Sigma Gamma Rho SORORITY, INC.
Sigma HERstory
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was organized on November 12, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana by seven young educators: Mary Lou Allison Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford, Bessie M. Downey Martin and Cubena McClure.
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Founder Mary Lou Allison Little would serve as acting Grand Basileus from 1922-1925 and go on to become the first elected Grand Basileus of the Sorority from 1925-1926.
On August 24, 1924, Sigma suffered a great loss when Founder Cubena McClure, a young talented artist who designed the Sorority pin, passed away. The remaining Founders carried on and the group became an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to Alpha chapter at Butler University.
In 1937, the Sorority became a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. It would be the only Sorority of NPHC to be founded on a predominantly white campus, rather than at a historically black college or university.
AMS HERstory
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The Alpha Mu Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was chartered on February 15, 1943 by ten school teachers living and working in Winston-Salem, NC and has served the Forsyth County, NC community for 81 years. AMS joined the local National Pan-Hellenic Council in 1945 and Soror Anna M. Cooke served as the first Basileus from 1943-1944.
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Several of the women who chartered AMS received their teaching degrees from Winston-Salem Teachers College (later to become Winston-Salem State University) and taught at Columbian Heights Grade School, built in 1905 as the first elementary school for black children in Winston-Salem.
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Alpha Mu Sigma is the first Sigma alumnae chapter in the state and serves as the graduate advisor to one undergraduate chapter in the local area; Rho Chapter at Winston-Salem State University, chartered 1951.
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AMS continues to provide educational and civic opportunities for youth in our community through implementing national programs such as Youth Symposium, Wee Savers, & the Rhoer club.
