Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated
was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C., 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".