About 70 walk in Women’s Suffrage Commemorative March
Redford freshman Kendarius Mann marched for the importance of women Saturday afternoon.
“I don’t think women should be the only people marching for their rights,” Mann said. “Women are very important; I mean, without women, there would be no men.”
It was all part of a Women’s Suffrage Commemorative March on Central Michigan University’s campus sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
About 70 people marched through campus as the sorority concluded its Founders Week events.
The group began at Warriner Mall and ended with hot chocolate and donuts at the Towers, with historical facts about the sorority and the Women’s Suffrage Movement being told along the way.
TaNisha Parker, a Ypsilanti senior and Delta Sigma Theta vice president, said the sorority marched because it was the first community service event their founders had been involved in.
“It was their very first act of public service and we figured that’s 97 years of service and this is our first year in the sorority; so it’d be a good thing to honor our founders by redoing the march,” Parker said.
Parker said she was not expecting as many people to attend, but is happy they did.
“I’m happy and surprised people showed up for it to be so cold and for it to be Saturday,” Parker said. “I don’t think a lot of men will come but, if one comes, I’d still be happy.”
Members of Alpha Chi Omega sorority came to show their support to Delta Sigma Theta.
Dawn Siemiet, a Rochester Hills senior and Alpha Chi Omega president, encouraged her sorority sisters to come because she wants to increase cultural awareness and Greek unity.
“We want to show that we support all groups and not just IFC and (Panhellenic Council),” Siemiet said. “Our girls were happy they came, they were excited that (Delta Sigma Theta) were nice and happy they showed up.”
Jessica Veasley, a Detroit senior and Delta Sigma Theta recording secretary, was happy that Greeks from the Panhellenic Council came and everyone learned something.
“I’m excited the mainstream Greeks came — that meant a lot and showed that we are more than (Panhellenic) or NPHC and we can work together,” Veasley said. “Women’s Suffrage Movement wasn’t just for Black women or other minorities — it was for all women’s rights.”
The sorority was founded Jan. 13, 1913, at Howard University, and its 22 founding women participated in a march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration in 1913.
