Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated was founded Friday January 16, 1920 by Arizona Cleaver, Myrtle Tyler, Viola Tyler, Fannie Pettie and Pearl Neal at Howard University in Washington, DC.

 

 

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority was founded to address societal mores, ills, prejudices, poverty and health concerns of the day. Our Five Pearls, dared to depart from traditional coalitions for black women and sought to establish a new organization predicated on the percepts of Scholarship, Service, Sisterly Love, and Finer Womanhood.

Since its inception, the Sorority has chronicled a number of firsts. Zeta Phi Beta was the first Greek-letter organization to charter a chapter in Africa (1948); to form adult and youth auxiliary groups; to centralize its operations in a national headquarters; and to be constitutionally bound to a fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated.

Over the years since the sorority's inception, Zeta Phi Beta has chartered hundreds of chapters and initiated thousands of women around the world. Zeta has continued to thrive and flourish while adapting to the ever-changing needs of a new century. Despite the Great Depression, discrimination and segregation and a host of other challenges, Zeta has continued to hold true to its ideals and purpose, for, as stated by one of the Sorority's founding members: "…I believe that no [other] organization could have been founded upon principles that were so near and dear to all of our hearts." (Founder Myrtle Tyler)

 

 

Beta Alpha Chapter was organized on the campus of Southern University on February 13, 1932. The founding sponsors were: Octavia Head Clark, Camille Shade, Minnie Champ, and Emma Nesbitt Mayberry.

The Charter members were: Isabel Morgan, Marjorie Lamotte, Inez Wiggins, Fannie Lusk, Doris Bell, Earline Lamotte, Naomi Lamotte, Ola Mae Gray, Virginia Tuggle, Bessie Cook, Rosa Lee Herson, and Camile Washington. This chapter was installed by the National Director of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Roberta Bell. The initiation of the chartered members occurred on February 13 and was followed with a banquet on the same night.

Beta Alpha was the first Greek letter organization on the campus of Southern University. Isabel Morgan was the fist president of any Greek organization on the campus.