On January 9, 1914, the permanent organization of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity was established on the campus of Howard University, in Washington D.C., by A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown. They wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would truly exemplify the ideals of brotherhood, scholarship, and service.

Taylor, Morse, and Brown chose nine associates to assist them with the creation of the fraternity. The Board of Deans at Howard University recognized the new fraternity on April 15, 1914.

In May of 1914 the first initiation was performed, which brought in 14 new members and Alpha Chapter was then organized. During the summer of 1914, through the efforts of Sigma charter member I. L. Scruggs, the Alpha Chapter was able to move into the largest fraternity house of any African American fraternity in Washington DC only five months after is charter of organization was granted.

Seeking to further its intellectual pool several affluent African American scholars, Dr. Edward P. Davis, Dr. Thomas W. Turner, T. M. Gregory, and Dr. Alain Leroy Locke, were inducted into the fraternity as honorary members.

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. 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, and the Phi Beta Sigma Charitable Outreach Foundation. Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., founded on Friday, January 16, 1920 with the assistance of Phi Beta Sigma, Inc., is the Sister organization. No other fraternity and sorority is constitutionally bound as Sigma and Zeta. We both enjoy and foster a mutually supportive relationship.