The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. A non-profit group, the organization promotes education and patriotism. Its membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the American Revolution era who aided the revolution and its subsequent war. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and have a birth certificate indicating that their gender is female. DAR has over 190,000 current members in the United States and other countries. The organization's motto is "God, Home, and Country".
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students; it is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation of model ethical codes related to the legal profession. As of fiscal year 2017, the ABA had 194,000 dues-paying members, constituting approximately 14.4% of American attorneys. In 1979, half of all lawyers in the U.S. were members of the ABA. In 2016, less than one third of the 1.3 million lawyers in the U.S. were included in the ABA membership of 400,000, with figures largely unchanged in 2024.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association (ABA) in protest of that organization's then exclusionary membership practices and conservative political orientation. They were the first predominantly white US bar association to allow the admission of minorities to their ranks. The group sought to bring more lawyers closer to the labor movement and progressive political activities, to support and encourage lawyers otherwise "isolated and discouraged," and to help create a "united front" against Fascism.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (ΔΣΘ) is a historically African American sorority. The organization was founded by college-educated women dedicated to public service with an emphasis on programs that assist the African American community. Delta Sigma Theta was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two women at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Membership is open to any woman, regardless of religion, race, or nationality. Women may apply to join through undergraduate chapters at a college or university or through an alumnae chapter after earning a college degree.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (ΑΦΑ) is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved into a fraternity with a founding date of December 4, 1906. It employs an icon from Ancient Egypt, the Great Sphinx of Giza, as its symbol. Its aims or pillars are "Manly Deeds, Scholarship, and Love For All Mankind," and its motto is "First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All." Its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. (ΦΒΣ) is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as charter members. The fraternity's founders, A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service while taking an inclusive perspective to serve the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose. The fraternity exceeded the prevailing models of Black Greek-Letter fraternal organizations by being the first to establish alumni chapters, youth mentoring clubs, a federal credit union, chapters in Africa, and a collegiate chapter outside of the United States. It is the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a historically African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta (ΖΦΒ), which was founded on January 16, 1920, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., through the efforts of members of Phi Beta Sigma.
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. (ΣΓΡ) is a historically African American sorority, international collegiate, and non-profit community service organization that was founded on November 12, 1922. The organization was formed as a club in 1920, by seven African American women in Indianapolis, Indiana. At its inception, the sorority was created to support Black women pursuing degrees in education. It was incorporated within Indiana in November 1922 as a sorority for school teachers and held their first national conference in 1925. The sorority became a national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter then established at Butler University that year. The sorority was incorporated as a national collegiate sorority in 1930. Sigma Gamma Rho is the only sorority of the four historically African American National Pan-Hellenic Council sororities founded at a predominantly White institution instead of at Howard University. The sorority's slogan is "Greater Service, Greater Progress".
The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 67,000 lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students.
Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. (ΙΦΘ) is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded on September 19, 1963, at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth largest Black Greek Lettered Fraternity. Members of the close-knit afrocentric fraternity proudly embrace the organization’s youth, uniqueness, individualism and modern idealism. As a contemporary organization, many members have had the great honor of meeting, fellowshipping with, and/or engaging in personal or virtual discussions with one or more of their founders. Today there are over 301 undergraduate and alumni chapters, as well as colonies located in 40 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, The Bahamas, Colombia, South Korea, and Japan.
Sigma Pi Phi (ΣΠΦ), also known as The Boulé, is an African American professional fraternity. Founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1904, it is arguably the oldest fraternity for African Americans, between it and Alpha Phi Alpha founded at Cornell University. The fraternity does not have collegiate chapters and is designed for professionals in mid-career or older. Sigma Pi Phi has over 5,000 members and 139 chapters throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, The Bahamas, Colombia and Brazil.
PDK International is an international professional organization for educators. Its main office is in Arlington, Virginia. It was founded on January 24, 1906, at Indiana University.
The African-American upper class, sometimes referred to as the black upper class, the black upper middle class or black elite, is a social class that consists of African-American individuals who have high disposable incomes and high net worth. The group includes highly paid white-collar professionals such as academics, engineers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, politicians, business executives, venture capitalists, CEOs, celebrities, entertainers, entrepreneurs and heirs.
Iota Alpha Pi (ΙΑΠ) is an international collegiate sorority operating in the United States and Canada from March 3, 1903 to July 1971, when it ceased operations. It was then restarted when Alpha chapter was rechartered at Hunter College in October 2023.
Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc. (ΧΗΦ) is an American professional service organization for registered professional nurses and student nurses, representing many cultures and diverse ethnic backgrounds. Sarah Killian, DNP, RN is the current national president.
Beta Kappa Chi (ΒΚΧ) is an American collegiate honor society that recognizes academic achievement in the fields of natural science and mathematics. It was established in 1923 at Lincoln University, an historically Black university near Oxford, Pennsylvania.
Eta Phi Beta (ΗΦΒ) is an African American business sorority located in the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was founded in Detroit, Michigan at the historically black Lewis Business College in October 1942. In 1997, the organization had 91 chapters and over 5,000 members internationally.
John Wesley Cromwell was a lawyer, teacher, civil servant, journalist, historian, and civil rights activist in Washington, D.C. He was among the founders of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society and the American Negro Academy, both based in the capital. He worked for decades in administration of the US Post Office.
Shontel Monique Brown is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Ohio's 11th congressional district since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Brown previously served as a member of the Cuyahoga County Council, representing the 9th district. She won her congressional seat in a special election on November 2, 2021, after Marcia Fudge resigned to become Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Joe Biden.
The Links is an American, invitation-only, social and service organization of prominent black women in the United States. Founded in 1946, it is the largest nationwide organization of prominent black women in the United States. Members include Kamala Harris, Marian Wright Edelman, and the late Betty Shabazz.
Marion Turner Stubbs was an African American concert pianist and clubwoman. She established Jack and Jill of America in 1938 and was also active in The Gay Northeasterners.
