History of Beta Delta Omega

Beta Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was chartered on May 28, 1934 at Tougaloo College. The  South Eastern Regional Director was Margaret Davis Bowen, and The Eighth International President was Ida M. Jackson.  The charter members were Inez B. Prosser, Katie M. Wilson, Helen Griffin, Aquila Jones, Florence O. Alexander, and L. Zenobia Coleman. In  November 1996, the chapter established the Coleman Alexander Prosser Foundation, Incorporated, a 501c3 entity. The Beta Delta  Omega Center was purchased debt-free (2012). Additionally, two chapter history books have been published: Capturing A Vision The First  Sixty-Six Years (2005) and Iridescent Pearls: Reflections of Service and Sisterhood (2016). Beta Delta Omega received legislative approval  for the creation of the Mississippi state-wide Alpha Kappa Alpha vehicle license tag (1999).

Currently, the chapter is the largest in the state of Mississippi. The membership consists of three hundred sixty women ranging in  age from the mid-twenties to the late eighties. Thirty-six members hold Life Membership, twenty-one are Golden Members, and forty-two have achieved Silver Stars status. Beta Delta Omega is the supervising chapter to Gamma Rho, Gamma Omicron and previously Lambda Iota undergraduate chapters. Several members have represented the sorority as international leaders. This includes Carey B.  Preston as the first Executive Director of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; Ernestine Holloway was the 14^th South Eastern Regional Director; Esther Martin Rigsby served as the 17^th South Eastern Regional Director; Juanita Sims Doty served as the International Program Chairman and the 23^rd South Eastern Regional Director; Mitzi Dease Paige is the 26th South Eastern Regional Director; and Glenda Baskin Glover  served as the 30th  International President and CEO of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.