Ethel Cuff Black

Ethel Cuff Black (October 17, 1890 – September 17, 1977) was one of the founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated at Howard University, and its first vice president. She was the first African-American teacher in Rochester, New York.[2]

Ethel Cuff Black
A young Black woman, wearing a white lace-trimmed collar over a dark print dress, in an oval frame
Ethel Cuff Black, from the 1915 yearbook of Howard University
Born
Ethel L. Cuff

October 17, 1890 [1]
Wilmington, Delaware
DiedSeptember 17, 1977(1977-09-17) (aged 86)
EducationBordentown School
Howard University (B.A., 1915)
OccupationEducator
Known forCo-founder of Delta Sigma Theta

Biography

Ethel L. Cuff was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Her father, Richard Cuff, was a tanner in an African-American owned business.[1] Her maternal grandfather was a Civil War veteran.[3] In Bordentown, New Jersey, she attended the Industrial School for Colored Youth and graduated with the highest grade point average.

Delta Sigma Theta founders, 1913, at Howard University. Ethel Cuff: second from right, front row.

At Howard University, she was chairwoman of the collegiate chapter of the YWCA.[4] During college, she formed Delta Sigma Theta with twenty-one other women.[5][6]

She was elected the sorority's first vice president.[7][8] Due to illness, she graduated from Howard in 1915.[9]

She was also the first African-American teacher in Rochester, New York.[2] She was married in 1939 to real estate agent David Horton Black.[10]

References
  1. Birth record at Delaware Vital Records, 1650-1974
  2. Founders Biography. Kappa Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta at the University of Oklahoma Archived 2007-11-11 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed on August 15, 2007.
  3. Giddings, Paula (1988). In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 33. 0688135099.
  4. Giddings op. ed. pp. 39
  5. Giddings op. ed. pp. 48
  6. "ETHEL CUFF BLACK". Delaware Public Archives. 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  7. Hidden Figures Suffrage Movement
  8. Senate Resolution 13
  9. Giddings op. ed. pp. 65
  10. Giddings op. ed. pp. 185.



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