|
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was founded
on January 16, 1920 on the campus of Howard University in Washington D.C. The five founders, FIVE PEARLS, chose not to embrace
the tenets of traditional coalitions for African American women and sought to establish a new organization predicated upon
the ideals of Scholarship, Service, Sisterly Love and Finer Womanhood. As a result, these women, Arizona Cleaver, Viola Tyler,
Myrtle Tyler, Pearl Neal, and Fannie Pettie, chartered Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. The ideals of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority are reflected
in national programs for which its members and auxiliary groups provide numerous hours of voluntary service to staff community
outreach programs, fund scholarships, support organized charities, and promote legislation for social and civic change. For
over eighty years the trail of the founders has been traveled by thousands of women dedicated to the emulation of the objectives
and ideals of the Sorority.
Since its inception, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority,
Inc. has expanded to include 600 collegiate and graduate chapters, located throughout the United States. In 1948, Zeta Phi
Beta Sorority, Inc. became the first of the nine largest African-American Greek lettered organizations to establish chapters
in Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa. Today, ZETA influence is felt worldwide, from the Caribbean and Germany,
to Seoul, South Korea.
| Additionally, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. comprise the only constitutionally-bound African-American brother and sister Greek-letter
organizations. Though this bond is often imitated, we stand to date as the only true sisterhood and brotherhood in greekdom. |
|
In addition to these distinctions, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority,
Inc. was the first sorority to form auxiliary groups for non-collegiate women and young girls. The Zeta Amicae, or Friends
of Zeta are women who did not attend college, but still hold the ideals of our beloved sorority. The Archonettes, Amicettes,
and Pearlettes are auxiliaries formed to instill within girls and young women, between the ages of three and seventeen, the
tenets of this distinguished sisterhood. |
|
|
