Keeping in step with DIVINE NINE
Southland College Prep steppers learn history through performances
About a dozen girls from Southland College Prep Charter High School stood on stage, some wearing performance outfits, individually going through the motions of the step combination and shaking out their arms and legs.
They began their step movements in unison with powerful stomps and claps that vibrated through the Richton Park school’s field house.
They were practicing Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s performance to honor the Divine Nine, or four sororities and five fraternities created in the early 1900s for Black members, said English teacher and member of Zeta Phi Beta Danielle Epson.
“There were many universities and white organizations that did not allow Black people to be admitted, so we created our own,” Epson said.
The school has teachers who represent the four sororities — Zeta Phi Beta, Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Sigma Gamma Rho — so Epson said they created teams representing each sorority.
Since October, 31 girls have practiced step routines, Epson
said. They also learned the history of stepping and the Divine Nine sororities during Women’s History Month, said special education teacher and Delta Sigma Theta member Meagan Stokes.
The history of stepping is deeply rooted in slavery, Stokes said. To honor that history, each
Divine Nine organization has its own chant and sound, she said.
“There were only so many things that people of African American descent could do, so stepping was a form of expression for them to come together to have some type of unity,” Stokes said.
Epson said the girls perform in the order the sororities were
founded, so Alpha Kappa Alpha went first, followed by Delta Sigma Theta and Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho.
Their costumes represent the sorority, they represented. Green and pink colors for Alpha Kappa Alpha or white and royal blue for