Sisterhood: The power of Sorority

this is in the world of sororities, particularly members of the Divine Nine. For those on the outside, sororities might look like opportunities to party. They are far, far more than that. NOW National President and honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho, Christian F. Nunes, sits down with International Grand Basileus of Sigma Gamma Rho, Marica T. Harris to talk about the important role sororities play in uplifting women and their communities. 

Guest: Mrs. Marica T. Harris is the 26th International Grand Basileus of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Previously, Mrs. Harris has led as an Assistant Director and Regional Director in the Northeastern Region. Most recently, she served as the International Vice-president from 2020 to 2024, where she played a crucial role in advancing the sorority’s R3 initiatives—Recruitment, Retention, and Reclamation membership initiatives. Mrs. Harris has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a Master of Arts in counseling, and a Master’s in Social Work from prestigious institutions. In addition to her educational experience, Mrs. Harris brings over 25 years of professional expertise working in the non-profit sector as a senior administrator; leading teams, program operations, talent acquisition, and fiscal oversight.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Christian Nunes

BB

Producer

Bethany Brookshire

IB

Editor

Ismael Balderas-Wong

JH

Producer

Jeanette Harris-Courts

MH

Guest

Marica T. Harris

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Bethany Brookshire (00:06):
Hello, everyone and welcome to Feminism NOW, the podcast from the National Organization for Women. I'm senior producer Bethany Brookshire. Our theme for season three is women uplifting women, and one place that that happens is in college sororities. When many people think about sororities, they just think they're places to party, but sororities are so much more, they can be powerful supporters of women personally and professionally, which is why now National President Christian F. Nunes is chatting today with the International Grand Basileus of Sigma Gamma Rho, Marica T. Harris. And while we're here, we would love to hear your thoughts. Were you in a sorority? Tell us how a sorority positively impacted you or your community. Contact us at [e-mail]. And now let's get to the interview.

Christian F. Nunes (01:04):
Hello, everyone. I'm Christian F. Nunes, the National President of the National Organization for Women. And today I am extra excited. I'm here to tell you that we are here to speak with the amazing sorority, International Grand Basileus, and as an honorary member, I am super excited to uplift my own sorority as we talk about women uplifting women, a sorority uplifting community through sisterhood, leadership and service. I'm thrilled to be speaking with International Grand Basileus, Marica T. Harris. She's an experienced educator, a leader in the nonprofit sector, and so much more. Madame Grand, it is so wonderful to have you with us here today, you're welcome.

Marica T. Harris (01:56):
Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to be here to share a little bit more about Sigma Gamma Rho. I'm really excited to learn a little bit more about now and the work that you do as well in how our organizations work collectively together to uplift women in the community.

Christian F. Nunes (02:15):
Absolutely. And I think this is a great opportunity too, to just have a conversation about the different ways women are being uplifted in different spaces for the same purpose. So, I'm excited to have this conversation, to talk about Sigma Gamma Rho, but also to talk about the work of the National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Divine Nine and just the history of Greek organizations and what they've done. So, let's start off by telling a little bit of history about Sigma Gamma Rho.

Marica T. Harris (02:44):
Yeah, so Sigma Gamma Rho was founded November 12th, 1922 on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. We were founded by seven school teachers who wanted to make difference in the communities that they serve with Sigma Gamma Rho. Out of the four sororities in the Divine Nine, we are the organization that was founded on predominantly White institution outside of Washington D.C. where the others were founded at Howard University.

(03:16):
Our members in Indiana at that time, their daily commute included walking past the home of the Ku Klux Klan Dragon at that time. As you look back on artifacts from that time period, if you look at the history book that we have in place, if you watch our documentary and you see some of the historical concepts during that time, it seemed like they wanted an opportunity to organize with other women that were like-minded, that they wanted to have a connection with other women who were attending the university at that time, other women that lived in the Indianapolis community, that they wanted to form a bond. And their connection with the university is what led to that bond. They wanted to make a difference in their communities, they wanted to be a resource to each other, and I believe that's how the organization started, with them being able to come together and decide this is the sorority that they wanted to be a part of.

Christian F. Nunes (04:24):
So, Madam Grand, can you give us a little bit more background on the history of the National Pan-Hellenic Council for those who may not really know much about how that was started?

Marica T. Harris (04:37):
Yes. So, the National Pan-Hellenic Council consists of nine historically Black fraternities and sororities. So, the National Pan-Hellenic Council as a collective was organized in the early of 20th century where there was racial isolation, Jim Crow laws and the need for community. So, the members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, often called the Divine Nine, consist of the ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, the men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, the men of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated, the men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, the men of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, the ladies of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated, and of course the Ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated. And then the men of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Incorporated.

(05:43):
Of those organizations, five of them were founded at Howard University. The rest of us were founded outside with Alpha Phi Alpha, founded at Cornell University, Kappa Alpha Psi founded at Indiana University, Sigma Gamma Rho, of course founded at Butler University and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Incorporated founded at Morgan State University. As I said, these organizations were founded over a 100 plus years ago, and they were founded during a time where African-Americans rights were being denied, similar to what we're seeing today. So, it was essential for these groups to come together collectively or share a vision for one, civic engagement, social action. We talk about voting. We've been doing that for years as collective organizations, advocacy, community service, economic development, and education, and adding the scholarships for our members to continue to matriculate through higher education.

