The Alpha Nu Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated was chartered at the University of Illinois on May 16, 1932. In May 2018, members of the Champaign-Urbana Alumnae Chapter returned to campus for a reunion held in the Illini Union where several members were interviewed. Interviewees discuss their experience as African American students at the University of Illinois and as members of a Black Greek Letter Organization in the 1960s.
Born and raised in Chicago, Beverly Effort Biggs applied to Illinois at the encouragement of a high school teacher in 1961. Up until then, her educational environments had been majority - black. She came to Illinois at the young age of 16 and found a sense of belonging through the Black Greek system by joining Delta Sigma Theta her junior year. She remembers coming of age through the sorority and picketing with sisters in the Civil Rights Movement for fair housing.
Carol Easton Lee (Safisha Madhubuti) first went off to college from the Chicago Public School System to Illinois Wesleyan University in 1962. She visited the University of Illinois for Homecoming freshman year and recalls that the 200 black students on campus, which far outpaced the 10 on the Wesleyan Campus, made her feel in heaven and she transferred to the U of I her sophomore year - 1963. When she met an Alpha Nu at her kitchen work-study job, she was introduced to the black sorority and fraternity social network from which she found ample social support. She credits her ties to Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Nu and their socialization of her into a culture of academic excellence with her success as an undergrad and her impressive post-grad career which includes a Master's Degree, a PhD, founding multiple elementary schools, and an impressive social justice record.
Connie Rolison Corbett came to the University of Illinois as a transfer student in 1963, majoring in medical technology. She came to Illinois because she felt lonely at Ohio University, where she spent her freshman year, to join a high school friend who was pledging Delta Sigma Theta. Her pledging semester's 4.9 (out of 5) GPA earned her an appointment to the Office of the National Second Vice President which afforded her opportunities for travel. In one such opportunity she went to Los Angeles and was able to meet Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the mid 1960s.
Eleanor Saunders Towns eyes were initially set on Howard University, but an administrative error redirected her to the University of Illinois in 1961. Towns was a State Champion High School Debater, so she decided to study Drama with plans on teaching speech. She recounts her experience as one of around 200 black students on campus as unique compared to other black students because she came from a majority - white high school in Rockford, Illinois. The Deltas' emphasis on scholarship and opportunity for a connection to the black community on campus attracted her most to the sorority.
Jo Jones first made contact with the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated Alpha Nu Chapter at the University of Illinois on a high school visit. She enrolled at the University of Illinois in 1959 and, although the Chapter House was sold in 1962 (the year following her initiation), she remembers her experience as an undergraduate and as an Alpha Nu very fondly. Meeting lifelong friends, experiencing personal growth, and playing cards with sisters are among the highlights she mentions.
