AKAlades!!!

[MTSUGURL]

The other day, I was sitting in the student union building reading a letter that I had just received. It was from a friend giving me the details of her fiance proposing to her, and she included pictures. Being the sentimental sap that I am, I was tearing up and had shed a couple of tears. An AKA (she was wearing letters) I had never met, and still don't know the name of, came over to me and asked me if I was ok and if there was anything she could pray for. I assured her I was fine, and told her the good news, and after giving me a little hug, she was on her way. The chapter here has a reputation for being very classy, and after my encounter with this woman, I see why. Just wanted to give ya'll a heads up on a very sweet girl!

Have a great day!

[Ideal08]

Thanks, Crystal!

I love hearing stories about this (although nothing tops the Greek Love story posted in the DST forum a while ago).

I just had an idea that won't be implemented for a few weeks, but I'll share it nevertheless. I think that we (Mods) should 'stick' a thread to the top for Kudos to the organization. We get a lot of posts (starting new threads) about this (meeting members, they were nice, went above and beyond, etc.). When I get back (God willing I don't forget) I will merge all said threads together and stick it to the top. That way, we'll always have a way to pat each other on the back for a job well done!

Again, Crystal, thank you!

[breathesgelatin]

Hi! I just wanted to let you all know that the new dean of upperclass housing and minority affairs at my college (Washington and Lee University) is an Alpha Kappa Alpha. She is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University (not sure where she got her master's). She is an awesome lady--I have been working with her during residence life training she is really impressive! We are lucky to have her.

I posted this in the Greek life forum but I don't think many AKAs saw at it, so (sorry for the forum crash), but I thought you'd want to know about your sister's accomplishment.

[Ideal08]

A thread just for AKAmplishments!! Please post all of your AKA warm-fuzzies here!

[AKA2D '91]

I haven't posted this, but our chapter submitted a video to vie for a grant that The View is awarding via the Northern company. The 15 finalists will be announced today (I think). Please pray that we will become a finalist and a step closer to receiving the $25,000 grant which will fund our chapter's programs. (btw I am included in this 3 minute video )

[Steeltrap]

Good luck, Soror AKA2D'91 and your chapter.

And in other View-related news, Soror Star Jones' apartment is featured in the October edition of Architectural Digest. Beautiful place. It's the one with Dennis Quaid on the cover.

[AKA2D '91]

From The View's site:

Will The View broadcast LIVE from your hometown?

The View will show video excerpts from the 15 semi-finalists of "The View From Your Hometown" during the week of September 22nd thru the week of October 13th.

Between October 28th and October 30th, we'll feature the three hometowns chosen as finalists.

Tune in to The View on November 10th at 11am ET to see where the ladies end up.

[oneinamillion]

My girlfriend from back home is an AKA. We both ended up moving to a bigger city but at separate times.....like maybe 3 months apart. At that time I was about 24 and she was 33 or 34. I once ran into a real financial hard ship. I was single and living alone and barely making ends meet to pay my car note, my apartment, and my credit cards. My phone eventually got cut off do you know that she didn't have the money to help me but through her job she was able to give me the money to get it back on. How she did it but it was a true blessing and I know the Lord was truly satisfied with her helping me. With that I was able to get my phone turned on. She later gave me some clothes; now I wasn't just poor poor but she at that time she was gaining some weigh and I was still skinny. She gave me some beautiful dresses that she had bought maybe 3 or 4 years back but they were so pretty that they were still in style. She even helped me with my wedding and I helped her with putting on makeup because she never really wore it and I'm a makeup freak. She never passed judgement on me or anything we talked all the time. She even spoke to me about joining the organization, but she got married and moved away. I've lost contact with her but she was real true.

[CrimsonTide4]

The Sisterhood, Taking On the Old Boy Network
For Black Women, Sororities Are More About Politics Than Parties

By Roxanne Roberts
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page C01


Do not be distracted by the pink-and-green sneakers. Oh, they're cute all right, especially on Diane Johnson, who also is sporting a lime green pantsuit. She is surrounded by about 100 women wearing variations of the color theme: hot pink, pale pink, bubble gum, sea green, olive, emerald.

