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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, 93 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.
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
International Headquarters
145 Kennedy Street, NW
Washington, DC 20011-5294
Office # 202-726-5434
Fax# 202-882-1681
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