Delta Sigma Theta Sorority

Happy 113th anniversary to the sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.!

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., was a relative latecomer to Wilson, but as a woman steeped and marinated in crimson and cream, I recognize our national Founders Day here.

www.wilsonalumnae.com

My mother Beverly A. Henderson is a Delta. My father’s sister Hattie H. Ellis is a Delta. My sister Karla M. Henderson-Jackson. My niece Sydney Jackson. Two first cousins, Monica E. Barnes and Tracey E. Leon, and innumerable, more distant relatives. Deltas crowded my childhood “village,” i.e. East Wilson, and I was nurtured by Diana D. Myers, Yvonne C. Lofton, Evelyn W. Hagans, Shirley S. Woodard, Ruth H. Harris, Mary Peppers, Minnie E. Cummings, Jessie M. Jones, Ethel A. Woodard, Marian G. Lane, and so many others.

Sisterhood, scholarship, service, and social action. We are anchored in legacy and evolving with intention. Happy 113th Founders Day, sorors!

Shaw ’49.

From the 1949 edition of The Bear, the yearbook of Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina:

  • Helen Jean Harrison

In the 1930 census of Bailey township, Nash County: farmer Ellie W. Harris, 45; wife Rosa A., 44; and children Carrie L.,21, William E., 19, Ojetta, 18, Lila M., 16, Ethel M., 14, Mattie E., 13, Robert H., 10, Jessie L., 10, Beatrice, 8, George L., 6, and Hellin J., 2. Ellie, Rosa, and their four oldest children were born in South Carolina; Ethel in Virginia; and the remaining in North Carolina.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 303 Lane Street, Eli Harrison, 56, mechanic helper in “carpentering”; wife Rosa, 54, tobacco factory laborer; and children Ethel, 23, Jessie, 19, Beatrix, 17, Leroy, 16, and Helen, 12. Eli, Rosa and Ethel Harrison was South Carolina-born; the others, North Carolina.

  • Claretha Jones