But the living bouquet posing on the steps of Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon is here for business. They're all members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest black sorority in the country. Once the group picture is taken, they spread into the offices of their senators and representatives, gently but firmly reminding them who they are (college-educated professionals), what they do (organize, network and raise lots of money) and what they care about (education, health, equal and civil rights).

"As women of Alpha Kappa Alpha, it's our responsibility to say, 'You can't fool us with this smoke-and-mirrors game,' " says Phyllis Young, president of the local Xi Omega chapter. "You can't play us."

The AKAs are in Washington for their Public Policy Conference, which coincides with this weekend's Congressional Black Caucus conference. Thursday was "pink and green" (the AKA colors) day on the Hill. Friday they were invited for a briefing at the White House.

And they aren't the only sisters in town. The ladies in red are Delta Sigma Thetas. Those in royal blue and white are from Zeta Phi Beta, and the ones in blue and gold -- they're from Sigma Gamma Rho. These historic black sororities -- three founded at Howard University -- boast an impressive network of professional women who run companies, campaigns, families and much more. They represent about 500,000 women known and trusted on the grass-roots level who stay active and involved for a lifetime. If you've never heard of them . . . well, you haven't been paying attention.

"People at work kid me because I wear a lot of pink and green," says Doxie McCoy, communications director for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). Then there's her gold-and-diamond AKA bracelet. "I wear it all the time."

She's not alone. Texas Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Eddie Bernice Johnson are AKAs. Civil rights leader Dorothy Height, former labor secretary Alexis Herman and presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun are Deltas. And that's just the start.

"I'm with Senator Clinton's office -- but I'm a soror, too!" Leecia Roberta Eve tells the ladies assembled on the Capitol steps. A collective cheer goes up, and Eve, counsel to Hillary Rodham Clinton, jumps into the picture with her AKA sorors.

Then the AKAs who aren't twisting the arms of lawmakers troop over to the Russell Office Building, where the junior senator from New York takes time from a packed day to meet and greet and pose with the AKAs because. . . . well, because there are a lot of votes and green in all that pink and green.

Tapping Into the Network


Growing up in Alabama, Herman never thought of herself as sorority material. That was for the "other Mobile," she says; for the middle-class, educated black women. Not for a girl from a poor family.

But in 1977, just after she moved to Washington to work for President Jimmy Carter's administration, Herman got some advice from her friend and mentor, Dorothy Height: Join a graduate chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. "She really talked to me about this notion of network, of needing the support -- particularly when you are in public office," Herman says. "She said, 'Everyone will claim you. The Delta sisterhood will be with you for a lifetime.' "

The Deltas were smart, educated women who would quietly advise and help her, Height says. They were largely professional and upper class, and saw themselves as agents of change on a variety of social and political issues. They were connected to the local power structure all around the country; they tracked legislation, and they knew who was taking what position. "It was a trust network, and an informed network," Herman says. "These were women I could talk to about public policy issues."

Herman was inducted at the Delta national convention in 1978, and she happily embraced her new sisters. They, in turn, not only embraced Herman but were tireless advocates for her confirmation when President Bill Clinton nominated her to become his secretary of labor. Herman still remembers the senator who said to her, "Who are these Deltas? Tell them to stop calling! You've got my vote."

Think of it as a calling card: Membership in any of these sororities confers an instant acceptance within the sisterhood. You can be a stranger -- but there's a bond based on shared values, experience and expectations.

"It changes the dynamics right way," says Cora Masters Barry, former first lady of Washington and a member of the Delta National Social Action Commission. "There's an openness. If someone says 'I'm a soror,' whatever needs to happen, happens."

Increasingly, that means getting African American women into positions of power: political, business and economic.

