Phillis: A Scholarly Journal Published by The Delta Foundation

The scholarly journal, Phillis, is published annually. The inaugural issue issue was released June 30, 2010 and  focuses on “trauma and the African-American woman.” The 2010 edition of the journal has two members of the Sister Scholars Advisory Council serving as co-guest editors: Dr. Darlene Clark Hine, professor of African American Studies and history at Northwestern University and Paula J. Giddings, professor of Afro-American Studies at Smith College. Articles in the upcoming issue of Phillis will address the following topics:

• Black Women living with HIV/AIDS

• Phillis Wheatley as a Black Woman Scholar

• The political activism of Ida B. Wells and the trauma that she endured in her crusade against lynching.

• The trauma of politics: a feature on Congresswomen Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm

• The trauma of losing your children to violence

• The economic trauma Black women in the current recession

• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s legacy of political engagement and activism

• Surviving Hurricane Katrina

• VOICES: a new section of the journal which features testimonials from Black women on traumatic incidences in their lives.

As the Sister Scholars Council considered renaming the scholarly journal, Dr. Hine shared the following bio notes on Phillis Wheatley and thoughts on renaming the journal. “The great poet Phillis Wheatley was born around 1753 in Gambia, Africa, and died on December 5, 1784 in Boston of a possible childbirth infection. She was sold, in Boston, to John and Susanna Wheatley on July 11, 1761. The Wheatleys named her Phillis.

Susanna Wheatley taught her how to read and promoted the publication of Phillis' earliest poems in the local newspapers. Phillis Wheatley published her first poem on December 21, 1765 in the Newport Mercury. Her first book of poetry was published in London in 1773, entitled, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. The Wheatleys granted her freedom in 1773. Thereafter she wrote one of her most famous revolutionary war poems, "To His Excellency General Washington" (1775).

In a February 1774 letter, Wheatley wrote, "In every human breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom: it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance." These words echo the central principles upon which the Delta Research and Educational Foundation was founded. The Foundation stands for and supports quality education, original research, social service, and individual and community efforts to preserve our freedoms and to expand the blessings of equality of opportunity to all our sisters who strive to attain their full human potential.

To order a copy of PHILLIS contact: dpeakscoleman@deltafoundation.net or call 202-347-1337.

The life and poetry, intelligence and commitment, to freedom that Phillis Wheatley represents instill pride and inspiration for all African American women and women across the African diaspora to live their lives with knowledge, grace, and purpose. It is to honor her memory and to encourage, inform, and serve others that we named the journal, Phillis.”