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ZETA PHI BETA SORORITY, INCORPORATED
53rd ANNIVERSARY BOULE
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
AUGUST 11, 1974

BRIEF HISTORY OF ZffTA PHI BETA SORORITY

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority was organized at Howard University on January 16, 1920, as the result of the encouragement given the five founders by Charles Robert Taylor and Langston Taylor, members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity who felt that the campus would profit by the development of such an organization as sisters to the fraternity.

As a result, Sorors Arizona Cleaver, Viola Tyler, Myrtle Pearl Neal, and Fannie Pettie became founders of Zeta Phi Beta. Thus Zeta Phi Beta with Phi Beta Sigma became the first official Greek-letter sister and brother organizations.

Zeta Phi Beta held its first boule (convention) jointly with the Phi Beta Sigma conclave in December 1920 in Washington, D.C. It was the idea of the founders that the Sorority would reach college women in all parts of the country who were sorority-minded and desired to follow the idela of finer womanhood that Zeta Phi Beta had set up.

The new sorority was introduced to the Howard University community by a formal reception at the Whitelaw Hotel, Washington, D.C., by Langston and Charles Taylor and by a meeting in the assembly room of Miner Hall at Howard University by Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta, the only other sororities. 

The first president of Zeta Phi Beta was Soror Arizona Cleaver (Stemmons), who has watched the organization spread to all sections of the United States and parts of Africa with more than 200 undergraduate and graduate chapters divided into nine regions, with honorary members of renown, and with the strength and means to contribute to the encouragement of higher scholarship and to those organizations working for the betterment of communities and the world.

Zeta Phi Beta with the first Greek-letter college sorority organized in Africa. In 1948 Delta Iota Zeta Chapter, a graduate chapter and Upsilon Beta Chapter, an undergraduate chapter were set up in Liberia. Since that time many Liberian women have joined Zeta Phi Beta. Zetas have also spread to Sierra Leone and Nigeria, remanding the adding of a ninth region for West Africa.

In 1922 Zeta Phi Beta found it necessary to establish the National Board to take over the responsibilities which had been carried on by Alpha Chapter, and by June of 1927 the growth of the organization made possible its first regional meeting, held at Howard University. The chapters are now grouped into eight regions in the United States: Atlantic, Eastern, Southeastern, South-Central, Great Lakes, Midwestern, Pacific, and Southern, and a ninth region for West Africa. Each with a director appointed by the Grand Basileus.

Zeta Phi Beta was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia on March 30, 1923. The incorporators were Sorors Myrtle Tyler, Gladys Warrington, Joanna Houston, Josephine Johnson, and Goldie Smith. 

The objectives of finer womanhood, sisterly love, and scholarship have brought together women from all parts of the country - women who have similar tastes and aspirations, similar potentialities for highest attainments, and similar desires for concerted action which will bring results in removing or blocking movements intended to retard the growth and progress of this group of women, especially in the field of academic and literary attainments. 

The membership of Zeta Phi Beta includes women in the professions of medicine, law, dentistry, pharmacy, the fine arts, invention, music, painting, teaching, and other fields of higher learning. These women have become an integral part of the community life of the country and have interested themselves in civic and social betterment throughout the world. Wherever adverse legislation affecting minority groups has been proposed Zeta Phi Beta has been active in making its voice heard in protestation and appeal for fair play, in telegrams, letters to congressmen and sentaors, and public protest meetings and through membership in the American Council on Human Rights. Zeta has been outstanding in carrying its share of community relief work, in participation in voluntary services, in contributing to organized charity, as well as in granting scholarships and fellowships to deserving women students.

The sorority sponsors a national juvenile delinquency project which functions throughout the United States. Different aspects have been highlighted through special projects such as: Foster Home Care, Youth Conferences, Vocational Guidance Clinics, Tinker Shops, and the development of youth groups. There is a six-point African project jointly sponsored by the chapters in America and Africa. In such a way, better understanding has been developed between the two continents.

As a non-profit corporation incorporated in Washington, D.C. and also in the state of Illinois, the sorority is supported only by annual dues paid by its members for operating expenses. Scholarships are donated annually from a special fund contributed by chapter members.

Since Soror Arizona Cleaver, there have been fifteen national (or international) presidents: Soror Myrtle Tyler-Faithful, Joanna Houston-Ransom, Nellie Buchanan, Dr. S. Evelyn Lewis, Ruth Tappe-Scruggs, Fannie R. Givens, Violette Anderson, Nellie Rogers, Edith Lyons, Blanche Thompson, Lullelia W. Harrison, Dr. Nancy Bullock McGhee, Dr. Deborah Cannon Wolfe and Mildred C. Bradham.

[[images: 4 black and photos, no captions of people attending the Boule]]