Divine Nine Research Paper

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As many of you probably haven’t heard of the Divine Nine which consist of 9 different African American fraternities and sorority organizations which has been a pivotal part of African American history and culture since the early 20th century. Which are the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Phi Beta Sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity. In the early 1900s, African Americans in universities proved to be a hard time for our people. They were often banned from joining many social organizations, black students began searching for ways to cope with these struggles. One way they coped was to create an organization that was just meant for African Americans. …show more content…
To become one of the Divine Nine you would have to pledge. Pledging is a process with multiple stage that can take up to a year and a half. The big part of pledging is becoming familiar with the fraternity for example, learning about every single member, bonding with pledges, and learning about the founding members, the history of the fraternity and the Greek system as a whole. But, the biggest part of pledging is proving oneself worthy of being made a brother. When pledging in the Divine Nine most of their pledging period is learning how to step. Stepping is a highly choreographed dance that involves stomping, clapping and chanting. An initiated member’s first show is called a probate show “Coming Out” ceremony where hey put on a performance in front of the whole school about their fraternity or sorority. As a transfer student from Bowie State University to the University of Maryland, College Park I have gotten the experience of how different they are from being at an HBCU and PWI. In this essay I will talk about the difference between probates at HBCU’s and PWI’s and then compare the

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