Phi Beta Sigma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Motto | Culture For Service and Service For Humanity |
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| Colors | Royal Blue and Pure White |
| Symbol | Dove |
| Flower | White Carnation |
| Founded | January 9, 1914 at Howard University |
| Fraternity type | Service |
| Scope | International |
| Headquarters | 145 Kennedy Street Washington, D.C., USA |
| Nickname | Sigmas |
| Homepage | Phi Beta Sigma Website |
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 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.
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[edit] The Founders
Founder A. 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 Hamilton Middle school in Memphis. He received his college and professional training at Howard and Frelinghuysen University in Washington, DC.
Founder Taylor coined the phrase "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.
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 F. 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.
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.
Founder Charles I. 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 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.
[edit] National programs
- 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".
[edit] The Phi Beta Sigma History Museum
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]
[edit] External links
| National Pan-Hellenic Council |
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| Alpha Kappa Alpha • Alpha Phi Alpha • Delta Sigma Theta • Iota Phi Theta Kappa Alpha Psi • Omega Psi Phi • Phi Beta Sigma • Sigma Gamma Rho • Zeta Phi Beta |
