Chapter History

Ten Wasatch Front Black professional women, representing the fields of social work, computer technology, education, and law, gathered at the Radisson Suites Hotel to found a new graduate chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Bessie B. Giles, a retired Ogden teacher and first president of the Utah chapter tells the story like this. “It all started the summer of 1987, when Dr. Forrest Crawford, a professor at Weber State College (now University) surveyed the Ogden/Salt Lake area for interested members after being inspired to do so by the sorority’s Farwest Regional Director, Dr. Gwendolyn Sherard-Bishop from Los Angeles.”

Dr. Crawford brought Dr. Bishop to Ogden as the keynote speaker the following February for the college’s Black History program. Members of the sorority met with her, and had by then identified nine college graduates who were interested in forming a Utah chapter. The Delta members under the direction of the interim president, Barbara Harris, made the Utah chapter a reality when the chapter was chartered on May 1, 1988. The Chapter's Charter Members are: Nathalene Sue Allen, *Rosemary Brantley, Eva Daniels, Bessie Bees Giles, Betty Gillespie, *Dovie J. Miles Goodwin, Belinda C. Johnson Green, Barbara Nelson Harris, *Marguerite Allen Horton, Janice Johnson, Cassandra Hinton Ledbetter, Sarah McClellan, Ardella Rena Gaines Monger, Betty Moore, Shewanda Offord-Blackman, Betty Sawyer, Kathleen Spencer, Glory Johnson Stanton, and Anne Tarrant. (* Notes deceased Sorors) In April 2011, the name was officially changed to Greater Salt Lake Alumnae Chapter.