QUICK FACTS:

FOUNDED:
January 9th, 1914 at
Howard University Washington, DC


FOUNDERS:
A. Langston Taylor
Leonard F. Morse
Charles I. Brown


PRINCIPLES:
Brotherhood
Scholarship
Service


MOTTO:
"Culture for Service, Service for Humanity"

COLORS:
Royal Blue and Pure White

NATIONAL PROGRAMS:

1. Bigger and Better Business
2. Social Action
3. Education

PHILANTHROPIES:
American Cancer Society
March of Dimes

FAMOUS SIGMAS George Washington-Carver
Huey P. Newton
James Weldon Johnson
Emmitt Smith
Jerry Rice

The Temptations
A. Phillip Randolph
Flex Washington
J. Anthony Brown
Blair Underwood

SYMBOL:
Dove

FLOWER:

Carnation

SISTER ORGANIZATION:
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

 

 

 






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, 91 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.

For more information on Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. visit the website of our International Headquarters at http://www.pbs1914.org

 

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 16643 Knoxville, TN 37996 . E-mail: kappachi@utk.edu
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