The Founders of our wondrous band...
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. was founded at Howard University in Washington,
D.C., January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students.
The founders, Honorable A. Langston Taylor, Honorable Leonard F. Morse,
and Honorable Charles I. Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity
that would truly exemplify the ideals of brotherhood, scholarship, and
service.
The founders deeply wished to create an organization that viewed itself
as "a part of" the general community rather than "apart from" the general
community. They believed that each potential member should be judged by
his own merits rather than his family background or affluence...without
regard of race, nationality, skin tone or texture of hair. They wished
and wanted their fraternity to exist as part of even a greater brotherhood
which would be devoted to the "inclusive we" rather than the "exclusive
we".
From its inception, the Founders also conceived Phi Beta Sigma as a mechanism
to deliver services to the general community. Rather than gaining skills
to be utilized exclusively for themselves and their immediate families,
the founders of Phi Beta Sigma held a deep conviction that they should
return their newly acquired skills to the communities from which they
had come. This deep conviction was mirrored in the Fraternity's motto,
"Culture For Service and Service For Humanity".
Today, 92 years later, Phi Beta Sigma has blossomed into an international
organization of leaders. No longer a single entity, the Fraternity has
now established the Phi Beta Sigma Educational Foundation, the Phi Beta
Sigma Housing Foundation, the Phi Beta Sigma Federal Credit Union, and
the Phi Beta Sigma Charitable Outreach Foundation. Zeta Phi Beta Sorority,
Inc., founded in 1920 with the assistance of Phi Beta Sigma, is the sister
organization. No other fraternity and sorority is constitutionally bound
as Sigma and Zeta. We both enjoy and foster a mutually supportive relationship.
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
International Headquarters
145 Kennedy Street, NW
Washington, DC 20011-5294
Office # 202-726-5434
Fax# 202-882-1681