"Deltas are a huge part of my base of support," says Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), the first black woman named to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Jones joined a graduate chapter of the sorority 20 years ago, when she first ran for office in Cleveland. (Her campaign manager was a Delta.) It was something she had always wanted, but it also proved to be a career boost. Although the sororities are nonpartisan, individual sorors were instrumental in electing Jones to Congress in 1998. "They helped not only in terms of volunteer time, but in terms of money," she says. This year alone, Jones has spoken at more than a dozen Delta events about mandatory sentencing, teen pregnancy and education issues.

"No matter where I go in this country, there are members of my sorority," she says. "If they learn I'm in town, they make it their business to greet me and present me with a little token."

Sorors used to communicate by newsletters and telephones. Now they have e-mail and the Internet. It's a new-fashioned old girls network.

Making Change Happen


The sororities were founded at the turn of the last century, based on the radical notion that black women could benefit from a liberal arts education, says Paula Giddings, a professor of African American history at Smith College and author of "In Search of Sisterhood," a history of the Deltas.

Some social leaders, led by Booker T. Washington, thought blacks (especially black women) should concentrate on vocational education and training. The female students at historically black universities -- the fortunate few able to afford college -- had bigger dreams for themselves, and sororities gave them a collective voice and purpose.

Three of the four sororities were founded at Howard: AKA in 1908, Delta in 1913 and Zeta in 1920. The fourth, Sigma Gamma Rho, was founded in 1922 at the primarily white Butler University in Indianapolis.

Although all the sororities were committed to the concepts of community service and political rights, each developed a distinct reputation and personality. The AKAs were perceived as the social, privileged and fair-skinned. This caused some of the more politically active members of the sorority to break away and form the Deltas. The Zetas, still regarded as the brainiest, rejected what they saw as "sorority elitism and socializing" and concentrated on social issues. ("We're not as high-profile, but in the earlier days we were more emphatic about grade-point averages," says Lois Sylver, national executive director.) The Sigmas were established by schoolteachers and are still identified primarily with education.

The list of sorors is a who's who of black history: Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Ella Fitzgerald, Coretta Scott King, Toni Morrison and Faye Wattleton (AKA); Mary McLeod Bethune, Barbara Jordan, Johnetta Cole, Camille Cosby and Lena Horne (Delta); Zora Neale Hurston, Minnie Riperton and Sarah Vaughan (Zeta); and Lorraine Hale and Hattie McDaniel (Sigma).

After almost 100 years, the stereotypes linger but the basic mission of all four sororities are essentially the same: health, education and community service. They sponsor hundreds of scholarship, after-school and reading programs for children nationwide. The Washington chapters of AKA handed out school supplies and books at the Black Family Reunion on the Mall earlier this month. The Deltas recently started a science, math and technology program for elementary students. The Zetas just launched their "Z-Hope" education program on preventable diseases and health care. The Sigmas teach young people about money and personal finance.

It's never just about race, and never just about gender. "They're not just blacks and they're not just women -- they're black women," Giddings says. "Black women have a distinct history and distinct needs and distinct identity from either black men or white women."

Sororities, Giddings says, are ideally placed to develop young black women into future leaders. They are self-supporting through dues and don't seek publicity. They allow women who don't want to be associated exclusively with feminist or black advocacy groups to participate in social issues. In short, it's the ideal training ground for future CEOs and politicians.

"It's a wonderful place to learn how to do it," Giddings says. "We don't have that many organizations where you get to be an insider."

Membership and Privilege


Being an insider always has benefits -- and detractors. The black Greek system is an ongoing source of lively debate within the African American community, both from supporters and those who dismiss the sororities and fraternities as elitist, exclusionary and snobbish (that is, "School Daze," Spike Lee's 1988 sendup of the Greeks at an all-black college.) One Internet critic calls them "Those Greek-letter wearin', fancy foot stepping, hand clappin', think they're God's gift to the black race, brothas and sistas."

The most serious criticisms involve hazing, something all Greek organizations have explicitly forbidden in any form. The late-night drowning deaths of two Cal State Los Angeles women last year were initially ruled accidental by police, but the students were at the beach with AKA members, and their families blame the sorority for the deaths. The sorority, which does not have a chapter on the campus, has denied the charge.

