Bertha Pitts Campbell

Bertha Pitts Campbell (June 30, 1889 – April 2, 1990) was a civil rights activist and one of the 22 founding members of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Early life Campbell was born on June 30, 1889, in Winfield, Kansas. Her mother was Ida Lewis and her father was Hubbard Sydney Pitts.

She spent most of her childhood in Colorado where her family lived with her grandmother, Eliza Butler, a former slave who worked as a laundress.

Education Campbell was the only black student enrolled in Montrose High School when she graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1908. Upon graduation, Campbell was offered a four-year scholarship to Colorado College. Campbell declined the scholarship and chose instead to enroll in Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1908, where she received financial support from the Congregational Church. Delta Sigma Theta founders, 1913, at Howard University. Bertha Pitts: Last row, third from right. In 1913, she co-founded the Delta Sigma Theta sorority at Howard and took part in the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C. In June of that year, she graduated cum laude from Howard University with a bachelor of arts degree in education. She then taught for two years in Topeka.

Family She married Earl Campbell, a railroad worker and later government worker, in 1917. Earl Sr. died of a heart attack in 1954.

In 2018 and 2019, the Northwest African American Museum featured an exhibition on Campbell and Mona Humphries Bailey, the 17th president of Delta Sigma Theta.