Phi Delta Kappa (sorority)

The National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Inc. (NSPDK) is an International African American professional sorority for women in the field of education. It was founded on May 23, 1923, in Jersey City, New Jersey.

History
Gladys Merritt Ross, a teacher in Jersey City, New Jersey, held an organizational meeting with other teachers on March 30, 1923 to discuss forming an educational sorority. Phi Delta Kappa was officially incorporated on May 23, 1923, as a sorority for women in the field of education. Its founders were Julia Asbury Barnes, Ella Wells Butler, Marguerite Gross, Florence Steele Hunt, Edna McConnell, Gladys Cannon Nunery, Gladys Merritt Ross, and Mildred Morris Williams. Because the founders were all minors, their parents and guardians became the sorority's trustees. Attorney J. Mercer Burrell helped the group to become incorporated.

In the 1940s, the sorority helped finance the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and conducted subscriptions campaigns for The Negro History Bulletin.

As of 2024, the sorority has 5,000 members. Its newsletter is The Courier and its magazine is The Krinon. It is a member of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Chapters
As of July 2022, Phi Delta Kappa has 146 chapters. Following is a list of chapters. Active chapters are indicated in bold. Inactive chapters are indicated in italics.

Notable members

 * Consuelo Milner, scientist, cryptographer, and teacher
 * Lemoine Deleaver Pierce (1957), educator and international and domestic relations mediator.
 * Barbara Sizemore, superintendent of District of Columbia Public Schools

National honorary members

 * Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and civil rights leader
 * Barbara Bush (1991), First Lady of the United States
 * Shirley Chisholm, United States Congress
 * Mary Frances Early (2021), the first African-American to earn a degree from the University of Georgia and namesake of the University of Georgia Mary Frances Early College of Education
 * Zelma Watson George, opera singer and delegate to United Nations General Assembly
 * Irma P. Hall (2007), actress
 * Charlemae Hill Rollins, pioneering librarian, author, and storyteller in the area of African-American literature
 * Anna Arnold Hedgeman, civil rights leader and the first African-American woman to hold a cabinet post in New York
 * Ella P. Stewart, America's first Black female pharmacist
 * Merze Tate, history professor at Howard University
 * Bazoline Estelle Usher (1950), an educator known for her work in the Atlanta Public Schools