the Black community while fighting our own battles.

In the movements to further the goals of abolition and woman’s suffrage, Black women were consistently pushed to the wayside and treated like means to further an end rather than an end in themselves.

For white women, it was and continues to be a gender-first issue.

For Black men, it was and continues to be a race-first issue.

For Black women, there is no separation of race and gender.

In the fight for women’s rights, the unique experiences of Black women were often pushed to the wayside. It was easy for white feminist leaders to understand

their own plight, and for some that of Black men. However, when it came to Black women, the understanding seemed to fade.

It’s no secret that revolutionary leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw fighting for the rights of upper-middle-class white women as a priority. Stanton herself even stated that “(W)e educated, virtuous white women, are more worthy of the vote” during the fight for the ratification of the 15th amendment. Although these two and countless other women pioneered a great deal of change, they created a lasting legacy that still warps the perspective of white women and creates a macabre reality for Black women.

During the modern feminist eras, the mainstream has turned to a more colorblind perspective. While this has somewhat moved the needle, it still invalidates at best and ignores at most the way Black women are socialized and forced to operate through the world.

Many scholars have discussed two Americas of race. These discussions become amplified when it comes to the lives of white women and Black women. Although the common goal of women’s liberation is shared, the application and the fight for it are dramatically different.

Black women have actively fought against structural and institutional powers, while white women have tried to find their ways to be a part of that structure.

Because of the nonpareil experiences existing at the intersection of Blackness and women, Black women have constantly had to fight to create their own spaces.

These spaces, both physical like that of social clubs and sororities, also ideological, like Black feminist thought, womanism, and intersectional feminism, has been the saving grace and support systems for Black women.

Black women have been the constant change agents in every space they enter. They bear a burden that gets heavier and harder to cope with, given any other marginalized group they might be a part of. Regardless, they continue to persist.

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Overlooked Women in History 6

By Natia Frisby

Fannie Lou Hammer

A civil rights activist that tackled racial tensions that African Americans faced in the South. In her home state of Mississippi, she helped carry out the 1964 Freedom Summer African American voter registration drive. She also was apart of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the Democratic National Convention to challenge segregation in Mississippi. She advocated for voting for African American voting rights. She joined the Civil Rights Movement, as well as, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, to advocate for relief efforts for all black people.

Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems was an American artist and photographer who examined contemporary American life through photography, audio, and text. She was born in 1953, in Oregon, and graduated from the California Institue of the Arts, with her B.F.A., she received her M.F.A. in photography from the University of California, San Diego. She explored issues of race, class, and gender identity. She explored personal, familial, and women’s lives in her work. Her most work is her Kitchen Table Series in 1990, which depicted a narrative life cycle of women’s life in staged photos.

Marie Leveau Marie Leveau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 10th, 1801. She was the daughter of a freed slave and a wealthy mulatto man. Now, Leveau is one of the most influential American practitioners of magical arts. Today, her gravesite is one of the most visited tourist attractions in New Orleans. She is known as the VooDoo queen and has influenced songs, and characters in movies and television shows, i.e. Angela Bassett’s portrayal of Leveau in American Horror Story: Coven.

Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells was born in Mississippi but moved to Memphis at 16 to take care of her younger siblings after her parents were killed because of yellow fever.

As she got older, she became a known journalist because of her writing about the adversity she faced while riding a train. She advocated for anti-lynching laws in the south, north, and in London, starting the London Anti-Lynching Committee. She ended up settling in in Chicago and helped found the NAACP while also joining the women’s suffrage movement. She also helped unionize black people in the south to fight against the unlawful lynching for five lynchings of black boys.

Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was born in Virginia and the mother of 5 children and a poor, black tobacco farmer. Because of segregation in hospitals, she wasn’t rewarded the same treatment white people received when she went to Johns Hopkins. Her cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 after she died of cervical cancer in Baltimore, MD. Her cells became world-known cells, for her HeLa cells (taken from the first two letters of her first and last name), because her cells are the only human cell line that can produce indefinitely. Her cells have impacted medical science and important bioethical issues.

Penn State Women’s Penn State Women Organizations Scramble Organization Scramble

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Name:

See how many Women's Organizations you can unscramble!

By Jeanelle Loiseau See how many Women’s organizations you can unscramble!

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Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was founded on January 15, 1908 on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC. Its founders were among the fewer than 1,000 Negroes enrolled in higher education institutions in 1908 and the 25 women who received Bachelor of Arts degrees from Howard University between 1908 and 1911.