Charges of social climbing are harder to prove. It may have been more true in the early years, when there were fewer channels for upward mobility, members say, but today there are far more opportunities. Although some undergraduates might eye the sororities primarily for social reasons, the graduate alumni chapters are far more serious-minded. "To be characterized as someone who's just out for social things is an insult," says AKA chapter president Young.

"A lot of my friends said to me, 'When you become an AKA, don't change,' " says 31-year-old Nkeshi Free, who pledged as a graduate student in Akron, Ohio. "I have to be honest. Some people do use the organization as a reason to display a new persona. . . . I made a life commitment because I believe in community service, and this is the group of women with whom I choose to do it."

There's a lot of mentoring and coaching, a multigenerational network of grandmothers, mothers, daughters, friends, sons and husbands to call upon for advice and leads on internal e-mail groups. Free is trying to break into public relations. Being a soror, she says, won't guarantee her a job but it will probably get her an interview: "You might get the inside track."

Sorority members can tick off all the tangible benefits of their sisterhood, the people they help, the good they do. But the fact is that sorors are sorors because someone or something caught their imagination and never let go.

"It's something I always wanted," says LaFonda Fenwick, 38. Fenwick is a wife, registered nurse and mother of two daughters. She first noticed AKA sorors when she was in high school. "The women of the organization left a lasting impression on me," she says. "They were graceful, professional, ambitious. They instilled values. They motivated me to go to college, get a degree and become as successful as I could possible be."

This May, Fenwick realized the dream when she became an AKA. "For a long time I had this save-the-world mentality. At some point you have to realize you can't save the world by yourself. This gives me the opportunity to work together with other women for change."

'People Helping People'


While the AKAs were finishing up on the Hill on Thursday, the Zetas hosted a reception with the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund at the City Club of Washington.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele picked up an award, then shrewdly assessed the crowd. "It's not about Republicans or Democrats. It's about people helping people."

He had a good audience: In addition to the Zetas in their royal blue, Sigma's national executive director, Bonita Herring, dropped by, as did Delta president Gwendolyn Boyd.

The sororities, says Zeta president Barbara Moore, are helping to define the issues that affect African American women and their families. "They're service sororities, not social," she says. "It's for women who are truly committed to improving the human condition."

Women who like wearing pink and green or red or blue a lot. And maybe, in the process, becoming president one day.

[Ideal08]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
"She said, 'Everyone will claim you. The Delta sisterhood will be with you for a lifetime.' "

"It was a trust network, and an informed network," Herman says.

Herman still remembers the senator who said to her, "Who are these Deltas? Tell them to stop calling! You've got my vote."

Think of it as a calling card: Membership in any of these sororities confers an instant acceptance within the sisterhood. You can be a stranger -- but there's a bond based on shared values, experience and expectations.

"It changes the dynamics right way," says Cora Masters Barry, former first lady of Washington and a member of the Delta National Social Action Commission. "There's an openness. If someone says 'I'm a soror,' whatever needs to happen, happens."

"No matter where I go in this country, there are members of my sorority," she says. "If they learn I'm in town, they make it their business to greet me and present me with a little token."

Sorors used to communicate by newsletters and telephones. Now they have e-mail and the Internet. It's a new-fashioned old girls network.

". . . I made a life commitment because I believe in community service, and this is the group of women with whom I choose to do it."

The sororities, says Zeta president Barbara Moore, are helping to define the issues that affect African American women and their families. "They're service sororities, not social," she says. "It's for women who are truly committed to improving the human condition."

I loved this article!!! But the above things really stood out to me.

[Steeltrap]

Boy, I enjoyed this article. Our anti-basileus and our grad advisor are in D.C. right now for the public policy conference. I also saw the soror from Sorors Ideal08 and allsmiles_22's chapter quoted in the piece.

