Fuller Bio coming soon!!
Reba Roney Borders Harrison emerged from the same Indianapolis Black middle-class world that shaped her sister Alta Maria Roney. Like Alta, Reba grew up in a family that valued schooling, church life, civic engagement, and public achievement. Reba herself became an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and later remained engaged in the sorority’s graduate life, including Gamma Gamma Omega, where she was remembered as a Golden member in her later years. Her long life stands in contrast to Alta’s, but the sisters’ records are closely intertwined in the historical record because both moved through the same Indianapolis networks of education, service, and Black women’s leadership.
Reba’s marriage to Tee K. Borders (Epsilon) added another layer to that story. The University of Michigan Michiganensian identifies Tee K. Borders in connection with Alpha Phi Alpha, marking him as part of the Black collegiate and professional elite emerging from the university environment. Alta and Reba also illuminate how closely Black women’s sorority histories were braided together. Alta’s life shows the early 20th-century world of normal schools, YWCA work, playground supervision, interracial student organizing, and overlapping paths through Alpha Kappa Alpha and Sigma Gamma Rho. Reba’s record belongs to that same world, but her longevity allowed her to carry the family story forward long after Alta’s death. For Our Sister’s Sisters, the Roney women belong together: Alta marks the junction where later narratives begin to simplify, while Reba shows how those same networks persisted across decades in sorority, family, and public memory.