National History
PHI BETA SIGMA FRATERNITY, INC. was founded on JANUARY 9th 1914 on the campus of Howard University, in Washington, D.C. Our founders are Most Honorable A. Langston Taylor, Most Honorable Leonard F. Morse, and Most Honorable Charles I. Brown, from the beginning our founders believed in the high ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship, and Service and they expressed this in our motto " Culture for Service and Service for Humanity."
Our 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 on his own merits rather than his family background or affluence-without regard of race, nationality, color, skin tone or texture of hair. They wished and wanted their fraternity to exist as a part of an even greater brotherhood-sisterhood 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 the deep conviction that they should return their newly acquired skills to the communities from which they had come. This deep conviction was also expressed in our fraternity motto.
With the assistance of brother Charles R. Taylor, and Bro. A. Langston Taylor, ZETA PHI BETA SORORITY, INC. was founded on January 16th 1920, also on the campus of Howard University. The joining together created the bond of the only established brother and sister Greek letter organizations.
Today, nearly a century 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, Inc. (to provide housing assistance) and the PHI BETA SIGMA federal credit union (to build financial equity within our target communities).
While we may not be the first fraternity, We will always be known as the
Fraternity of Firsts.
Our 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 on his own merits rather than his family background or affluence-without regard of race, nationality, color, skin tone or texture of hair. They wished and wanted their fraternity to exist as a part of an even greater brotherhood-sisterhood 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 the deep conviction that they should return their newly acquired skills to the communities from which they had come. This deep conviction was also expressed in our fraternity motto.
With the assistance of brother Charles R. Taylor, and Bro. A. Langston Taylor, ZETA PHI BETA SORORITY, INC. was founded on January 16th 1920, also on the campus of Howard University. The joining together created the bond of the only established brother and sister Greek letter organizations.
Today, nearly a century 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, Inc. (to provide housing assistance) and the PHI BETA SIGMA federal credit union (to build financial equity within our target communities).
While we may not be the first fraternity, We will always be known as the
Fraternity of Firsts.