Ethel Cuff Black

Ethel Cuff Black
Born	1890 Wilmington, Delaware, United States
Died	September 17, 1977
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Educator
Known for	Co-founder of Delta Sigma Theta

Ethel Cuff Black, (1890-September 17, 1977) one of the founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Her father was a banker in an African-American owned business. Her maternal grandfather was a Civil War veteran.^[1] In Bordentown, New Jersey, she attended the Industrial School for Colored Youth and graduated with the highest grade point average. At Howard University, she was chairwoman of the collegiate chapter of the YWCA.^[2] During college, she was also the vice-president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, but later voted to reorganize the sorority and formed Delta Sigma Theta with twenty-one other women^[3] Due to illness, she graduated Howard in 1915.^[4] She was also the first African-American teacher in Rochester, New York.^[5] She was married in 1939 to real estate agent David Horton Black.^[6]

References

1. Giddings, Paula (1988). In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 33. 0688135099.
2. Giddings op. ed. pp. 39
3. Giddings op. ed. pp. 48
4. Giddings op. ed. pp. 65
5. Founders Biography. Kappa Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta at the University of Oklahoma. Accessed on August 15, 2007.
6. Giddings op. ed. pp. 185.

External links

• Delta Sigma Theta Founder History at the University of Texas
• "Black Greek-letter organizations in the twenty-first century", Parks, Gregory, 2008