Representative Carson shares Zeta message in halls of Congress
In honor of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority 85th Anniversary Celebration, July 21-24 in Washington, D.C., Rep. Julia Carson, D-IN, and a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, read the following remarks into the Congressional record on July 20. The document can be viewed at the following url:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/.../~r109l1924P::
************************************************** **********************
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, as a proud member of one of the oldest black sororities in the United States, I rise today to honor and recognize Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, as it celebrates its 85th anniversary. Zeta was founded on January 16, 1920, by five students at Howard University, right here in our Nation's capital. A community-conscious action-oriented organization, Zeta Phi Beta has committed itself to uphold its founding principles of scholarship, service, sisterly love, and finer womanhood in over 700 communities around the world.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority was founded on the belief that the social nature of sorority life should not overshadow the real mission of progressive organizations to address societal mores, ills, prejudice, poverty, and health concerns of the day.
Currently, under the direction of international president Barbara Moore, Zeta Phi Beta implements their national service program, Z-HOPE, which stands for Zetas Helping Other People Excel. Z-HOPE is a community outreach initiative in direct response to the Healthy People 2000 objectives established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Since the start of this initiative, Zeta women and their auxiliaries have touched the lives of thousands of men and women and children in more than 500 communities around the country.
Through their National Education Foundation, Zeta works with the Department of Energy to educate minority communities about the Human Genome Project. The foundation holds conferences across the Nation in both rural and urban areas.
Zeta Phi Beta also has a long-standing partnership with the March of Dimes to educate low-income mothers about prenatal care. Stork's Nest provides incentives to help pregnant women make and keep prenatal care appointments and teaches expectant parents about healthy prenatal and infant care practices. Over the past 2 years, more than 500,000 people participated in a program to raise the awareness of prematurity by taking the message to the African American and Latino churches.
In 2003, Zeta founded the Zeta Congressional Institute in efforts to increase the number of minority women who pursue careers as advocates and legislators. Zeta will encourage more minority women to pursue internships in congressional offices and executive agencies to gain firsthand knowledge of the political process.
For 85 years, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority has worked to address the problems that confront our communities. I am proud to celebrate this momentous occasion with the ladies of Zeta Phi Beta, and I welcome them to Washington as they return here to celebrate the anniversary and the place of their founding.
-end-