Walking in the Founders' Footsteps: Sigma Gamma Rho in Indianapolis 1922

Walking in the Founders’ Footsteps: Sigma Gamma Rho in Indianapolis, 1922 offers a rare look into the social and political climate experienced by African-Americans in the “Crossroads of America” during the years following the first World War. At the time Indiana was often referred to as the “most northern Southern state” because its public policies were more like the states of the Deep South than that of its Great Lakes neighbors. In the midst of this climate, on the east side of Indianapolis sat Butler University, named for a local attorney, newspaper publisher, and abolitionist, Ovid Butler. Butler was the driving force behind the school’s values of diversity, inclusivity, and equality, making it one of the first universities to admit women and people of color on an equal basis with white males. This was the setting where seven young Black women, who were studying education at Butler University's Irvington Campus chose to found the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority.