In a day and age when many organizations are all too fleeting, one sorority has been making a difference in the Pine Belt area for more than 70 years: the Beta Chi Sigma Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Society.
The chapter was founded in Hattiesburg in June 1953 by seven women – Ruby Bell, Rhoda Tademy, Sadie Chapman, Estella Jenkins, Ethel Leggett and Ellie J. Dahmer, wife of slain civil rights worker Vernon Dahmer. The founders went along with the mission of their mother chapter, the Sigma Gamma Rho Society, to support Black women pursuing degrees in education via programs, partnerships, sponsorships and scholarships.
“Seventy years is a huge deal,” Beta Chi Sigma Alumnae Chapter member Jennifer Smith said. “Ellie Dahmer is still alive and she’s still an active member of our chapter, so it’s huge.
“It makes me feel really amazed and really excited about the upcoming growth in the chapter, how we bring new ladies into the organization, continue to grow, continue to build and give out to the community. We want to empower and instill (values) in our youth.”
The organization is designed to enact community service – along with civil and social action – to achieve better progress in the areas of education, health awareness and leadership development, keeping with the sorority’s motto of “Greater Service, Greater Progress.”
To that end, the Beta Chi Sigma Alumnae Chapter features endeavors such as the Rhoer Club, which is made up of girls between the ages of 12 and 18 who demonstrate high scholastic standards. The club offers participants the opportunity to build their self esteem, learn about their heritage and develop the skills needed to be personally and academically successful.
Rhoer members gain experience in leadership development, academic counseling, personal counseling, mentoring, community service, and rites of passage. They participate in many of the activities of the sorority as well as special youth development programs.
The Rhoer Club features the RHOryal Blue Monarch Butterfly as its mascot, the yellow daisy as its flower and “Sisters Forever” as its motto.
The Beta Chi Sigma Alumnae Chapter also hosts events such as Operation Big Bookbag – during which members provide school supplies to children – and annual youth symposiums featuring various speakers. There’s also a Women’s Health Committee, which helps with endeavors such as vaccinations, breast cancer awareness and health fairs.
Sheri Boney, another Beta Chi Sigma Alumna Chapter member, said the organization and its programs have had a huge impact in the Hattiesburg area, especially considering the work of members and founders like Ellie Dahmer.
“It’s awe-inspiring, because Ellie Dahmer has been such a big person in this city as a civil rights activist, and she was also an educator,” Boney said. “For over 70 years, our whole thing has been about ‘Service, Scholarship and Sisterhood,’ and just the fact that she is in her late 90s and still an active member of this sorority (is amazing) and we’re building on that.”
On November 4, the Beta Chi Sigma Alumnae Chapter held its second annual gala at the Jackie Dole Sherrill Community Center in downtown Hattiesburg, which was co-chaired by Smith and Boney. The event, with the theme of “A RHOyal Renaissance Affair: A Platinum Event,” held a twofold mission.
The first was to recognize teachers from area school districts – Hattiesburg, Lamar County, Petal, Forrest County, Pike County and Jones County – for their excellence in education, instruction and leadership. To that end, four “Gems of Education” awards were presented: Greater Awareness, Greater Grace, Greater Service and Greater Love.
Those award winners are as follows:
- Greater Awareness: Chelsea Frazier of Oak Grove High School
- Greater Grace: Evians Harper of N.R. Burger Middle School
- Greater Service: Shannon Howze of Oak Grove High School
- Greater Love: Ella Maxwell of South Forrest Attendance Center
“It’s not just limited to teachers and teachers’ assistants,” Boney said. “We look at everybody within the school system – the office staff, the custodians, bus drivers.
“It’s everybody that plays a part in making sure these children are getting the right atmosphere, as far as instruction in the classroom. So we send (the materials) out to the principals and they send us back their recommendations.”
The gala’s second mission was to seek funding for the Ellie J. Dahmer Educational Scholarship, which is given annually to a deserving student.
“Our sorority was founded by educators, so the (first thing about the gala) is that we want to honor educators,” Boney said. “Of course, that’s one of our missions – in order for the community to be a better community, we have to make sure that our children are being educated properly.”
For the future of the Beta Chi Sigma Alumnae Chapter, members look forward to recruiting more women.
“We are always actively recruiting people who are willing to get out into the community to make it a better place for our youth, and women specifically,” Boney said. “We have approximately 35 members right now … and we just look forward to bigger and better things to make our community, and the City of Hattiesburg and the surrounding areas, a better place for women and youth.”
For more information on the chapter, visit https://betasigmachi.org or visit its Facebook page.
Sigma Gamma Rho was founded on November 12,1922 at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. The seven founders were Mary Lou Allison Gardner Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian Irene White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Annette Dulin Redford, Bessie Mae Downey Rhoades Martin, and Cubena McClure. The group, with the held of Robert Lee Brokenburr, became incorporated as a sorority for school teachers in Indiana in 1922.
