The Delta Christmas Party

The Delta Christmas Party is an event established to raise funds that will be donated to various philanthropic causes. Beginning in 1957, Delta Sigma Theta held its first Christmas Party and distributed the funds to the participants of Little Rock Nine. Brown verses the Board of Education was the 1954 Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools. Soror Daisy Bates, the Little Rock Arkansas NAACP Chapter, and nine black students desegregated the all white Central high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The conditions at this high school where severely hostile and abusive resulting in President Dwight Eisenhower dispatching Federal Troops providing armed protection to these nine black students attending school.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated demonstrated its support for the success and protection of these students and Soror Daisy Bates, whose lives where greatly affected by Little Rock Nine. Delta Sigma Theta contributed hundreds of gifts and over $300 to the students. In addition to the financial support, dynamic members of Delta Sigma Theta mentored the students offering moral and spiritual support.

The Christmas Party funds of 1958 where donated to Thika Medical Center in Nairobi Kenya. These funds where used to build a maternity wing where more than 2000 Africans are treated daily.

Funds from the 1959 Christmas Party were donated to the Lost Class of Prince Edward County, VA. Prince Edward County Public Schools were closed to stall the federally mandated desegregation of public schools. Delta Sigma Theta sent money and gifts to these 57 high school seniors in Petersburg, VA.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated was founded by 22 collegiate women exemplifying academic excellence and sisterhood as a catalyst to improve conditions within the black community. Positively affecting the community and helping those in need is important to Delta Sigma Theta.

Our Christmas Party is one of the many ways that Delta Sigma Theta improves the conditions facing the black community. Over the years Delta Sigma Theta has continued the Christmas Party tradition by contributing to the welfare of the individuals or institutions at home or abroad as our way of sharing the Christmas spirit through sisterhood, scholarship, and service.

Birthdays of Lambda Iota

Chapter Sorors

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Soror Lauren Clarke

Spring 2001

DSQ Upcoming Events

“Community Service Holiday project with Traveler Aid”

“Come out to Help and support the less fortunate in the Rhode Island area during the Holiday season, just an Hour or two can make huge difference”

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2003

177 Union Street, Providence, RI 02903(across Snowdown dorm)

Please contact Tifffani Odige if you would like any more information or have any more questions please contact @ Tpo153@students.jwu.edu

“DR. BETTY SHABAZZ DELTA ACADEMY”

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2003

209 Cranston Street Providence, RI

10am-12pm

If you are interested in becoming a mentor for young ladies between the ages of 11 and 14, please e-mail DeltaSigmaTheta_LI@excite.com

Soror of the Month

By Bethanie Trent, Spring 2003

Daisy Lee Gatson Bates was born on November 12, 1912 in Huttig, Arkansas. Soror Bates never knew her parents; her mother was killed by three white men after she resisted their sexual advances; her father left town, fearing reprisals if he sought to prosecute those responsible. Orlee and Susie Smith, friends of her parents, adopted her. In 1941, she married L.C. Bates, a journalist. They moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and established a newspaper, the Arkansas State Press; it became the leading African American newspaper in the state and a powerful voice in the Civil Rights Movement.

It was as president of the Arkansas state conference of the NAACP that Bates coordinated the efforts to integrate Little Rock's public schools after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed segregated public schools in 1954. Nine African-American students, the "Little Rock Nine," were admitted to Little Rock's Central High School for the 1957-1958 school year. Violent white reaction against integration forced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to order 1000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to restore order and protect the children.

Bates was the students' leading advocate, escorting them safely to school until the crisis was resolved. She continued to serve the children, intervening with school officials during conflicts, and accompanying parents to school meetings. In 1962, Bates published her memoir of the Little Rock crisis, The Long Shadow of Little Rock. Soror Bates died in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 4, 1999.

Recipe of the Month

Shrimp and Crab Gumbo Recipe

Submitted by Nyema Mitchell, Spring 2002

Ingredients

1/2 cup oil,

3/4 cup flour

1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound okra, trimmed and sliced
1 gallon shrimp stock
1 teaspoon thyme
Salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
3 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 pounds fresh lump crabmeat, picked over
6 cups cooked Louisiana long-grain white rice (I like Ellis Stansel's Gourmet Rice from Gueydan, Louisiana)

Heat the oil in a large heavy pot and add the flour. Cook the roux, stirring constantly, to a light brown if you want it Creole-style, and to a dark, almost milk chocolate color if you want it Cajun-style. Just before the roux reaches the proper color, add the vegetables and stir like hell, being careful not to spatter yourself. When the vegetables are tender, add the stock, salt, and peppers. Stir until the roux is dissolved, and simmer over low heat for one hour.
Add the shrimp about 5 minutes before serving, then add the crabmeat by the handful (it's a lot of fun to just dump in all that wonderful sweet crabmeat with your bare hands), then cook over low heat just until the shrimp turn pink and the crabmeat is warmed through. Serve in large soup or gumbo bowls over about 1/2 cup of cooked rice per serving. 10-12 servings.

Laurie Lee

By Tiffani Odige, Spring 2003

Tonight the wind gnaws with teeth of glass
The jackdaw shivers in caged branches of iron
The stars have talons
There is hunger in the mouth of vole and badger
Silver agonies of breath in the nostril of the fox
Ice on the rabbit’s paw
Tonight has no moon, no food for the pilgrim
The fruit tree is bare, the rose bush a thorn
And the ground is bitter with stones
But the mole sleeps and the hedgehog lies curled in a womb of leaves
And the bean and the wheat seed hug their germs in the earth
And a stream moves under the ice
Tonight there is no moon
But a star opens like a trumpet over the dead
And tonight in a nest of ruins the blessed babe is laid
And the fir tree warms to a bloom of candles
And the child lights his lantern and stares at his tinsel toy
And our hearts and hearths smoulder with live ashes
In the blood of our grief the cold earth is suckled
In our agony the womb convulses its seed
And in the last cry of anguish
The child’s first breath is born

Brainchild - Josephine Ventura, Fall 1993

Visit the Lambda Iota Chapter on the World Wide Web!

http://students.brown.edu/dst