“All we have is the letters on our backs.”
“If you go to Langdon, you have all these houses, their letters,” said Lassiter. He described the discrepancy in visibility between historically-white and Black Greek life on campus. We could go through a whole day and not see another Black student.”Įach fraternity and sorority’s obelisk included the names of all of its charter members, which the attending Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters described as an “incredible feeling” and a “wonderful legacy to leave.”ĭarius Lassiter, a rising junior and a member of the Gamma Gamma Gamma chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., is the current secretary and incoming president of the NPHC. “When we were students here, we certainly didn’t feel that. “The feeling of inclusion is really very difficult to express,” said Jackson-Brunson. The sorority’s original president, Sara Jackson-Brunson, emphasized the Garden Plaza’s deep importance to herself, other Black students and alumni.
Fifty-four years later, several of AKA’s founding members attended Saturday’s ceremony. It would be another 22 years before UW-Madison’s first Black sorority was officially chartered - the Epsilon Delta chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
and the Gamma Epsilon chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Their presence on campus dates back to 1946, when two Black fraternities were chartered - the Beta Omicron chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Only six of the Divine Nine fraternities have active charters at UW-Madison. The National Pan-Hellenic Council, or NPHC, is a Black Greek life organization comprising nine historically-Black fraternities and sororities, commonly referred to as the Divine Nine.