Phi Beta Sigma (ΦΒΣ) is a social/service collegiate and professional fraternity 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 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 establish a collegiate chapter outside of the United States.
It is the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a predominantly African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta (ΖΦΒ), which was founded on January 16, 1920, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., through the efforts of members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.
Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brother Alain LeRoy Locke is unofficially credited as the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance.” His philosophy served as a strong motivating force in keeping the energy and passion of the Movement at the forefront. In addition to Locke, Sigma brothers James Weldon Johnson and A. Phillip Randolph were participants in this creative emergence led primarily by the African-American community based in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City.
Sigma men held positions of leadership among various civil rights groups, organized protests, and proposed the famous March on Washington of 1963. In Atlanta, A. Phillip Randolph helped with the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. Randolph and fraternity brother John Lewis would later be involved with the ′63 March on Washington, Randolph as a key organizer and Lewis as a speaker representing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
During the Selma to Montgomery marches, Brothers Hosea Williams and John Lewis led a 54-mile protest march from Selma to the capital of Alabama: Montgomery.
Phi Beta Sigma brother Huey P. Newton helped establish the Black Panther Party. Other notable members include: World famous scientist, George Washington Carver, organizer of the Million Man March, Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, civil rights activists, Hosea Williams, Rev. Al Sharpton, Terrence Howard, television personality Al Roker, and professional athletes Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Hines Ward and Ryan Howard., the Philadelphia Phillies first baseman.