Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated was founded January 16, 1920 on the campus of Howard University in Washington, District of Columbia, as a result of the encouragement given the five founders by Bro. Charles R. S. Taylor and Bro. A. Langston Taylor, members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated, who felt that the campus would benefit from their chapter having a sister organization. They became the first Greek letter sister and brother organization. Zeta Phi Beta held its first boule (convention) jointly with the Phi Beta Sigma Conclave in 1920 in Washington, District of Columbia. Zeta Phi Beta strives to encourage the highest standards of scholarship through scientific, literary, cultural, and educational programs; promote service projects on college campuses and in the community; foster sisterhood; and exemplify the ideals of Finer Womanhood. Since its inception, the sorority has chronicled a number of firsts among the established African American sororities. The objectives of service, charity, scholarship, civic, and cultural endeavors have brought together women from all parts of the country - women in the professions of medicine, dentistry, law, pharmacy, the fine arts, invention, and higher education. These women have become an intergral part of the community life and have interested themselves in civic and social betterment throughout this country and abroad. Zeta Phi Beta Sorority has been outstanding in carrying its share of community relief work, in participation in voluntary war services in the armed forces here and abroad, in contributing to organized charity, as well as in granting scholarships to deserving women. The sorority began sponsoring a national juvenile delinquency project in the early years of its existance. This included foster home care, youth conferences, vocational guidance clinics, tinker shops, and the development of youth groups. Other special projects are demonstrated locally: i.e. parental clinics, Finer Womanhood Week, cotillions/beautillions for youth, youth camps, volunteers to social/health agencies, and leadership conferences. Welfare, Education, and Health Services (WEHS), also a national project, emphasizes lifting the levels of the local community in the areas of leadership, as well as an individual attack on poverty, ignorance, education, and self-help.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated
Reasons to be a ZETA
