HR0212 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0212 LRB098 11514 MST 43688 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to recognize Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated on the occasion of its 100th anniversary; and

WHEREAS, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated is the single-largest predominantly African-American women's organization in the nation and the only African-American women's organization to participate in the Women's Suffrage March of 1913; and

WHEREAS, The sorority was founded on January 13, 1913, on the Howard University campus by 22 young women hoping to make strides in community service and education; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority has amassed a membership of over 250,000 college-educated, esteemed and accomplished women, and has 900 chapters both in the U.S. and around the world; many of these women are distinguished trailblazers in their industry and well-known famous faces in education, television, film, politics, public service, civic engagement, medicine, science, entrepreneurship, and more; Delta women have marched for women's suffrage and participated on the public policy stage in state legislatures across the country and at the nation's capital; they have hosted countless mentorship and service programs in an effort to create change in their community; and

WHEREAS, Members have included activists Mary McLeod Bethune and Dorothy Height and congresswomen Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan; other notable members include poet Nikki Giovanni, Marian Wright Edelman, journalists Gwen Ifill and Soledad 0'Brien, singers Aretha Franklin, Lena Horne, Leontyne Price, and Roberta Flack, and actresses Cicely Tyson and Ruby Dee, and others including Alexis Herman, Camille Cosby, Betty Shabzz, and many other notable women's history makers and household names; and

WHEREAS, Over the past 100 years, Delta Chapter's across the globe have developed rich programs that initiate social change and advocacy, encourage academic excellence, and elevate cultural awareness, based on the organization's Five Point Programmatic Thrust: Economic Development, International Awareness and Involvement, Physical and Mental Health, and Political Awareness and Involvement; the impressive efforts of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority founders can be seen and felt across the country and the world; and

WHEREAS, A year-long celebration, 22-city tour of the Delta Torch, which symbolizes the "passion and commitment to the organization's global reach", which kicked off in Los Angeles with Delta's historic participation in the 2013 Tournament of Roses Parade and will continue through Seattle, Dallas, Little Rock, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Charlotte, New York City, and Baltimore; and

WHEREAS, The tour will culminate in Washington, D.C. at the 51st national convention which is scheduled for July 11-17, 2013, when the torch is passed to the national president, signifying the start of the organizations national convention; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the 100th anniversary of the founding of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and we pay honor to those women who have blazed the trail and led us to this exciting point in history; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority as an expression of our esteem and respect.