Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc. 91st Anniversary Dinner Dance

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Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc.

The Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc., was founded in our Nation’s Capital on November 17, 1934, by J.H. Kirk Renfro and Nathan Dobbins, who reinstituted the defunct Tau Delta Sigma Legal Fraternity that had existed at Howard University School of Law. On April 6, 1935, Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity was incorporated in the District of Columbia by Nathan A. Dobbins, J. H. Kirk Renfro, W. Harold Flowers, Leon A. Jones and Benjamin F. Hailstorks, Jr. The charter members were eighteen law students and law faculty at the Robert Terrell Law School in Washington, D.C. They held fond memories of the camaraderie of the Tau Delta Sigma Legal Fraternity of African-American lawyers who professed the need for black lawyers and black people to achieve in their lifetime a recognition and respect for equal justice under law for all in American legal processes and forums. In short, Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc., was founded in order to rekindle, foster, encourage and promote the principles and practices of scholarship and professionalism in the study, practice and procedure of the law, as well as, to fraternalize and socialize in a spirit of equality among its members and other members of the legal profession and the community. Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc., is the oldest continuing African-American legal fraternity in the United States of America. Originally, in 1935, the Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc., had three active chapters, i.e., two law school chapters and one graduate chapter. Those first chapters were: (1) the Alpha Chapter, then located at the Robert H. Terrell Law School (D.C.); (2) the Beta Chapter located at Howard University Law School (D.C.); and (3) the Alpha Alpha Chapter, which was then the Graduate Chapter that encompassed the entire United States. Currently, the Grand Chapter of Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc., encompasses all members and chapters across the entire country and the globe. Today, the membership of the Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc., consists of, among others, law professors, law partners, sole practitioners, law students, small firm lawyers, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, legislators, administrators, corporate counsel, as well as, members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal, states and local governments across the country. We are particularly proud of the continuing achievements and important contributions that our current and former members have made in seeking to ensure that our constitutional democracy remains fair and inclusive for all. As an example, we are particularly proud to note, among others, that: (1) in the Nation’s Capital, The H. Carl Moultrie I Courthouse of the District of Columbia is named in honor of one of our own Legal Fraternity members - - the late H. Carl Moultrie, former Chief Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia; and (2) that Dr. J. Clay Smith, Jr., author of the internationally acclaimed, and authoritative book, Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer 1844-1944 (1993) was also a member of Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity, Inc.