From these strong roots, many branches have grown.
The story of Gamma Nu Zeta — the Mother Pearl of New Jersey — begins in a Camden church basement and reaches across seven decades of scholarship, service and sisterhood.
Zeta arrives in the Garden State.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated — under the leadership of International Grand President Lulellia Walker Harrison — made its presence known in New Jersey on March 25, 1948.
The late Alexzina Brown was active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Camden and Princeton communities, where she found five young women ready and willing to become members of this great sorority. At Macedonia A.M.E. Church in Camden, where her husband served as pastor, Alexzina Brown — alongside then Regional Director Evelyn Hunt and Esther C. Payton — chartered Gamma Nu Zeta Chapter.
Those enthusiastic first members held chapter meetings at their churches throughout the state, spreading the work of Zeta from pulpit to pulpit. What began around a handful of pews became New Jersey's enduring graduate chapter.
Charter Members · Camden, New Jersey
“From these strong roots, many branches have grown.”
Chartered March 25, 1948 — Gamma Nu Zeta Chapter, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated.
The six women who signed the charter.
Alexzina Brown
Camden, New Jersey
Inez S. Brooks
Camden, New Jersey
Jeanne E. Lewis
Millville, New Jersey
Catherine Johnson
Princeton, New Jersey
Evelyn Hines Ellerbee
Princeton, New Jersey
Katherine Basselieu Ross
Delaware
Seven decades,
one standard.
1948
Chartered in Camden
On March 25, 1948, under International Grand President Lulellia Walker Harrison, Gamma Nu Zeta Chapter was chartered at Macedonia A.M.E. Church in Camden — Zeta's presence established in the Garden State.
1949
A chapter without walls
Early members convened in churches across New Jersey, carrying the work of Zeta from congregation to congregation and building the chapter's statewide reach.
1950s
Founders' Day with a Founder present
The chapter's Finer Womanhood and Founders' Day programs drew Zeta founder Arizona Cleaver Stemons, who was often in attendance.
1952
Hosting the region
Gamma Nu Zeta hosted one of the earliest regional conferences at the Kaighn Avenue Baptist Church auditorium. More than 200 members converged on the state; with hotels closed to Black guests, delegates were housed in the homes of members and friends.
Still measured the same way.
Generations later, Gamma Nu Zeta still measures itself by the students it sends to college, the families it steadies and the sorors who keep coming home. The branches have multiplied; the roots have not moved.