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Phi Beta Sigma (ΦΒΣ) Fraternity, Incorporated, was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on 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, 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 with the assistance of Phi Beta Sigma, 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.

Founder Abram Langston Taylor

A. Langston Taylor, the founder of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He graduated from the Howe Institute in 1909 which is now Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis. He received his college and professional training at Howard and Frelinghuysen University in Washington, DC.

Founder Taylor chose business for his life's career and from 1917 to 1926 he conducted a real estate and insurance business. For he was the Secretary-Treasurer of the Potomac Investment Company, Director of the Federal Life Insurance Company and President of the Taylor Tobacco Company.

Founder Taylor coined "Culture for Service, Service for Humanity". He began serving Humanity by the founding of Sigma, to which he gave twelve consecutive years of service as a National Officer, serving as National President, National Treasurer, National Secretary, and Field Secretary. He also served as President of the Distinguished Service Chapter.

Brothers have described our Founder as distinguished, poised, and truly a hard worker. The members of Alpha Sigma Chapter called Founder Taylor "Prof" short for professor, because he was always carrying a book, files, or reading. He was instrumental and held offices in the following organizations; The Washington Art Society, The Derby Club, The Banneker Research Society, The Mu-So-Lit Club, and the Tennessee State Club.

Founder Taylor was an Elk and a thirty-third degree Mason. He authored "The History of Negro Education in the State of Tennessee" and at one time was the Washington Correspondent for the Chicago Defender. For most of his adult life he lived at 1517 Vermont Avenue, NW in Washington, DC, and held many Sigma meetings there.

A tireless worker, he worked hard in seeing that Sigma maintained its illustrious history, by serving on the history committee and providing numerous forms of notes, minutes, and oral history to those who served with him. Founder Taylor retired from federal service where he worked at the Smithsonian Institute.

Founder Taylor is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland (right outside of Washington, DC). His gravesite sits at the highest peak.

Founder Leonard Francis Morse

Leonard F. Morse was the proud son of a distinguished New England Family, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Morse of Boston, Massachusetts. Trained in the elementary and secondary schools of New Bedford, Massachusetts, he became the valedictorian of his integrated high school and entered Howard University. In 1915, he graduated from Howard University and was the first person to graduate in 3 years with an A.B and B.Ed degrees.

Later, the degree of Bachelor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the Payne School of Divinity, Wilberforce University. He received his Master’s degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois and the degrees of Doctor of Metaphysics and the Doctor of Psychology from the College of Metaphysics, Indianapolis, Indiana. The Honorary Degree of D.D. was conferred at Allen University, Columbia, SC, and the LLD at Edward Waters College, Jacksonville, FL.

An outstanding educator and prophet he lived a busy and resourceful life, having served in many institutions and areas of Educational and Religious life. He was Dean of Theology at Edward Waters College, Head of the Department of Religious Studies, President of Edward Waters and a Mason. Founder Morse founded and chartered numerous Sigma Chapters especially in Florida.

Founder Morse was a student of the Greek language and he named our beloved fraternity. In addition, he wrote Sigma’s first constitution and was the first president of Alpha Chapter.

In the 1915 Howard University Yearbook, entitled “The Mirror”, Founder Morse has listed by his name the following: Director of Social Service, YMCA, 1913-1914. Organizer and President of Phi Beta Sigma, 1914-15. President, Young Men’s Progressive Club, 1914-15, tutor of languages and history.

Founder Morse was married and had five children, two of which are brothers of this fraternity. Most recently his grandson joined Our Wondrous Band.

Leonard F. Morse was the last living Founder of Phi Beta Sigma. In the 1915 Howard University Yearbook, Founder Morse left us with “Smooth Runs The Water Where the Brook is Deep.”

Founder Charles Iignatius Brown

According to the 1914 Howard University Yearbook, Founder Charles I. Brown is documented as Finished Howard Academy, 1910, Class Chaplain 1913; Chaplain Classical Club 1912, 1913; President Classical Club 1914; Vice-President Phi Beta Sigma, 1914. Will do post- graduate work in Latin. In addition, Founder Brown was chosen “The Most To Be Admired” for the Class of 1914.

Founder Brown is said to have been born in Topeka, Kansas in 1890. Census records show that his father was Rev. John M. Brown and that his mother was Maggie M. Brown. However, records at Howard University from 1910 have Founder Brown living at 1813 Titan Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He was very cordial and very popular with the student body and Howard University Administration. He is credited with choosing the 9 charter members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. Founder Brown founded the Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, on April 9, 1917, and through oral interviews was a teacher at the Kansas Industrial School for Negroes in Topeka, Kansas.

Census records and oral interviews have showed us that Founder Brown was alive in the Topeka, Kansas area until 1931. Some believe that he was a casualty of the First World War; others believe that he moved overseas.

In the spring of 1949, Founder Leonard F. Morse wrote “We live in daily hope that we shall one day learn the fate of our beloved Brother and Founder”.

In the 1914 Howard University Yearbook, under the Personals and Applied Quotations Section, Founder Brown left us with this quotation “No legacy is so rich as honesty”.

Founder Brown graduated from Howard University on June 3, 1914. The last correspondence that the fraternity received from him was a letter to Founder Taylor in 1924, in which Founder Brown indicated that he was teaching in Kansas.

Although we may never find out the fate of our beloved Founder, always remember, “March on, March on, Ye mighty host” for Founder Charles I. Brown will remain in our hearts.

The Birth of Bigger and Better Business as told by Dr. I.L. Scruggs

Excepts 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.

Education

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 lead 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.

The History of Social Action

Excerpts from Our Cause Speeds On and The Crescent 1949 (35th Anniversary Edition)

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 Sigma History Museum was the brain child of Mark “Mallet” Pacich. During Pacich’s travels to different regions he was often frustrated at the conflicting versions of the fraternities history and mysteries. In 2000, Pacich connected with various fraternity members with deep roots in Washington, D.C. and Alpha Sigma Chapter.

Over the next five years, Pacich along with the help of countless members of Sigma, Family and Friends of Sigma, and the divine intervention of our Founders and Ancestors have uncovered some of the most rare and dynamic history of this fraternity to include; never before seen pictures of Founder Taylor, historical pictures from the 1914, 1915, and 1916 yearbooks at Howard University, original letters, Conclave Banners, and interviews with Decatur Morse (our Founder’s son), Samuel Proctor Massie II (our charter members son), Robert L. Pollard II (his father was Col. Robert L. Pollard who joined Sigma in 1919), and Dr. Gregory Tignor (his father was Brother Madison Tignor who joined Sigma in 1919). He has also connected with Georg Iggers, who is believed to be the first white man initiated into Phi Beta Sigma

The Museum was first displayed in Orlando in 2000. The members assisting in the original effort were Mark Pacich, Louis Lubin, and Ahab El’Askeni. The initial goal was to collect as many newspaper articles, Crescent Magazines, Conclave Journals, autographs, pictures, etc. as possible. Since then, the Museum has been displayed in many cities including; Orlando, Philadelphia, Detroit, Memphis, and Las Vegas. The assets of the museum have grown since the initial display in 2000. The most coveted possession yet to be acquired are the first 2 issues of the Phi Beta Sigma Journal. The museum is only 14 issues away from having every Crescent magazine ever printed. [1]

• Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity website
• Great Lakes Region Website
• Southwestern Region Website
• Eastern Region Website
• Gulf Coast Region Website
• Southern Region Website
• Western Region Website
• Southeastern Region Website

• Dedication Video
• Chapter Strolling Video