National History
It all began with a vision and three noble men. Their's was a dream of brotherhood, scholastic achievement, and service to the community. On January 9, 1914 The Honorable A. Langston Taylor,
the Honorable Leonard F. Morse and the Honorable Charles I. Brown made that dream manifest by blazing the trail that over 110,000 men all over the world were destined to follow today.
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, ninty-three 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.