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Originally posted by sigmadahlin': 80% of US Presidents since 1900 are greek
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Originally posted by MysticCat81: No offense intended, sigmadahlin', but what are your sources? Can you back these claims up?
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Many of the past US Presidents were members of Greek Letter Organisations (thus, Greek). In addition to being members of social fraternities (i.e. members of The North-American Interfraternity Conference), some were members of other
Greek
Letter
Organisations such as Alpha Phi Omega, a service GLO or other GLOs such as Phi Alpha Delta, a professional GLO (both groups are members of The Professional Fraternity Association). This would form the basis of the statement 80% of US Presidents since 1900 are greek.
Sources:[list=1][*]
Center for the Study of the College Fraternity, Bloomington, IN.: "The North-American Interfraternity Conference has compiled a list of U.S. Presidents [who were/are members of a
Greek
Letter
Organisation]".[*] The entries which read Phi Alpha Delta and Alpha Phi Omega can both be separately verified at the
PAD and
APO websites, respectively.[/list=1] President & Fraternity (figures in brackets are years in office of US Presidency)
- Rutherford Birchard Hayes - Delta Kappa Epsilon (1877-1881)
- James Abram Garfield - Delta Upsilon (1881)
- Chester Alan Arthur - Psi Upsilon (1881-1885)
- Benjamin Harrison - Phi Delta Theta (1889-1893)
- William McKinley - Sigma Alpha Epsilon (1897-1901)
- Theodore Roosevelt - Delta Kappa Epsilon/Alpha Delta Phi (1901-1909)
- William Howard Taft - Psi Upsilon & Phi Alpha Delta (1909-1913)
- Woodrow Wilson - Phi Kappa Psi & Phi Alpha Delta (1913-1921)
- Warren Gamaliel Harding - Phi Alpha Delta (1921-1923)
- Calvin Coolidge - Phi Gamma Delta (1923-1929)
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Alpha Delta Phi (1933-1945)
- Harry S. Truman - Lambda Chi Alpha & Phi Alpha Delta (1945-1953)
- Dwight David Eisenhower - Tau Epsilon Phi (1953-1961)
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy - Phi Kappa Theta (1961-1963)
- Gerald Rudolph Ford - Delta Kappa Epsilon (1974-1977)
- James Earl Carter Jr. - Phi Alpha Delta (1977-1981)
- Ronald Wilson Reagan Tau Kappa Epsilon (1981-1989)
- George Herbert Walker Bush - Delta Kappa Epsilon (1989-1993)
- William Jefferson Clinton - Alpha Phi Omega & Phi Alpha Delta (1993-2001)
- George Walker Bush - Delta Kappa Epsilon (2001- )
In total there were 19 Presidents (greek or not) from the year 1900 to date. Since 1900, there've only been three US Presidents which aren't on that list (Herbert Clark Hoover 1929-1933, Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969 and Richard Milhous Nixon 1969-1974). Since those three were not Greek (that I have ascertained), that leaves sixteen who
were, which means sigmadahlin''s comment "80% of US Presidents since 1900 are greek" is correct, with verifiable sources. The specific figure being 83% (17.4% of US Presidents non-Greek since 1900 rounded to nearest whole number).
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