Florida Senate - 2024 (NP) SR 1800
By Senator Thompson
15-01908-24 20241800__
1 Senate Resolution
2 A resolution recognizing January 16, 2024, as “Zeta
3 Phi Beta Day” in Florida, celebrating 104 years of
4 community service and activism on the organization’s
5 International Founders’ Day.
6
7 WHEREAS, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., was founded on
8 January 16, 1920, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., to
9 encourage the highest standards of scholastic achievement and
10 community service, and
11 WHEREAS, five remarkable women, Arizona Cleaver Stemons,
12 Pearl Anna Neal, Myrtle Tyler Faithful, Viola Tyler Goings, and
13 Fannie Pettie Watts, dared to depart from the traditional
14 coalitions for black women and sought to establish a new
15 organization with the precepts of scholarship, service,
16 sisterhood, and finer womanhood, and
17 WHEREAS, the organization counts among its illustrious
18 alumni the acclaimed author and anthropologist Zora Neale
19 Hurston, who grew up in Eatonville and was considered by many to
20 be one of the best authors of the 20th century as well as a key
21 figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and
22 WHEREAS, today, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority’s programs include
23 the endowment of the organization’s National Educational
24 Foundation and community volunteerism, including providing
25 scholarships, supporting charitable organizations, and promoting
26 social and civic initiatives at the national, state, and local
27 levels, and
28 WHEREAS, on January 11, 2024, members of Zeta Phi Beta
29 Sorority; its auxiliary groups, the Zeta Amicae and the Zeta
30 Male Network; and its youth groups will gather at the Capitol to
31 support causes that align with the organization’s strategic
32 plans and its 2024 theme, The Extraordinary Power of S.H.E.
33 (social, health, and economic justice), and
34 WHEREAS, those in attendance will include the Zeta Phi Beta
35 Sorority’s leadership team, composed of International President
36 and Chief Executive Officer Stacie Grant, Southeastern Regional
37 Director Vicki Pearson, State of Florida Director Paula Kay, and
38 Florida Social Action Chair Diana Jordan Baldwin, and
39 WHEREAS, on January 16, 2024, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.,
40 will celebrate 104 years of community service and activism on
41 its International Founders’ Day, NOW, THEREFORE,
42
43 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
44
45 That January 16, 2024, is recognized as “Zeta Phi Beta Day”
46 in Florida, celebrating 104 years of community service and
47 activism on the organization’s International Founders’ Day.