Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on Friday, January 9, 1914, by three young black men. The Honorable A. Langston Taylor, Honorable Leonard F. Morse, and Honorable Charles I. Brown,  envisioned a Greek letter organization that would hold high the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship, and Service.

 

Our founders created an organization that viewed itself as "a part of" the community, rather than "apart from." Our founders 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. A 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, our Founders conceived Phi Beta Sigma as a mechanism to deliver services to the 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 is mirrored in the Fraternity's motto, "Culture For Service and Service For Humanity".

 

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 the Sigmas and Zetas. We both enjoy and foster a mutually supportive relationship.