Phi Beta Sigma
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1914. The fraternity's founders, A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service while taking an inclusive perspective to serve the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose. The fraternity exceeded the prevailing models of Black Greek-Letter fraternal organizations by being the first to establish alumni chapters, youth mentoring clubs, a federal credit union, chapters in Africa, and a collegiate chapter outside of the United States. It is the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a historically African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, which was founded on January 16, 1920, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., through the efforts of members of Phi Beta Sigma.
The fraternity expanded over a broad geographical area in a short amount of time when its second, third, and fourth chapters were chartered at Wiley College in Texas and Morgan State College in Maryland in 1916, and Kansas State University in 1917. Today, the fraternity serves through a membership of more than 200,000 men in over 700 chapters in the United States, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. Although Phi Beta Sigma is considered a predominantly African-American fraternity, its membership includes college-educated men of African, Caucasian, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian descent. According to its Constitution, academically eligible male students of any race, religion, or national origin may join while enrolled at a college or university through collegiate chapters, or professional men may join through an alumni chapter if a college degree has been attained, along with a certain minimum number of earned credit hours.
Phi Beta Sigma is a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council and a former member of the North American Interfraternity Conference. The current [|International President] is Chris V. Rey, J. D., and the fraternity's headquarters are located at 145 Kennedy Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
History
Founding (1910–1916)
In the summer of 1910, after a conversation with a recent Howard University graduate in Memphis, Tennessee, A. Langston Taylor thought to establish a fraternity. Soon after, he started as a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In October 1913, Taylor and Leonard F. Morse had their initial conversation about starting a fraternity. They included Charles I. Brown as the third member of the founding group. By November 1913, they established a committee to develop what was to become Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. Soon after the first committee meeting, Taylor, Morse, and Brown chose nine associates to join in creating the fraternity. Those men were the first charter members of the organization.On January 9, 1914, the permanent organization of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity was established in the Bowen Room of the 12th Street Y.M.C.A Building in Washington, D.C. On April 15, 1914, the Board of Deans at Howard University officially recognized Phi Beta Sigma, and the following week The University Reporter, Howard University's student newspaper, publicized it.
During the first two years, the fraternity organized and maintained a Sunday school program, led by A.H. Brown; and opened a public library and art gallery, which became the foundations of the Benjamin Banneker Research Society and the Washington Art Club, respectively. Abraham M. Walker, a fraternity member, was elected associate editor of the Howard University Journal. The following year, Walker and founder A. Langston Taylor were elected Editor-in-Chief and circulation manager, respectively. Other fraternity members also advanced to leadership positions at Howard: W.F. Vincent, William H. Foster, John Berry, Earl Lawson, among others, were presidents of the Debating Society, the college YMCA, the Political Science Club, and the Athletic Association, respectively. On the athletic field, Captain John Camper and J. House Franklin were standout football players for Howard University.
In the spring of 1915, the fraternity worked to emphasize its intellectual reach. It inducted such African-American scholars as Dr. Edward P. Davis, Dr. Thomas W. Turner, T.M. Gregory, and Dr. Alain Leroy Locke. On March 5, 1915, Herbert L. Stevens was initiated as the first Graduate member of Phi Beta Sigma.
A year after the establishment of Phi Beta Sigma, it began expansion to other campuses. On November 13, 1915, Beta chapter was chartered at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas by graduate member Herbert Stevens. Beta became the first chapter of any African-American Greek-lettered organization to be chartered south of Richmond, Virginia. As Phi Beta Sigma continued its expansion in the Eastern and Southern United States, other national fraternities were beginning to take notice.
On December 28, 1916, Phi Beta Sigma hosted the fraternity's first [|conclave] in Washington, D.C. Some 200 members attended, representing three collegiate chapters, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. The 1916 conclave authorized production of an official fraternity publication, and member W.F. Vincent was elected as the National Editor.
