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BRIEF HISTORY OF ZffTA [[ZETA]] 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 [[ideal]] 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. [[3 uncaptioned images]] 226