Christian F. Nunes (06:52):
Great. Thank you so much for the information. I think this is great that we're talking about this, because I think lately, and we've been hearing a lot of misinformation and intentional disinformation about sororities, right? We've been hearing, "It's nothing but a party." Right? Or, "They only go to party." But that is really not the full picture. For instance, we know that Sigma Gamma Rho's slogan is "Greater service, greater progress." When it came to me to become an honorary member, I researched Sigma Gamma Rho, and I looked at the work the organization did, and it really spoke to me as a social worker, as a community organizer, as a activist, that it aligned with, like you said, like-minded people and just the purpose and how the organization focuses on and drives its legacy and its mission and purpose. So, can you tell others how Sigma Gamma Rho has manifested and continues to manifest that slogan, "Greater service, greater progress."?

Marica T. Harris (07:53):
For me, when I think about, "Greater service, greater progress." and our members as well, I think of what you put out in the community, how you give back, like Shirley Chisholm said, "The service is the rent that you pay." So, the more you give out, the more you support others, the more you encourage others, the more you pour into something, then you see the rewards that come out for that community. You see them being more educated, you see them more engaged in community service. Our mission is to uplift women and families in the community, both U.S. and globally. So giving, supporting, nurturing, educating, promoting scholarship, those are the things for me when I think about greater service, the more you give, you will see the progress in the outcomes, how the community was affected by the support that you give.

Christian F. Nunes (08:54):
Thank you for naming that, because I think sometimes people think that sororities are only about its members, so what you just articulated was that they're also about how they give to the community, how they give globally, how they give about empowering and uplifting the community is. And I'll say there are some great examples that Sigma Gamma Rho does. It really shows that one is Project Cradle Care and the other one is initiative called Women Wellness. So, can you tell our listeners a little bit about those two initiatives that Sigma Gamma Rho runs?

Marica T. Harris (09:30):
Project Cradle Care and Women's Wellness are two of our five essential programs that we support in our communities. So with Project Cradle Care, that is with our partnership with the March of Dines, and it's really about addressing the stigmas with maternal and infant health. On the news you see a lot about the health disparities and the implicit bias with women of color when they are pregnant. It's really about educating the community, educating other women about the importance of making sure that they are following the doctor's orders in terms of their maternal health. It is educating significant others about the importance of understanding the needs and what is going on with women as they're going through their childbirth years.

(10:24):
It is really educating doctors and others in a community that when we have health challenges, it's important to listen to us. If we're not well, then the whole family is not well. And so we like to promote women's wellness internally through breast cancer awareness, through Alzheimer's awareness, through mental health awareness, and that's also including financial health as well. So, that's what we try to tie and connect with other partners that have that similar focus.

Christian F. Nunes (10:59):
I think when we look at even what's happening in the United States, we see the extreme systematic disparities that are happening to Black and Brown women, particularly Black women, right? And how they're treated, like you're explaining Madame Grand, like when they're going into to get this healthcare and they're trying to from the time either when they're family planning and they're going through pregnancy and they're trying to even get the care they need. What's really interesting, I was reading something about how a lot of times when Black women are give birth, they're turned away from even being taught how to breastfeed. They automatically have a bias to assume that they just give them formula. They don't take the time to even educate Black women about how to breastfeed at the hospital. And we all know that it's at a benefit breast milk, right? But they take that extra time to do that for non-Black women.

(11:51):
And then there is this whole horrible superwoman complex out there for you that you just are not supposed to break and you're never supposed to be able to be weary or need grace. It's so important that we are teaching each other the importance of giving to yourself and giving yourself grace and caring for yourself and taking care of your own health. I think a lot of times we forget about self-care and we forget about taking care of nurturing our legacy and generation from the get-go. Wow, I'm really enjoying this conversation with Madame Grand, Marica T. Harris. We're going to take a quick break real quick to go to our call to action and we'll be right back.

(12:36):
So, this is Christian and this is our call to action. We know there is an election happening in very short time coming up in a month now, and listeners, you probably all kinds of feelings about it. I know I do. I know I'm thinking about it all day long. And you also know that we read the news and it probably sits on [inaudible 00:13:00] feelings for you, but one of the things we know that we definitely can do is we can make sure that we are educating everyone on the importance of getting out to vote. So, please make sure you are getting out to vote. This is your chance to do your part by getting out to vote. Research shows that the number one way to get people out to vote is through a personal connection. You can make calls, you can send letters to potential voters, but what really works is talking to your friends, talking to your family, and getting them to vote. So, it's your turn now to take action. Turn up that vote. And now back to our interview.

(13:47):
Okay. So, Madame Grand, we know that we are coming up onto a very important date on November 5th, right?

Marica T. Harris (13:57):
Yes. Less than, is it 40 days?