World War I and the Sigma call to arms (1917–1919)
Phi Beta Sigma responded to a "call to arms" in 1917 as the United States entered the First World War. Alpha chapter had about seventy members in uniform. During the war, many members entered the service or war work. Many fraternity chapters were depleted, and the National Office ceased to function. As a result of deaths and other dislocations resulting from the war, the General Board was forced to reorganize. Fraternity President I. L. Scruggs asked founder and National Treasurer A. Langston Taylor to contact members as soon as they reappeared in civilian clothes. Taylor helped revive the fraternity by appealing to members in the US, as numerous Sigma men were serving on the European battle front.Incorporation and the founding of Zeta Phi Beta (1920–1933)
By February 1920, Phi Beta Sigma had expanded to ten active chapters. During the December 1919 Conclave, Phi Beta Sigma's first conclave after the war, A. Langston Taylor was given approval from the General Board to assist in the organization of what was to become Phi Beta Sigma's sister sorority.In the spring of 1919, Sigma member Charles Robert Samuel Taylor, a student at Howard University, discussed with fellow student Arizona Cleaver his idea for a sister organization to be established. Cleaver presented this idea to fourteen other Howard women. With the help of Charles Taylor and A. Langston Taylor, they began work to found the new sorority.
With administration permission, Zeta Phi Beta sorority held its first official meeting on January 16, 1920. The founders and charter members of the Sorority were Arizona Cleaver, Viola Tyler, Myrtle Tyler, Pearl Anna Neal, and Fannie Pettie. The five founders chose the name Zeta Phi Beta. The similar names of both Sigma and Zeta are intentional, as the women adopted the Greek letters 'Phi' and 'Beta' to "seal and signify the relationship between the two organizations".
The newly established Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Inc. was given a formal introduction at the Whitelaw Hotel by their Sigma counterparts, Charles R. and A. Langston Taylor. As National Executive Secretary of Phi Beta Sigma, Charles Taylor wrote to all Sigma chapters requesting they establish Zeta chapters at their respective institutions. With the efforts of Taylor, Zeta added several chapters in areas as far west as Kansas City State College; as far south as Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia; and as far north as New York City.
Phi Beta Sigma's contributions to the Harlem Renaissance
The 1920s also witnessed the birth of the Harlem Renaissance - a flowering of African-American cultural and intellectual life that began to be absorbed into mainstream American culture. Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brother Alain LeRoy Locke is unofficially credited as the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance." His philosophy served as a strong motivating force in keeping the energy and passion of the Movement at the forefront. In addition to Locke, Sigma brothers James Weldon Johnson and A. Philip Randolph were participants in this creative emergence, led primarily by the African-American community based in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City.On January 31, 1920, Phi Beta Sigma was incorporated in the district of Washington, D.C., and became known as Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated.
In November 1921, the first volume of the Phi Beta Sigma Journal was published. The journal was the official organ of the fraternity; Eugene T. Alexander was named its first editor. The following month, the fraternity held its 1921 Conclave at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia. This conference saw the first-ever inter-fraternity conference between Phi Beta Sigma and Omega Psi Phi. This would lead to the first inter-fraternity council meeting between the two organizations the following spring in Washington, D.C.
In 1922, Founder Taylor called for the assembly of the Black Greek-letter organizations at Howard University to discuss the formation of a governing council. Although Taylor’s efforts failed on that particular day, they would later be understood as part of the broader movement initiated by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated through its 1921 invitation to all Black Greek-letter organizations—an effort that culminated eight years later in the formation of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.
In March 1924, the name of the fraternity's official publication, The Phi Beta Sigma Journal, was changed to The Crescent Magazine. The magazine's name change was suggested by members of the Mu chapter at Lincoln University to reference the symbolic meaning of the crescent to the fraternity. At the 1924 conclave, a special exhibit introduced the concept of the "Bigger and Better Negro Business". This would lead to the establishment of Bigger and Better Business as a national program at the 1925 conclave. At the 1928 Conclave, held in Louisville, Kentucky, the tradition of branding the skin with a hot iron was officially sanctioned by the fraternity as part of its initiation process.