Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity was founded by 3 young African-American students: Abram Langston Taylor, Leonard Frances Morse, and Charles Ignatius Brown on January 9, 1914 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. We are a Fraternity of inclusion and not exclusion, we are a Fraternity in service for the community, and we hold our principles very dearly.
We weren’t the first African-American Greek-Letter Fraternity to be founded - however, we are definitely the Fraternity of Firsts:
- First Fraternity to have Presidents of other countries in its membership (Honarable Brothers Kwame Nkrumah; President of Ghana and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe; President of Nigeria)
- First African-American Greek-Letter Fraternity to have one of its members on the face of a US coin (Bro Dr. George Washington Carver; 1951 Half Dollar)
- First Greek-Letter Fraternity to be recognized by Howard University (April 15, 1914)
- First to establish a youth auxiliary program (Sigma Beta Club)
- First to establish chapters in the continent of Africa.
- First to establish a Graduate/Alumni Chapter (Alpha Sigma, 1915)
- First to come up with the idea for a unified African-American Greek-Letter Council, later developed into the NPHC.
- Fraternities may have supported the Million-Man March, but only Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity can lay claim to not only supporting, but also sponsoring the march in its international headquarters.
- First Fraternity to hold a joint International Convention with another African-American Fraternity (Omega Phi Phi).
- First Fraternity to establish a chapter south of Virginia in 1915 (Beta Chapter - Wiley College, now Wiley University).
- First and only Fraternity to establish a constitutional bond with a sorority (Zeta Phi Beta).