Gamma Delta Sigma Chapter
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
Miami, Florida
From Our Basileus
Linda Lloyd-Stevens
As we approach the milestone of our 70th Anniversary on March 11, 1955, I am filled with immense pride and gratitude. For seven decades, our chapter has proudly served the Miami community, embodying the spirit of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. through countless acts of service, leadership, and sisterhood.
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Join us in celebrating this remarkable journey! We invite you to partake in a series of exciting events designed to honor our legacy and our ongoing commitment to our community. Let’s come together to reflect on our achievements, embrace the joy of sisterhood, and look forward to many more years of making a difference.
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Here’s to 70 years of excellence and to many more to come. Let us continue to inspire and uplift, as we forge ahead with renewed vigor and passion.
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We look forward to celebrating with you!
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In Sisterhood and Service,
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Linda
Soror Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney Honored With Street Naming
Friday, November 22, 2024 @ 10am
The Historic Hampton House
​Miami-Dade County will honor Miami Historian and Preservationist Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney with a street naming in recognition of her 93rd birthday.
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Commissioner Keon Hardemon sponsored the legislation to honor Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney at the recommendation of the history research organization Profiles in Black Miami and The Curtis Foundation.
The area located at NW 42 Street and 27th Ave to 29th Avenue in front of the Historic Hampton House will be renamed the Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney Street.
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Dr. Pinkney was a tireless advocate for the preservation of Miami history. Her work has shed light on the role that Black people have played in the building of Miami. It’s her lifelong work that continues to highlight and memorialize the people and spaces occupied by the people who came before us.
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Dr. Enid Pinkney was born in Overtown on October 15, 1931. She resided at 1827 NW 5th Court with her family.
Pinkney attended Dunbar Elementary School then Booker T Washington high school where she graduated in 1949. Even at this young age, Pinkney was quietly pushing to integrate her community that was restricted by the Jim Crow laws of the South.
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Her work continued toward this push to integration when she attended Talladega College in Alabama. It was here that she took on the violators of the 1944 Interstate Transportation Law.
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After graduating, Pinkney worked as an educator in Miami Dade’s Public School System.
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Most of the narrative to preserve Miami’s heritage is due to Pinkney’s efforts. She is the retired founding President of the Historic Hampton Community Trust where she led a nine year effort to preserve the Historic Hampton Inn, a place so vital to Black Miami history.
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She has also served as the only Black president of Dade Heritage Trust. It is through her work that we know of many of the Black pioneers buried in the Miami City Cemetery.
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Dr. Pinkney also fought to preserve the oldest burial site for Blacks located in the former community of Lemon City now known today as Little Haiti.
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It is through her efforts that we now see markers where those communities once stood.
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And when there was a discovery of a Native American burial site at the mouth of the Miami River, Dr. Pinkney joined the fight to preserve it.
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Dr. Pinkney was dedicated and treasured member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Gamma Delta Sigma Chapter, in Miami,Florida.
Dr. Pinkney died on July 18, 2024.
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The street naming ceremony will take place on November 22nd at the Historic Hampton House located at 4240 NW 27th Avenue in Miami at 10 a.m.
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For more information please contact: profilesinblackmiami@gmail.com
Our Story
Greater Service, Greater Progress
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was organized on November 12, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana, by seven young educators: 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 became an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter at Butler University. Since its inception, the dynamic women of Sigma Gamma Rho have built and sustained a well-known and well-respected reputation for leading positive change to help uplift the community through sisterhood, leadership, and service.
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
Gamma Delta Sigma Chapter
Chartered March 11, 1955
Gamma Delta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was chartered as a result of the envisioned dream of Allene V. Jones Taylor. Her aspiring dream, to work in the Greater Miami community and mold the character of youth, captured the minds and hearts of ten very special, dedicated, and intelligent women. They concurred in the idealistic vision of establishing a chapter.
Soror Beatrice Keys, then Basileus of Beta Iota Sigma Chapter, Daytona Beach, Florida; Soror Bertha Rhoda Black, Anti-Grand Syntaktes, St. Louis, Missouri; and Southeastern Regional Syntaktes Soror Myrtle S. Russell organized the first Aurora Club on February 5, 1955. The zeal with which Soror Taylor and the women worked was highly commended by Soror Elizabeth Espy Curtis and Soror Ruby Thomas Rayford, graduate members of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. The two graduate sorors advised and nurtured this dream with deep sisterly support. When the group was prepared, Soror Curtis, Soror Rayford, and Soror Russell conducted the pledging ceremonies at the home of charter member, Allene V. Taylor.
On March 11, 1955, a charter was granted to Gamma Delta Sigma at the Southeastern Regional Conference, in Tampa, Florida. It was in Tampa under Beta Kappa Sigma Chapter that the "burning sands" of Greekdom was crossed. The charter members and first sorors included Vera Austin, Mable D. Barlow, Naomi Gooding, Inez K. Davis, Naomi Espy, Mallie Hunter, Allene V. J. Taylor, Jane D. Lewis, Eunice W. Liberty, Walton Y. Robinson, Roberta Thompson, and Velma Hurd (an Aurora from Colorado State University). Soror Curtis and Soror Rayford transferred immediately into the chapter. Soror Thomas was the first Basileus of Gamma Delta Sigma.
