Veronica Fields Johnson is a writer, avid reader, trivia buff, lingo lover, game show enthusiast and listener. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other online publications. She's a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, wife and mother. Always seeking to improve, she is currently under construction, as is her blog, at http://wordsinlargeprint.blogspot.com. She can be reached via email at veronica.fieldsjohnson@gmail.com.
My first up close and personal experience with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was a family affair in more ways than one.
My husband, Daniel Johnson, pledged the Tau chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. as a student at the University of Louisville. His sister, Marla Johnson Polk, pledged the Delta Theta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta at the same school.
Daniel and I met during my senior year at Clark Atlanta University and started dating shortly after we’d both graduated from our respective schools.
Both Daniel and Marla were very active in Sigma and Zeta and whenever there was an activity that either organization had that coincided with my visits to their city, Daniel and I attended together.
As a writer I observe and listen and what I found was a comradery between the fraternity and sorority -- the only two of the black Greek letter organizations that are constitutionally-bound -- that went beyond socializing together.
Watching the two organizations support each other as they supported the community impressed me, including the way they handled themselves in spite of challenges that came up and continued to work through them to achieve the overall goal.
I always felt welcome by the Royal Blue and White family in Louisville as I made my transition to a living in a new city. I joined them in some of the community service projects and social affairs that their respective chapters had organized.
After we got married, my husband became president of the Louisville graduate chapter and I enjoyed the comradery whether we were marching in an AIDS awareness rally or I was watching he and his fraternity brothers mentor the young men who were part of the Sigma Beta Club youth organization.
On one occasion, we attended a Sigma Founders’ Day program and my husband made a speech honoring five of the older members of the organization for their dedication and service to the community.
We moved back to Atlanta in 1996 and the day-to-day hustle of work and starting a family became a priority.
Fast forward a few years and I stuck up a friendship with a co-worker, Sandra Murray. We initially bonded over having attended CAU at the same time and knew some of the same people, although we’d never met there.
It was later that I learned she was a Zeta and I let her know my husband’s affiliation with Sigma.
She invited Daniel and me to the Metro Atlanta Joint Founders’ Day program, which we attended, and being around the Atlanta-area Royal Blue and White family I experienced the same warmth and welcoming spirit that I had in Louisville.
During one of our casual conversations, Sandra asked me if I had ever considered joining Zeta.
Her question made me think back to my time in Louisville. I decided to do a little research about Zeta Phi Beta and what I found was an organization steeped in a rich history that I wanted to be a part of.
Zeta Phi Beta was founded on Jan. 16, 1920 at Howard University y five women: Arizona Cleaver Stemons, Pearl Anna Neal, Myrtle Tyler Faithful, Viola Tyler Goings and Fannie Pettie Watts.
I’m also an avid reader, so I was overjoyed to learn that one of my favorite authors, Zora Neal Hurston, was a Zeta.
Then I called other Zetas I had met along the way to ask them why they became Zetas. They all shared similar stories of how they were embraced by an organization that holds fast to the sorority’s founding principles of Scholarship, Service, Sisterhood and Finer Womanhood.
So, on May 10, 2008, Veronica Williams and I joined the illustrious Zeta Phi Beta Sorority’s Omicron Kappa Zeta chapter.
We became “V-Squared: The Diva and the Scribe” and began the work of Zeta soon after we joined.
The sorority has a number of national partnerships, including with the March of Dimes. Each year we participate in the March for Babies to raise money to support premature babies, sponsor a Zeta Prematurity Awareness Program, and support the Stork’s Nest, which promotes prenatal health for low-income pregnant women.
Another national initiative is Z-HOPE (Zetas Helping Other People Excel). My chapter’s Zetas Zumba for Education is one of my favorite events, promoting healthy living and raising money for the Ola Hill Memorial Scholarship, which we award yearly to deserving high school seniors in memory of one the chapter’s charter members.
The women of Zeta do the ground work in the community and I’ve had the good fortune to meet and glean from many of them, including the late Bettye Shelling, an Atlanta-area educator who shaped minds and yet remained humble about her accomplishments and had been a member of the sorority for over 50 years.
Joining Zeta Phi Beta in my 30’s has been, and continues to be, an enriching, rewarding, and character building experience and I’m blessed to be a part of this sorority.
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