Updated: Oct. 4, 2024, at 12:39 p.m.
More than a year after GW’s Mu Beta chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. unveiled an effigy of the sorority’s letters in G Street Park, seven historically Black Greek organizations joined them over the summer to establish a symbolic home that honors the chapters’ communities and contributions to campus.
Officials installed seven monuments ahead of the fall semester along a walkway in the park across from Duquès Hall to represent the University’s chapters of National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations known as the Divine Nine. Chapter leaders said the plots pay homage to chapter alumni and establish an additional physical presence for Black Greek letter organizations at a predominantly white institution.
Each plot includes colors of its respective chapter, and the plaques that accompany the letter monuments include the chapter’s charter date at GW and the names of all of its founding members. The plots divert from the traditional arrangement recommended by the NPHC, which would place them in the order the organizations were founded and instead positions the monuments in no particular order.
Senior Stephanie Animdee, the president of GW’s Mu Beta chapter of DST, said the chapter revealed their plot right before the organization’s 48th charter anniversary in April 2023. She said her chapter brainstormed the plot idea as a way to showcase her chapter’s excellence and presence on campus as the first Black Greek letter organization chartered at GW in 1975.
Animdee said DST alumni proposed the plots to Dean of Students Colette Coleman in 2021, who then brought the idea to other officials and spearheaded the effort to erect the plots. She said every time she walks by the letters, she has a feeling of pride in honoring alumni that “paved the way” for her, sorority sisters and Black students on campus.
“If it wasn’t for them, I mean, who knows the type of issues as a Black woman I’d be experiencing, and especially as a Black woman in Greek life, all the prejudice that they had to endure,” Animdee said. “So that plaque is a constant reminder of how far we’ve come as Black Greeks on campus and also the amount of work that my charter members, like my sorors within my chapter, has put in.”
The Universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Central Florida unveiled monuments on their campuses showcasing NPHC chapters in 2022 and 2024, respectively.
Coleman said members of GW’s NPHC chapters originally advocated for the plot initiative in 2018, looking to expand representation of the Divine Nine within the University’s Greek community. Coleman said the addition of the NPHC townhouse on Townhouse Row on 23rd Street — which opened in August 2021, according to GW NPHC’s Instagram — also served to boost the presence of the chapters on campus.
“At their core, plots are meant to educate about history and tradition, serving as a gathering space for the NPHC community,” Coleman said in an email.
Officials in 2020 reassigned the 23rd Street townhouse of the Panhellenic Association chapter Phi Sigma Sigma — which surrendered its campus charter after its former president posted a racist image and message on their Snapchat story, sparking 17 member disaffiliations — to the NPHC. Black Greek chapters used to reside in two separate townhouses on F and 21st streets, according to an NPHC Instagram post from August 2019, until their relocation to the reassigned townhouse in 2021.
Senior K’Shawn McNair, the president of the Gamma Alpha Phi chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., said Assistant Director of Student Involvement Andrea Davis, the former NPHC adviser, initially reached out to chapters last fall to discuss possible designs and colors for their plots. He said Fraternity and Sorority Life had to receive licenses for each GW chapter since they are trademarked.
“It was more of the officials reaching out and establishing ‘We want this for you,’ and then, students, like, ‘Yeah, we definitely need more representation on campus,’” McNair said.
McNair said the individual organizations did not have to pay for the plots because GW covered the expenses and chapter members verified the spelling of the alumni listed on the plaques. He added that the planning process took about a year since officials received the licenses for each chapter last fall and organizations planned their designs last spring.
McNair said some students unaffiliated with NPHC told him they didn’t know there were Divine Nine chapters on campus until they walked past the plots.
“There’s been people that, like, they walked up to me and they’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know that the D9 was a thing on GW’s campus like being such a prominent PWI,’” McNair said.
McNair said this is a “first step” from GW officials toward fair and equal representation on campus for NPHC chapters because other Greek organizations have plots dedicated to their chapters on campus since he’s been at GW.
Beta Gamma Sigma, a business fraternity, has a plot dedicated to its chapter in front of Duquès Hall.
“This allowed more of a spotlight on each chapter and organization here,” McNair said.
Matthew Jones, a junior and the president of the Nu Beta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., said the Divine Nine is an extension of Black culture at GW and that alumni were at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. He added that historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris are alumni of the Sigma chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the Alpha chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., respectively.
“It’s important to have that broad lineage spot where we can all sort of come together and just pay homage to people who started this chapter because we’ve contributed a lot to GW and D.C. schools and D.C. PWIs in general,” Jones said.
Jones said in the future, he hopes the plots will be rearranged to follow the tradition of listing the chapters in the order in which they were founded.
“It shows especially in the right direction, GW cares more about Black culture just uplifting that and having that reputation,” Jones said. “I feel like it’s something that we’ve been fighting for, for a really long time.”
Jennifer Igbonoba contributed reporting.
This article was updated to correct the following:
DST alumni proposed the plots to Coleman in 2021, The Hatchet previously reported that Animdee proposed the plots to Coleman. We regret this error.
