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Bertha Pitts Campbell was born June 30, 1889 in Winfield, Kansas. Shorthly after her birth, her parents Ida and Hubbard Pitts, moved their family to Montrose, Colorado. In 1903, Founder Campbell became the only Black student to enroll in Montrose High School; five years later she delivered the valedictorian address to the Class of 1908. In that year, she graduated summa cum laude and was offered a full four-year scholarship to Colorado College. She did not accept the scholarship, choosing instead to attend Howard University where she received financial support from the Congregational Church. She wanted to be a part of a Black community, an experience she had not since the Pittses were the only Black people in Montrose. In June, 1913, she graduated cum laide from Howard University with a bachelor of arts degree in education.
In 1981 at age 92, she led 10,000 Deltas in a march down Washington D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue to commemorate the Founders' participation in the suffrage march held in 1913. One year earlier, she marched through the streets of Seattle with supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in honor of the suffragettes. |
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