Libraries present ’Service and Solidarity’
Bartle exhibit features historically Black fraternities and sororities at Binghamton University and beyond

A new Binghamton University Libraries’ exhibit showcases the significance of historically Black fraternities and sororities and their role in Black student success.
Service and Solidarity: the rise of historically Black fraternities and sororities, located on the mezzanine of the Glenn G. Bartle Library, explores the history of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), also known at the Divine 9, and MALIK fraternities. The other half of the co-exhibit, Service and Solidarity: historically Black Fraternities and Sororities at Binghamton, on display outside of Special Collections in the Bartle Library North Reading Room, celebrates the groups recognized on campus and their contributions at Binghamton University throughout the years.
Both feature literature and resources from the Libraries’ collections and items from the Libraries’ Special Collections. The concept for the exhibit came after Andre Mathis, Binghamton University’s employee engagement specialist, discussed the Libraries’ HPHC-related books with a campus partner.
“After compiling the list, the idea came to me,” Mathis said. “What if the library created an exhibit that spoke about the prominence of the NPHC and its member organizations while highlighting the materials in the Libraries’ collection?”
The co-exhibits display a variety of selections from the Libraries highlighting the Black Greek experience as a whole and items collected celebrating groups that were and are at Binghamton University. Books such as An Anthology of Sisterhood: A Compilation of 22 Shades of Red (edited by Wells and Breakfield) and Black Greek-letter Organizations in the Twenty-first Century: Our Fight Has Just Begun (edited by Gregory Parks); highlighted databases like The HistoryMakers Digital Archive; and items on loan from alumni such as hand-crafted paddles, clothing and keepsakes provide a unique blend of traditional reference material and personal artifacts.
“The original idea was presented with the purpose of simply providing materials to support another office on campus,” said Angela Taylor, bibliographic assistant and coordinator of streaming media, who is also an exhibit collaborator. “But I saw this as an opportunity to showcase the impact that Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) scholars have had on higher education once given the space to demonstrate their talents.”
The opportunity to display diverse perspectives and histories aligns with the University’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; international perspectives; and community engagement. Through the exhibit, that commitment is shared by the Libraries and partners such as the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Alumni Engagement and the McNair Scholars Program.
“I work on initiatives for faculty of color and their recruitment and retention, for graduate students of color and their recruitment and retention, and then for alumni engagement, really to encourage their participation in either mentorship with current students or with engagement in terms of donorship to the institution,” said Assistant Vice President for Diversity Nicole Sirju-Johnson. “So all of those pieces really connected for me, and it helped. I think it made some great partnerships for the library in terms of now, they have a ton of material, some of which is donated. So there is the donorship for alumni of color that we would not have had, had we not had the display.”
Even before the exhibit was complete, the benefits during the creation phase had a direct and immediate impact on student learning.
“When helping the library with the project, I was able to provide artifacts from our NPHC organizations to be on display, such as newspaper articles, yearbooks, handbooks and flags,” said Madison McQueeney, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life. “I have two favorite parts about the exhibit. The first was during the exhibit process of working with my students and watching them learn about their organization’s past and share it with their friends from their chapter or council, but also with friends from the overall fraternity and sorority community at Binghamton. They were all invested and excited for each other when they learned a new piece of information they didn’t know before. The second is that my students get to see their history and organizations on display. Each one of them holds their organizations with the utmost importance and care, so I know seeing others care about them as much as they do means a lot.”
The exhibit also serves as a co-curricular experience to educate the Binghamton community about an important aspect of Greek life and to explain its lasting impact.
“This exhibit is so important because not everyone knows about the National Pan-Hellenic Council or Divine 9 and the historical legacy behind them,” McQueeney said. “I think it is so important to educate the Binghamton community on the significance of these organizations, why they started, and the impact we have seen from them. When people think of fraternities and sororities they often only think of your Panhellenic or interfraternity organizations not realizing how much more there is to Greek Life, especially at Binghamton University. Not only nationally have influential leaders come from NPHC organizations, but Binghamton’s chapters have influential alumni themselves.”
Service and Solidarity took several months of planning and coordination with partners, including active members of the organizations on campus, alumni associated with groups in the past, and those were able to make those connections and facilitate research and fact checking.
“Behind every organization featured there was a handful of members who lent us materials, reviewed or helped write chapter histories, and provided us with photos and other documentation which we will add to the historical record in Special Collections,” University Archivist Maggie McNeely. “Attracting enough participation was going to make or break the success of the exhibit, and the more I learned along the way, the more excited I was to make a new connection, or to have an important fact checked by an alum who was there when it happened.”
Service and Solidarity exists as a tangible example of collaboration, education and passion within the University community and Binghamton’s alumni that permeates the Black fraternities and sororities it highlights.
“Having the Service and Solidarity exhibit allowed the Libraries to say we acknowledge and recognize the important role these organizations play in the success of higher education for a group of students that have been historically marginalized and found a way to find community and be of service to their community,” Mathis said. “It is the University’s mission to have its students become informed and knowledgeable about a myriad of topics and the mission of an academic library to provide the resources of those topics. The Service and Solidarity exhibit is one way in which that mission is met.”