Nine juniors and seniors who constituted the initial core group of founding members and seven sophomores who were extended an invitation for membership without initiation comprised what are acknowledged as Alpha Kappa Alpha’s original 16 founders. Led by Ethel Hedgeman (Lyle), the nine Howard University students who came together to form Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority were the scholastic leaders of their classes. Each also had a special talent or gift that further enhanced the potential of this dynamic group.

The 16 founders are: Anna Easter Brown, Beulah Burke, Lillie Burke, Marjorie Hill, Margaret Flagg Holmes, Ethel Hedgeman (Lyle), Lavinia Norman, Lucy Diggs Slowe and Marie Woolfolk (Taylor), Norma Boyd,Ethel Jones (Mowbray), Alice Murray, Sarah Meriweather (Nutter), Joanna Berry (Shields), Carrie Snowden and Harriet Terry.

Alpha Kappa Alpha mission statement: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,

Incorporated® was founded on a mission comprised of five basic tenets that have remained unchanged since the sorority’s inception more than a century ago. Alpha Kappa Alpha’s mission is to cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and friendship among college women, to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women in order to improve their social stature, to maintain a progressive interest in college life, and to be of “Service to All Mankind".

The Delta Gamma Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority inc. was chartered Saturday, March 14th, 1953 at The Pennsylvania State University.

A message from the Delta Gamma Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.: “The Oh So Divine Delta

Gamma Chapter presents events for all of campus to attend. We usually have what we call "Skee Week" in the fall and spring that focuses on our sorority's national targets. Those targets are, "Building Your

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Economic Legacy", "The Arts", "Women's Health and Wellness", "HBCU For Life", and "Global Impact".

Aside from Skee Week with a focus on those targets, we do self-care and self-love events, resume building workshops, a lot of community servicebased events to give back to not only Centre County, but nationwide as well. We did a drive for eyeglasses, toiletries, canned goods, school supplies, and donut sales to raise money for different charities of our choice. We also have more relaxed events such as our AKArobics which is an event to learn a fun dance and just get some physical activity in. We try to collaborate with other organizations outside of NPHC as well.

One word to describe the chapter would be hard, but I think dynamic for right now. Our chapter is small, but mighty.

We have a lot of big personalities and goals for the chapter, and we've really been able to achieve them.

With COVID and the restrictions with events and engaging with students, we have still managed to get the job done. We are all seniors trying to finish strong, so with everything going on in our lives and still managing to give AKA our best effort despite the times we are in, I think that is definitely commendable.”

Delta Sigma Theta9 Sorority, Inc.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women at Howard University and incorporated in 1930. These students wanted to use their collective strength to promote academic excellence and to provide assistance to persons in need.

The first public act performed by the Founders took place barely two months after the founding of the organization, when they participated in the Women’s Suffrage March held in Washington D.C. in March 1913. A sisterhood of more than 200,000 predominately Black college educated women, the Sorority currently has over 900 chapters located in the United States, England, Japan (Tokyo and Okinawa), Germany, the Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Republic of Korea.

The major programs of the sorority are based upon the sorority’s Five Point Programmatic Thrust: Economic

Development, Educational Development, International Awareness and Involvement, Physical and Mental Health, and Political Awareness and Involvement.

The 22 founders are: Osceola McCarthy Adams, Marguerite Young Alexander, Winona Cargile Alexander, Ethel Cuff Black, Bertha Pitts Campbell, Zephyr Chisom Carter, Edna Brown Coleman, Jessie McGuire Dent, Frederica Chase Dodd, Myra Davis Hemmings, Olive C. Jones, Jimmie Bugg Middleton, Pauline Oberdorfer Minor, Vashti Turley Murphy, Naomi Sewell Richardson, Mamie Reddy Rose, Eliza Pearl Shippen, Florence Letcher Toms, Ethel Carr Watson, Wertie Blackwell Weaver, Madree Penn White, Edith Motte Young

Mission Statement: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated is

an organization of college educated women committed to the constructive development of its members and to public service with a primary focus on the Black community.

The Epsilon Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority inc. was chartered on Saturday, May 21st, 1960 at The Pennsylvania State University.

A message from the Epsilon Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority inc.: “Historically, the Everlasting Epsilon Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated has hosted large annual events, such as the EG Bowling Party and Black Family Reunion.

Post-Covid, we plan on hosting these events again to continue Epsilon Gamma’s legacy of excellence and our impact on the Penn State community.

