Sorority Court

Sorority Court is a complex of sorority houses located on Richmond Road with two houses facing Armistead Avenue. Opened in 1929, it has provided the residence for a limited number of Junior and Senior women. 

The current sororities with houses here consist of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Chi Omega, Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Delta, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Alpha Epsilon Pi. The Moncure and Bozarth houses are not occupied by sororities. 

Since women were first admitted in 1918, sororities have always played a unique and pivotal role in the lives of women students. They were safe spaces at a time when there were few women in higher education. In the beginning, sorority housing was spread throughout the area. In the early 1920s, William & Mary began purchasing homes on Richmond Road to house sororities. Throughout the decade, additional nearby houses were acquired for sororities. When Kappa Alpha Theta arrived in 1928, it joined Chi Omega and Alpha Chi Omega in the Sorority Complex. In 1929, three new houses were built and occupied by Kappa Delta, Pi Beta Phi, and Alpha Chi Omega. These houses were the first on campus to have dining rooms, forever changing sorority life.

The national governing bodies of many sororities denied women of color the opportunity to join until the late 1960's. This aligned with the first African American students in residence at William & Mary in 1967. Despite this, Black women created spaces where they could support each other through sisterhood. Sororities in the “Divine Nine” created chapters at William & Mary. The Mu Upsilon Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated was founded at the university in 1976; the Nu Chi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was founded in 1981; the Xi Lambda Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated was founded 1982; the Sigma Lambda chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated was founded 2011 in, but is no longer active at the university. Non-Black women of color also carved out spaces to support each other. On April 7, 2013, nine women created the Beta Delta chapter of Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha, Incorporada, a Latin-based sorority. The Founding Mother Class of Delta Phi Omega Sorority, Incorporated, a South Asian-interest, multicultural sorority, was founded on November 6, 2016; the sorority’s presence at the university continues to grow.

References

• See details at: [http://www.wm.edu/offices/residencelife/oncampus/residencehalls/upperlevel/sorority/index.php, William & Mary Sorority Court web page]
• See folders for individual buildings, University Archives Subject File Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, William & Mary.
• See folders for individual buildings, University Archives Photograph Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, William & Mary.
• The Flat Hat: 27 September 1929 
• Colonial Echo