On April 22, 1992, DJ Thump crossed the burning sands and became a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. on the campus of U.C Davis in Davis, Ca.
The Fraternity was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington D.C. on January 9, 1914 by three African American students with nine other Howard students as charter members. The fraternity is celebrating 109 years of culture for service and service for humanity.
The three founding members, the honorable Leonard Francis Morse, the honorable Charles Ignatius Brown and the honorable Abram Langston Taylor wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service. They wanted to take an inclusive perspective to serve the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose.
The fraternity exceeded the prevailing models of Black Greek-Letter fraternal organizations by being the first to establish alumni chapters, youth mentoring clubs, a federal credit union, chapters in Africa and a collegiate chapter outside of the United States. It is the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a historically African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Inc. They were founded on January 16, 1920 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., through the efforts of members of Phi Beta Sigma.
According to phibetasigma1914.org, there are 225k members since 1914, 599 active chapters and 1.2 million in scholarship funds to students annually.
As the struggle for the civil rights of African Americans renewed in the 1950s, Sigma men held positions of leadership among various civil rights groups and organized protests. They proposed the March on Washington of 1963 in Atlanta. A. Philip Randolph helped with the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. Randolph and fraternity brother, John Lewis, would later be involved with the 1963 March on Washington. Randolph was a key organizer and Lewis was a speaker representing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Making my pilgrimage to the campus of Howard University was an amazing experience. To touch the soil where my founders once stood, was priceless.