[Steeltrap]

I picked up this story on another listserv. The publishers of this new mag are daughters of a soror who belongs to Xi Nu Omega, a Chicago-area graduate chapter. The original poster thinks one of the publishers is a soror, too:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/busin...fin-mag29.html

Chicagoans push mag for black girls

September 29, 2003

BY CHERYL JACKSON


Ruben Studdard is on the cover of the fall issue of Melanin magazine, but Publisher DeAnna McLeary worked hard to make sure the profile of the 350-pound "American Idol" champion wasn't the only weighty thing about the issue.

Drawing on free-lance writers, illustrators and photographers, Melanin includes articles about cosmetic plastic surgery, affirmative action and entrepreneurship.

Together with her sister, McLeary, 25, a former business consultant, runs the start-up quarterly magazine targeted at black girls, a demographic publishers say is under-served and marketing experts consider to be trendsetters with loose wallets.

Melanin -- the title refers to the brownish-black pigment found in skin and hair -- claims a readership of 25,000 reached through independent bookstores and Books-a-Million retail outlets in 12 states.

Now McLeary says Chicago-based Melanin is ready to make the leap to national, million-reader production, and beyond that to monthly publication.

Anderson News Co., a Tennessee-based periodical distributor that places periodicals in Wal-Mart and other major chain stores and outlets, agreed to carry Melanin, and that would expose Melanin to millions nationally.

"But to do that, we're basically giving the magazine away" and surrendering the $3.50 cover price to middlemen.

The McLeary sisters are willing to take the chance.

Tiffanie McLeary, a public school teacher, launched the magazine in 2000, geared to females 11 to 18 years old.

"She was watching her girls embrace Seventeen magazine and YM, and she said 'why isn't there a magazine for these young girls?'" said DeAnna McLeary, who shared her sister's concern and joined the magazine.

A recent survey of black youths ranked hip-hop heavy Vibe and Source magazines, Nos. 1 and 2 in readership among the group. At Nos. 5 and 6 sat Seventeen and Teen magazines, outranking Essence, the most prominent magazine targeting black women.

Black teenage girls want celebrity news and fashion tips, to be sure, magazine owners say, but today's teens need more than the Foster Sylvers and Stoney Jackson profiles that Right On! offered their moms. On the radar of today's publishers are articles about sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and gang violence.

The magazine stresses diversity in body types, skin tone and self-esteem along with health, fashion, etiquette and how-to articles written with black girls in mind. The same issue that features interviews with the likes of B2K and Tyrese might offer a chat with U.S. presidential candidate Carol Braun, and touch on how to find money for college, the pitfalls of teen motherhood or the allure and dangers of dating thugs.

"We focus on uplifting young girls; erasing negative images," McLeary said. "Part of that includes having heavyset girls and dark-skinned teens pictured in the magazine."

McLeary is counting on advertising sales, not subscription or single-copy sales, to cover the $22,000 cost of producing an issue and to turn a profit.

"You can't get rich off a $3.50" cover price, she said.

Melanin's list of advertisers is typical of a start-up -- local retailers, health-and-beauty salons, a bookstore. But McLeary aims to convince national advertisers with extensive ad budgets that her readers are worth reaching.

"For a young person, all of their income is disposable," she said.

A 2002 survey of 16-to-20-year-olds by Philadelphia-based market researcher MEE Productions found those young adults, from households with incomes of $25,000 or less, had a relatively high amount of spending in entertainment consumption.

On average, they went to the movies twice a week. About 62 percent said they went to the movies twice a month. And about 48 percent said they spend $16 or more per trip.

"They seem to over-consume relative to their household income," said William Juzang, vice president of MEE. "They tend to be trendsetters in terms of fashion and a lot of things in entertainment. In terms of fashion, black females are very much on the forefront, particularly youth fashion."

Still, while there have been attempts -- including Johnson Publishing Co.'s Ebony Jr.! in the 1970s and BET Holding's YSB in the 1990s -- at general interest magazines for black youths, black girls have rarely been singled out.

In common entrepreneurial fashion, McLeary upped the ante on the success of Melanin, recently quitting a $65,000-a-year consulting job to work full time at the magazine.

