1st African American Sorority in California

Contrary to the claim repeated on numerous websites that Delta Sigma Theta's Kappa Chapter was chartered at the University of California, Berkeley, on February 21, 1921, the available contemporary evidence does not support that conclusion.

The Rho chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated is the first historically Black Greek Letter Organization at the University of California, Berkeley. 

 The February 1921 date corresponds to the public announcement of a proposed Delta Sigma Theta organization in Berkeley, not to the formal initiation or establishment of an active chapter. Primary sources, including Ida Louise Jackson's oral history and Delta Sigma Theta's own historical records preserved by the Library of Congress, show that the first initiation of Berkeley members was not conducted until September 1922, when National Officer Ida Myller traveled to Berkeley to initiate Vivian Osborne, Louise Thompson, Elizabeth Gordon, Creola Cook, Myrtle Price, Gladys Brown, and Onilda Taylor. By contrast, Alpha Kappa Alpha's Rho Chapter was formally chartered, and its members were all initiated by August 21, 1921, making it the first Black Greek-letter sorority chapter officially established at the University of California, Berkeley.