About - The Memphis Alumni Chapter

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. 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".

Today, 91 years later, 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 in 1920 with the assistance of Phi Beta Sigma, is the sister organization. No other fraternity and sorority are constitutionally bound as Sigma and Zeta. We both enjoy and foster a mutually supportive relationship.

The Memphis Alumni Chapter - Tau Iota Sigma - was chartered on June 7, 1935. The five charter members were Dr. C. S. Jones, E. D. Springer, A. B. Bland, T. O. Fuller, and Louis B. Hobson. For over seventy years, the chapter has sought to build a mechanism to deliver services to the general community. Rather than gaining skills to be utilized exclusively for themselves and their immediate families, the Tau Iota Sigma chapter holds a deep conviction that they should return their skills to the communities we serve. This deep conviction is a reflection of the Fraternity's motto, "Culture For Service and Service For Humanity".