"The only way the magazine was going to grow was for me to put everything I had into it. This could not be part time," said McLeary, who along with her sister, has been working with angel investors of family and friends.

Tiffanie McLeary sold her home and invested about $30,000 into the Melanin. But she continues teaching fifth-graders at Beasley Academic Center at 5255 S. State, which has the added benefit of keeping her in touch with her target readership.

McLeary plans to later target Hispanic and Asian readers for the magazine, as they too need to see more positive images of their peers.

The mainstream teen magazines, she said, typically are too sexualized.

"These magazines are risque. The content is sexual. A lot of parents really don't want their children reading them," McLeary said. "We have the celebrity profiles, the fashion information -- all the bells and whistles. But at the end of the day, Melanin magazine will stand for something."

Cheryl Jackson is a Chicago business writer.

Shades of an existing magazine for start-up

While Melanin makes a bid for big-time publishing, another periodical aimed at young black females is hoping to add just a few thousand extra readers.

Shades magazine started in 1995 as a black-and-white 16-page newsletter, then moved to digest size, then to the Internet and finally relaunched last year as a quarterly newsmagazine-sized quarterly sporting a $3 cover price.

The audience has remained the same, said Publisher Theresa Tracy: "There was a void historically in the magazine industry. Particularly for African-American women. Young women."

Tracy, 37, recalled her own teen years and the cocktail of periodicals she'd consume for fashion, dating and entertainment information. "I might find entertainment that I want in Right On! and the makeup information in Ebony and the relationship stuff I was looking for in something like Seventeen. I had to buy all these publications. When I started Shades, I thought of it as the NyQuil of publications for African-American females. Finance, health, romance, relationships. It's all in there."

The new Shades issue focuses on sexual harassment in schools. Past articles have looked at the alarming spread of herpes among African-American teens.

Students contribute articles to the four-color magazine, which costs more than $10,000 to produce. Operated as a not-for-profit, Shades runs off sponsorships.

"The real focus is to provide very critical information about issues young girls are facing every day and don't have the outlets like other girls do," Tracy said.

WELL READ

Market researcher MEE Productions surveyed about 2,000 black youths on their reading preferences. Here's how their tastes broke down:

What kinds of magazines do you read most often?


All Male Female
Ethnic 17% 9% 25%
Men's 2 4 NM
Music 24 27 22
News 2 2 2
Sports 4 9 NM
Other 18 14 22
No Answer 32 35 29

NM: Not meaningful

SOURCE: MEE Productions' 2002 Urban Young Lifestyle Study
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[CountryGurl]

The Bobby Phills Scholarship Fund was established in memory of Bobby Ray Phills, former Charlotte Hornets star forward. As a tribute to her husband, Kendall Phills seeks to continue his legacy by supporting those values Bobby believed in. Those values: family, community, athletics, academic excellence, and the arts. The fund is not bound to scholarships, but rather the overall support of youth and youth-based initiatives through contributions and partnerships with other organizations that serve youth.

This past April...

On behalf of the Bobby Phills Scholarship Fund, Kendall Phills donated $40,000 to create a partnership with The New Orleans Hornets and Dillard University. “Hoops for Higher Education,” provided a total of $160,000 in financial assistance (32 one-time $5,000 scholarships in combined funds) for selected Dillard University freshman.

[CountryGurl]

Roena Wilford: first female SGA president

Gabrielle Maple
October 10, 2003


During the height of the modern women’s movement, SU Physics Instructor and 1971 SU Graduate Roena Wilford made history by becoming the first female ever elected Student Government Association president at Southern University.

She was encouraged to run by the president of the Beta Psi chapter of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated to run against the opposing candidate who represented the "political machine."

"I can remember her pacing back and forth in the Shrine Room. She said, Wilford, you should run for president," she remembered. "I tried to ignore her until she shouted, Wilford, you WILL run for president!"

Wilford along with members of her sorority, fellow classmates and faculty members developed a campaign strategy. She still has the bookmark that bares her slogan, "One Aim, One Goal, Once Body."

