My January 13, 2009

January 13, 2009

Today is a very special day for me personally. This day is special to me for to separate and yet completely intertwined reasons.
Today, January 13, I along with over 200,000 other members of my wonderful sorority celebrate Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated’s 96th anniversary. On this day in 1913, 22 Howard University college women chose to commit their lives to sisterhood, scholarship, and public service.

Less than two months after the sorority's founding, the first public service act of Delta Sigma Theta took place during the 1913 Women's Suffrage March on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Delta Sigma Theta's twenty-two founders marched with honorary member Mary Church Terrell under the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority banner on the day prior to Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. They felt that black women needed the right to vote to protect themselves against sexual exploitation, promote quality education, assist in the work force, and racial empowerment.

Yet, the twenty-two founders and other Black female marchers were subjected to racism, not only by people who were opposed to the enfranchisement of women, but by march organizers reluctant to advocate suffrage for Blacks. For example, Mary Church Terrell recalled how she and Delta Sigma Theta's founders had to assemble in an area specifically allocated for Black women.

Although the young twenty-two founders were criticized, none regretted their participation in the march. Florence Toms commented, "we marched that day in order that women might come into their own, because we believed that women not only needed an education, but they needed a broader horizon in which they may use that education. And the right to vote would give them that privilege."

Also on today, I am witnessing history. As a congressional aide, I am witnessing first hand the distribution of tickets for the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States of America, Barak Obama.

All I can think about is how 96 years ago, our founding sisters saw a need and moved forward to do and be the unthinkable, then and even in some cases still now. They saw themselves as full and equal partners in the yet to be fully realized democratic process. They knew they were just as capable as their white counterparts to see their own futures as bright and hopeful! Those ladies marched on the eve of the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. (During his two terms as President, Wilson allowed federal offices, facilities, US Post Office Department offices, and Washington, DC streetcars to become segregated. Wilson failed to veto a law making miscegenation (inter-racial marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, or having children together) a felony in the District of Columbia.

Now I prepare to go back to this same city, that 96 years ago, our founders walked down the same streets, and in some cases, passed by the same buildings that now stand in our nation’s capital. They marched and lived so that I might have the right and privilege to live a better life, vote for, and live to see an African-American sworn in as our nation’s leader and our 44th President.

96 years ago, 22 women walked out on the fate that their actions as a group of Black College Educated Women working together for community service would not only improve their lives, but the lives of many other people for generations to come. Others said they should continue doing the same thing the same way. Those 22 women knew that they were destined lead in great change! They were wise and brave enough to make that change together. As a result of not just women, but all people of the this nation coming together to vote on or before November 4, 2008, we now stand poised to make history again as a nation. Just like those 22 saw the change and probably said “yes we can!” our nation has said “yes we can!”

As I organize me, trip to the inauguration with my sister, brother-in-law, a friend from California and my cousin and her husband, I can’t help but reflect on where I stand today on this January 13, 2009. CHANGE is good!