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Phi Beta Sigma (ΦΒΣ) Fraternity, Incorporated is a predominately African-American fraternity which was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students. The founders A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of brotherhood, scholarship, and service.

The History of the Fraternity
On January 9, 1914, the permanent organization of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity was established on the campus of Howard University, in Washington D.C., by A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown. Taylor, Morse, and Brown chose 9 associates to assist them with the creation of the fraternity. The Board of Deans at Howard University recognized the new fraternity on April 15, 1914. The University Reporter, the student publication at Howard University, made public the organization the following week.
When the first initiation was performed, it brought in 14 new members and Alpha chapter was then organized. During the summer of 1914, through the efforts of Sigma charter member I.L. Scruggs, the Alpha chapter was able to move into the largest fraternity house of any African American fraternity in Washington D.C. only five months after is charter of organization was granted.
Seeking to further its intellectual pool several affluent African American scholars, Dr. Edward P. Davis, Dr. Thomas W. Turner, T.M. Gregory, and Dr. Alain Leroy Locke, were inducted into the fraternity.
In 1915, Professor Herbert L. Stevens, a teacher at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, was admitted as a graduate member by a special decree of the General Board. Later that year Professor Stevens presented the General Board a new chapter at Wiley College. The General Board approved a charter for Wiley College and Beta Chapter was founded in the winter of 1915. .
The first Conclave (National Meeting) was held in 1916 in Washington D.C.

World War I and the Sigma Call to Arms
Phi Beta Sigma held its next Conclave in Atlanta, Georgia December 27-31, 1921. Zeta Chapter at Morris Brown College, the first African American Greek-lettered Fraternity in the "Deep South", served as the host chapter. The first joint meet of any of the national fraternity conventions was held with Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, who was also holding their national convention in Atlanta at the same time. As a result of this meeting plans were perfected for an Inter-Fraternity Conference which was held in Washington, D.C. April 24-26, 1922.

1921 Conclave and inter-fraternity meeting with Omega Psi Phi

Main article: Zeta Phi Beta 1920 - The Founding of Zeta Phi Beta

The Founders
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, Phi Beta Sigma has blossomed into an international organization of leaders. The fraternity has experienced unprecedented growth and continues to be a leader among issues of social justice as well as proponent of the African American community. 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 a notable youth auxiliary program, "The Sigma Beta Club" and the Phi Beta Sigma Charitable Outreach Foundation. Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, founded in 1920 is the fraternity's sister organization. The fraternity is a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), a coordinating organization of nine (historically-Black) international Greek letter sororities and fraternities.

Purpose of the fraternity
The members of Phi Beta Sigma are the Fraternity's most valuable resource and strength. They are the primary means by which Phi Beta Sigma objectives will be achieved. In Order to accomplish the Fraternity's objectives, it is essential that systems are instituted that effectively embody "Culture For Service and Service For Humanity" and promote Brotherhood Scholarship, and Service.
To optimize Phi Beta Sigma's effectiveness, the Fraternity will:
The philosophy of the fraternity is further cryztalized in the following statement from Sigma Light.
Finally, the great end of Sigma is service, service not only for the Fraternity, but for the general welfare of the society in which we live... symbols have no real meaning or function until they are put into everyday practice... Symbols do not make the man, but are meaningful only when the interpretation of these become dynamic factors in determining everyday behavior. . Fraternity Mission Statement

The National Programs
As told by Dr. I.L. Scruggs Excerpts from Our Cause Speeds On
"Philadelphia, 1924, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity 'arrived'. We had a mob of people at this Conclave. There were representatives from twenty-eight chapters -and all the trimmings. The introduction of the Bigger and Better Negro Business idea was made by way of an exhibit devoted to this topic.
The Bigger and Better Negro Business idea was first tested in 1924 with an imposing exhibition in Philadelphia. This was held in connection with the Conclave. Twenty-five leading Negro Businesses sent statements and over fifty sent exhibits. The whole show took place in the lobby of the YMCA. Several thousand visitors seemed to have been impressed. The response was so great that the 1925 Conclave in Richmond, Virginia voted unanimously to make Bigger and Better Negro Business the public program of the Fraternity, and it has been so ever since."
Phi Beta Sigma believes that the improvement and economic conditions of minorities is a major factor in the improvement of the general welfare of society. It is upon this conviction that the Bigger and Better Business Program rests. Since 1926, the Bigger and Better Business Program has been sponsored on a national scale by Phi Beta Sigma as a way of supporting, fostering, and promoting minority owned businesses and services. The Birth of Bigger and Better Business
The founders of Phi Beta Sigma were all educators in their own right. The genesis of the Education Program lies in the traditional emphasis that the fraternity places on Education. During the 1945 Conclave in St. Louis, Missouri, the fraternity underwent a constitution restructuring after World War II, and this led to the birth of the Education as a National Program.
The National Program of Education focuses on programming and services to graduate and undergraduates in the fraternity. Programs such as scholarships, lectures, college fairs, mentoring, and tutoring enhance this program on local, regional and national levels.

Education
During the 20th anniversary of Sigma, the Committee on Public Policy urged that the fraternity come forth with a broadly-based program that would be addressed to the problems of the great masses of the Negro people. This new departure, in large measure, grew out of the experiences of the New York group. These men from Manhattan brought with them a new idea, SOCIAL ACTION.
Phi Beta Sigma has from its very beginning concerned itself with improving the general well-being of minority groups. In 1934, a well-defined program of Social Action was formulated and put into action. Elmo M. Anderson, then president of Epsilon Sigma Chapter (New York) formulated this program calling for the reconstruction of social order. It was a tremendous success. It fit in with the social thinking of the American public in those New Deal years.
In the winter of 1934, Elmo Anderson, James W. Johnson, Emmett May and Bob Jiggets came down to the Conclave in Washington, D.C. and presented their Social Action proposition, and just the birth of Social Action as a National Program. In addition, Anderson is known in Sigma as "The Father of Social Action". The History of Social Action

Membership

Diversity in membership

The Phi Beta Sigma History Museum

Famous Members of Phi Beta Sigma
Zeta Phi Beta