Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

We reject discrimination and unwaveringly strive toward greater awareness, openness, and understanding of each other.

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Sweet Adelines International openly recognizes our racist history, a past that saw the organization ban membership for women of color from 1958 to 1966. It is an ugly truth we acknowledged at our 2016 convention, and since then we have worked — in videos and in The Pitch Pipe — to educate our members about this truth and how we are working to use the history as a catalyst for our inclusion and equity work of today. We believe it’s important to be clear about what happened in the past, because racism and discrimination were unacceptable then and they are something we will not tolerate now.

We are taking steps NOW to make this an organization that celebrates our differences and makes ALL its members feel welcomed. We’re doing that in many ways, from the creation of our Diversity and Inclusion Task Force to the development of a comprehensive toolkit that soon will be available as a resource for chapters to give members the tools they need to help welcome members who come from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people from varied religions.

Sweet Adelines International is committed to addressing and condemning racism, discrimination, and other forms of inequity not only with our words but with our actions.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Resources
Members-Only Resources

Our members-only DEI resources include: Song Assessment Tool Components, the history and ongoing work of the SA Diversity & Inclusivity Task Force and important information relating to our DEI Council. To access members-only DEI resources, you must be logged in as a member. Not sure how to log in to view? Please view our step-by-step login instructions (includes screenshots and how to navigate our members-only education portal.)

Guiding Principles

Diversity and Inclusion
We celebrate our differences as essential to the rich harmony that unites us. As we recognize barbershop’s African American origins and learn from our exclusionary past toward women of color, we reject discrimination and unwaveringly strive toward greater awareness, openness, and understanding of each other.

Culture of Belonging
We create harmony where every voice matters. We foster a culture that provides a joyful place to share our uniqueness within a global community united in song.

Submit Your Concerns
Sweet Adelines International is currently reviewing all organizational recordings, videos and other educational materials to identify and remove any instances of songs with racist lyrics, messages or history. We recognize our members as important partners in this effort. Please email songassessment@sweetadelines.com with concerns about Sweet Adeline presentation of songs in any form. This will ensure that your concerns are given full consideration and will contribute to a more thorough and effective review.

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