Born: August 30 1895, United States
Died: 8 December 1968
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
Delta Sigma Theta, a service sorority for black women, was founded at Howard University in Washington, DC in 1912, with Myra Davis Hemmings of San Antonio elected as its first president. At the time she was also president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Greek-named sorority for African American women.
Hemmings was active in amateur theater and directed productions for the San Antonio Negro Little Theater. She and her husband helped to organize the city’s Phyllis Wheatley Dramatic Guild Players. In addition to acting on stage, she appeared in three films: 1941 tragic drama film Go Down Death: The Story of Jesus and the Devil, starring as the martyr Sister Caroline (she also co-produced and co-directed the film), Marching On (1943) and In Girl in Room 20 (1946).
As a drama teacher, Hemmings directed plays from the 1920s through the 1950s at San Antonio’s Carver Community Cultural Center. She taught in San Antonio for more than 50 years. Hemmings was elected as the national vice-president of Delta Sigma Theta in 1933 and became the organization’s historian in 1948. She was also a member of the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women[13] and the Alpha Phi Literary Society.