GMO History
Three of Gamma Mu Omega's Charter Members.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated had its humble beginnings as the vision of nine college students on the campus of Howard University in 1908. Since then, the sorority has flourished into a globally-impactful organization of nearly 300,000 college-trained members, bound by the bonds of sisterhood and empowered by a commitment to servant-leadership that is both domestic and international in its scope.
The Gamma Mu Omega Chapter was chartered on December 13, 1941. It was the first graduate sorority chapter established in the city of Daytona Beach.
GMO’s charter members were: Mildred Peterson, Joyce Engram, Phannye Huger, Marion Lancaster, Nadine Ferrell and Angie Douglas – all of whom are deceased.
Sorority members from Daytona Beach, Sanford, and New Smyrna Beach comprised the early chapter membership. The first chapter president was Mildred Peterson. The first initiates were Charlotte Ford Clark*, Emmie V. Hunt*, Bertha Slack Baker*, Rebecca S. Neal and Willie Ruth Taylor*.
To promote sisterhood on the campus of Bethune-Cookman University (formerly Bethune-Cookman College) GMO established Gamma Tau Chapter on April 30, 1949.
Through the years, GMO has expressed sensitivity to community needs through a variety of service projects, programs and social events. Early community projects included Fashionetta and Junior Artists’ Recitals. Later and current programs and activities include: Men of Tomorrow, The Debutante Cotillion, Accent on Youth, the Pink Ice & Evergreen Ball, Breakfast with Santa, Ivy Reading AKA-demy, Take the Elderly to Lunch Program, Adopt-A-Child and the Ebony Fashion Fair fashion show extravaganza. Public programs have included the observance of the sorority's Founders' Day Celebration.
*Deceased