Christian F. Nunes (14:00):
40 days. And one of the things I have found to be really interesting is that I noticed that there has been a huge engagement by D-Nine on getting out the votes and Sigma Gamma Rho is part of this getting out the vote engagement and it's making sure that we're activating and mobilizing to get out the vote and turn out the vote during this election. Can you tell me why you felt like it's so important that Sigma Gamma Rho takes a very active approach in turning out the vote for this election?

Marica T. Harris (14:34):
Civic engagement and social action has been at the forefront of Sigma Gamma Rho since our inception as we started to develop our organization. And so this isn't new to us. We amplified the need to be aware, have that education of who the candidates are, encouraging others to register to vote, and then mobilizing and getting people to the voting stations and then making sure people were aware of their rights. We have been doing that for years. In fact, in the last election, women were the biggest reason why the current administration won the election. Pushing people out, making sure they have the awareness. I think for this election season, rather, we are amplifying the need for people to be focused, but we don't want it to end here in November. It needs to be on our minds constantly, because of the local elections, the state elections, the school board elections, elections connected to sheriff.

(15:54):
Those are where some of the major decisions that impact our community are made. Those are where we want to continue to be engaged. We are also pushing other women to educate themselves about why they should run for office and the impact that they can make as well. So, I think we're just amplifying the work that we've already done and really getting out to ensure that members of our community, like you said with Sigma Gamma Rho, our campaign is Rock the Vote and we want our members and affiliates to take at least seven other people out, make sure that they've registered at least seven people, get seven people to the voting spaces, and then making sure they understand their rights this election season.

Christian F. Nunes (16:47):
Yes, thank you for also talking about the importance of the other elections, right? And the importance of voting down-ballots. We often hear people talking about voting down-ballots, but you clearly articulated and laid that out. What that means is voting for city council, voting for sheriff, voting for attorney general, voting for your justice of the peace, voting for all those important positions that have a direct impact on your life every single day, your corporation commissioners, all those different positions that sometimes we neglect to even look at or vote, because we were so busy looking at those federal elections that we dismiss the ones that have the greatest impact in our daily lives, right? And make decisions and ordinances and policies and laws that are impacting us every single day.

(17:34):
And so I hope y'all are hearing Madame Grand very clearly when she says you need to make sure you're paying attention to the local, state, regional elections that are happening where you live, because they had the greatest impact on what's happening and affecting you every single day. And also to bring people with you and take the time for the people that don't understand, just sit down and explain it to them and make sure they understand what's on the ballot. Make sure they understand how to read a ballot.

Marica T. Harris (18:05):
Because when you think about the Congress elections, the Presidential elections, that for us is voting the future. I may not see the impact of that, but future generations will feel the impact of the decision when we're voting on Congress, when we're voting in presidential elections, most time in the local elections, the state elections, you'll see some of the immediate impacts of how our country is shaped and with some of the policies and laws that are put in place. So, it's important that we look at the elections in totality and be aware and get out to vote.

Christian F. Nunes (18:43):
Absolutely. So, I'm curious for you, if you were to tell these listeners, we're not talking about partisanship, but we're talking about our future in democracy, if they're feeling like they just feel disconnected, what would you tell them to encourage them why they need to get out and vote?

Marica T. Harris (19:07):
For all the listeners? You really got to connect your values with the candidate. Think about what's important to you. Think about what's important if you have children, think about what's important to them. Think about the future of what America will look like. Think about the future of our partnership with other countries in that relationship. For me, for women, think about the ability to make decisions about you and not having someone else. Make those decisions about your body, about your rights, the economic system, think about the housing, think about health disparities and look for that candidate that reflects on equality, inclusion, and diversity. Look for the facts, not for the misconceptions, the misinterpretations, the misunderstandings. In Sigma, we call that the seven misses, but think about what resonates with you and choose that candidate, because sitting at home is not an option. That means to me you have succeeded and you're okay with not making decisions that truly impact you.

Christian F. Nunes (20:38):
So, if you are not okay and you have not succeeded and you want your voice to be heard and do not want to give into the seven misses, right? Then listen to the International Grand Basileus, Marica, T. Harris from Sigma Gamma Rho and make sure you are exercising your voice and you're getting out the vote. Make sure you are giving to your community for greater good, for greater purpose, because if we don't do it, nobody else will. So, we have to be the one help bend the arc. We have to be the one to bend the arc of the change you want to see. Wow. We are out of time for today. I thank you so much for joining me in this conversation. It has been great, and educating our audience on the importance of the role of Greek life, but also how it up uplifts women and the importance of just getting out the vote and educating to make a difference. Thank you for joining us and for all the listeners, I look forward to seeing you in two weeks.

Marica T. Harris (21:49):
Yes, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.

Bethany Brookshire (21:53):
Thank you so much for joining us in our own form of sisterhood and brotherhood at Feminism NOW. We would love to hear your experiences and views on the role of Greek life in democracy. Feel free to send us your thoughts. This podcast, Feminism NOW is a production of the National Organization for Women. If you like what you hear, please like, subscribe, and send it to your friend. You can also contact us at [e-mail]. Head to now.org to read up on Now's core issues and our approach to advancing women's equality. Together we can make a difference. I'm Bethany Brookshire. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you soon.