page_title: Phi Beta Sigma
section_title: Founding (1910–1916)
hierarchical_section_title: Phi Beta Sigma / History / Founding (1910–1916)
caption_attribution_description: 12th Street YMCA Building at 1816 12th Street, NW in Washington, D.C. The building is a National Historic Landmark.
context_page_description: Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated is a historically African-American Greek letter fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as charter members. The fraternity's founders, Abram Langston Taylor, Leonard Frances Morse, and Charles Ignatius Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service while taking an inclusive perspective to serve the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose. The fraternity exceeded the prevailing models of Black Greek-Letter fraternal organizations by being the first to establish alumni chapters, youth mentoring clubs, a federal credit union, chapters in Africa and a collegiate chapter outside of the United States. It is the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a historically African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, which was founded on January 16, 1920 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., through the efforts of members of Phi Beta Sigma.
context_section_description: In the summer of 1910, after a conversation with a recent Howard University graduate in Memphis, Tennessee, A. Langston Taylor thought to establish a fraternity. Soon after, he started as a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In October 1913, Taylor and Leonard F. Morse had their initial conversation about starting a fraternity. They included Charles I. Brown s the third member of the founding group. By November 1913, they established a committee to develop what was to become Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. Soon after the first committee meeting, Taylor, Morse, and Brown chose nine associates to join in creating the fraternity. Those men were the first charter members of the organization.
  On January 9, 1914, the permanent organization of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity was established in the Bowen Room of the 12th Street Y.M.C.A Building in Washington, D.C. On April 15, 1914, the Board of Deans at Howard University officially recognized Phi Beta Sigma and the following week The University Reporter, Howard University's student newspaper, publicized it. 
  During the first two years, the fraternity organized and maintained a Sunday school program, led by A.H. Brown; and opened a public library and art gallery, which became the foundations of the Benjamin Banneker Research Society and the Washington Art Club, respectively. Abraham M. Walker, a fraternity member, was elected associate editor of the Howard University Journal. The following year, Walker and founder A. Langston Taylor, were elected Editor-in-Chief and circulation manager, respectively. Other fraternity members also advanced to leadership positions at Howard: W.F. Vincent, William H. Foster, John Berry, Earl Lawson, among others, were presidents of the Debating Society, the college YMCA, the Political Science Club, and the Athletic Association, respectively. On the athletic field, captain John Camper and J. House Franklin were standout football players for Howard University.
  In the spring of 1915, the fraternity worked to emphasize its intellectual reach. It inducted such African-American scholars as Dr. Edward P. Davis, Dr. Thomas W. Turner, T.M. Gregory, and Dr. Alain Leroy Locke. On March 5, 1915, Herbert L. Stevens was initiated, as the first Graduate member of Phi Beta Sigma.
  A year after the establishment of Phi Beta Sigma, it began expansion to other campuses. On November 13, 1915, Beta chapter was chartered at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas by graduate member Herbert Stevens. Beta chapter became the first chapter of any African-American Greek-lettered organization to be chartered south of Richmond, Virginia. As Phi Beta Sigma continued its expansion in the Eastern and Southern United States, other national fraternities were beginning to take notice.
  On December 28, 1916, Phi Beta Sigma hosted the fraternity's first conclave in Washington, D.C. Some 200 members attended, representing three collegiate chapters, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma (established at Morgan State College in Baltimore). The 1916 conclave authorized production of an official fraternity publication, and member W.F. Vincent was elected as the National Editor.
caption: The birthplace of SIGMA: the 12th Street YMCA in Washington, D.C.
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