Two words to describe the Epsilon Gamma Chapter would be “Everlasting and Dynamic.”

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was founded January 16, 1920, at Howard University, Washington, D.C. The Klan was very active during this period and the Harlem Renaissance was acknowledged as the first important movement of Black artists and writers in the U.S. This same year the Volstead Act became effective heralding the start of Prohibition and Tennessee delivered the crucial 36th ratification for the final adoption of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. The worst and longest economic recession to hit the U.S. would define the end of the decade-The Great Depression.

It was within this environment that five coeds envisioned a sorority which would directly affect positive change, chart a course of action for the 1920s and beyond, raise consciousness of their people, encourage the highest standards of

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scholastic achievement, and foster a greater sense of unity among its members.

These women believed that sorority elitism and socializing overshadowed the real mission for progressive organizations and failed to address fully the societal mores, ills, prejudices, and poverty affecting humanity in general and the black community in particular.

Since its inception, Zeta has continued its steady climb into the national spotlight with programs designed to demonstrate concern for the human condition both nationally and internationally.

The sorority takes pride in its continued participation in transforming communities through volunteer services from members and its auxiliaries.

Zeta Phi Beta has chartered hundreds of chapters worldwide and has a membership of 100,000+.

The five founders are: Myrtle Tyler, Pearl Anna Neal, Arizona Cleaver, Viola Tyler, Fannie Pettie Mission Statement: Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorpo-

rated. sought to address the societal mores, ills, prejudices and poverty affecting humanity that other organizations failed to acknowledge.

The Mu Eta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, inc. was chartered June 26th, 1976 at The Pennsylvania State University.

A message from the Mu Eta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. Incorporated: “The Mr. Black Penn State Pageant is a program designed to uplift the African American male and honor his positive influences in the community. As an organization of African heritage, Zeta Phi Beta seeks to do this through our pageant. As a community-conscious action oriented organization our Finer Womanhood Week is dedicated to a new top each year. This past February we dedicated the week to business and held several events to uplift our young business men and women.

We are the MIGHTY Mu Eta Chapter so our word would have to be Mighty.”

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was organized on November 12, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana, by seven young educators. The group became an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter at Butler University. Since its inception, the dynamic women of Sigma Gamma Rho have built and sustained a well-known and well-respected reputation for leading positive change to help uplift the community through sisterhood, leadership, and service.

Sigma Gamma Rho’s commitment to service is expressed in its slogan, “Greater Service, Greater Progress.” The sorority has a proud history of providing positive and proactive community outreach nationally and internationally. The programs, partnerships, and sponsorships represent Sigma

Gamma Rho’s commitment to promoting the greater good in education, service, and leadership development. Sigma Gamma Rho has welcomed more than 100,000 collegiate and professional women. The sorority has more than 500 chapters in the United States, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Germany, South Korea, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United Arab Emirates. The organization also has active affiliate groups devoted to empowering women at different stages in life.

The Rhoer Club Affiliates (teenage girls) and Philos Affiliates (friends of the sorority) also assist alumnae chapters with various service efforts and programs.

The seven founders are: Mary Lou Allison Gardner Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian Irene White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie

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Mae Annette Dulin Redford, Bessie Mae Downey Rhoades Martin, and Cubena McClure.

Mission Statement: It is the mission of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. to enhance the quality of life for women and their families in the U.S. and globally through community service, civil, and social action. Our goal is to achieve greater progress in the areas of education, health awareness, and leadership development. Our members, affiliates, staff, and community partners work to create and support initiatives that align with our vision.

Vision: “We visualize a world in which all women and their families reach their full potential in all aspects of life and are able to create unlimited opportunities for future generations.”

Phenomenal Woman Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies.

I say, It’s in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips.

I’m a woman Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman, That’s me.

I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees.

I say, It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet.

I’m a woman Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman, That’s me.

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By Maya Angelou

Men themselves have wondered What they see in me.

They try so much But they can’t touch My inner mystery.

When I try to show them, They say they still can’t see.

I say, It’s in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style.

I’m a woman Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman, That’s me.

Now you understand Just why my head’s not bowed.

I don’t shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing, It ought to make you proud.

I say, It’s in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need for my care. ’Cause I’m a woman Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman, That’s me.

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Student Submissions: The Drum welcomes all letters to the editor, reader opinions, art, photography, essays, and poetry! All submissions should include name, year, and major so you can be credited for your work. The Drum reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and context. Although, we appreciate all submissions, we cannot guarantee publication.

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