"During the rally the biggest problem was the fact that I was woman. They didn’t care whether or not I could do the job," she said.

To the tune of nine votes, enough people looked beyond that fact and elected her SGA President.

"I couldn’t believe it," she said.

Even more interesting, her ex-boyfriend, who ran on the other ticket, was elected vice-president.

"He thought that he was going to escort me but I told him that he would escort Miss SU and Mr. AKA would escort me," she said candidly.

During her administration, she introduced the student loan program where students were allowed to borrow $50 with the co-signature of a faculty member. She also introduced the cabinet administration that created positions such as business director and program director. Her administration also was the first to give Miss Southern a $200 stipend.

As a physics/mathematics education major, Wilford was involved in numerous campus organizations.

She was a member of Kappa Delta Education Honors Society, Alpha Kappa Interdisciplinary Honors Society, and the Association of Women Students. She was the president of the Beta Psi Chapter and the 2nd National Vice President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

As deep as the mighty Mississippi River, Wilford’s roots run through Southern University and the Baton Rouge community.

Throughout her life she has been a champion for education. Her parents, Louis and Molly Wilford graduated from Southern in 1935 and were both education majors.

Her father, who worked in the university laundry to pay his way through college was forced to set aside his dreams of becoming a teacher to take a job in the labor force at the Ethyl (now known as Ablemarle) Corporation. He worked there for 25 years to support his court."

In 1956, Wilford, along with four of her siblings were selected to be the first African-American students to integrate Baton Rouge public schools.

By the 5th grade, she had attended four different schools. Afraid that she would get caught up in the system, her parents moved her to Southern University Laboratory School to join her older siblings.

"I was told by my high school guidance counselor that I would be a physics teacher," Wilford said. "It was really a natural choice considering I came from a family of educators."

She received a full academic scholarship to Ithaca College in New York but she declined the offer.

"The climate during this time wasn’t quite favorable for African-Americans," Wilford said. "I didn’t want to be subjected to that at a place were I wouldn’t be accepted."

Besides, she had to deal with discrimination all her life.

Despite scholarship offers to other schools, Wilford said she decided to stay on safer grounds by moving a few yards to "the yard."

"I had the safe haven and support at Southern that I couldn’t get anywhere else," she said.

After graduating summa cum laude in 1971 and later earning a master’s of arts degree in Curriculum Instruction and EDS Specialist at Louisiana State University, she began teaching in the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System.

For the past 20 years she has been an instructor of physics Southern.

"Sometimes, I feel like a weird duck in the department because most of my colleagues are theorists and I’m into educating young minds," Wilford said.

Wilford’s family legacy at Southern extends beyond her parents. Her maternal aunt, Mildred Alexander, her brothers Winn and Carl, a retired Air Force Sergeant attended SU.

Her nephew, Leslie, a lieutenant colonel in the air force and her great niece Tyquincia Wilford, a graduating senior and immediate past Association of Women Students president, attended the university as well.

Although Wilford did not have any biological children, her goddaughters Juanita Johnson Waldron and Shundale Hills graduated and earned master’s degrees from Southern.

Wilford is also involved in host of church and civic organizations.

She plays an active part in the lives of girls through the Audubon Girls Scout Council where she serves as troop organizer and cadette and senior girl scout leader at Mount Caramel Baptist Church, team member of Service Unit 619 and member of the Gold Award Task Force. She also teaches Sunday school and serves as a Youth Council trustee at Mount Carmel.

Wilford is also affiliated with the Nu Gamma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated where she serves on the Founder’s Day and mentoring committee.

She is the founding president of the Louisiana Equal Opportunity Association (LEOA) and the East Baton Rouge Parish Magnet School Advisory Council.

Through her efforts to better the lives of children in her community, she has earned many accolades including the state of Kentucky’s 1981 Woman of the Year Award.

[Steeltrap]

The Oct. 20 edition of "A Wedding Story" on TLC features the June wedding of a soror from Epsilon Iota Omega (Camden, Del.) Chapter:

http://tlc.discovery.com/schedule/ep...28&channel=TLC