Sigma Pi Phi - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sigma Pi Phi is the first African-American Greek-lettered organization. Sigma Pi Phi was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, on May 15, 1904. The fraternity quickly established chapters (referred to as "member boules") in Chicago, IL and then Baltimore, MD. http://www.betalambdaboule.org/mserver/History_1.aspx
The founders included two doctors, a dentist and a physician http://www.usip.edu/alumnifriends/profiles/. When Sigma Pi Phi was founded, black professionals were not offered participation in the professional and cultural associations organized by the white community. http://www.unityfirst.com/pressreleaseboule.htm
Sigma Pi Phi has over 5,000 members and 126 chapters throughout the United States and the West Indies.

Founders

Dr. Algernon B. Jackson
Dr. Henry McKee Minton
Dr. Edwin C. Howard
Dr. Richard J. Warrick

Membership

Membership to Sigma Pi Phi is highly exclusive, number only about 5,000 http://www.skipmason.com/hm/hm19.htm. The organization is known as "the Boule," which means "a council of noblemen." http://www.betalambdaboule.org/MServer/History_1.aspx Founded as an organization for professionals, Sigma Pi Phi never established college chapters, and eliminated undergraduate membership during its infant stages. http://www.skipmason.com/hm/hm30.htm. However, Sigma Pi Phi has historically had a congenial relationship with college Black Greek-Letter Organizations

National Pan-Hellenic Council

The National Pan-Hellenic Council is a collaborative organization of nine historically African American, international Greek lettered fraternities and sororities. The nine NPHC organizations are sometimes collectively referred to as the "Divine Nine"...

, as many members of Sigma Pi Phi are members of both. Sigma Pi Phi founder Henry McKee Minton and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were both members of Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha

Alpha Phi Alpha is the first Inter-Collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity. It was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its founders are known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha developed a model that was used by the many Black Greek Letter Organizations ...

, while Arthur Ashe

Arthur Ashe

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was a professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States...

was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi

Kappa Alpha Psi

Kappa Alpha Psi is a collegiate Greek-letter fraternity with a predominantly African American membership. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never limited membership based on color, creed or national origin...

. Vernon Jordan and L. Douglas Wilder

Douglas Wilder

Lawrence Douglas "Doug" Wilder is an American politician, the first African American to be elected as governor of Virginia, and the second to serve as governor of a U.S. state. Wilder served as the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. When earlier elected as Lieutenant Governor, he was...

are members of Omega Psi Phi

Omega Psi Phi

Omega Psi Phi is a fraternity and is the first African-American national fraternal organization to be founded at a historically black college. Omega Psi Phi was founded on November 17, 1911, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. The founders were three Howard University juniors, Edgar Amos...

. James Weldon Johnson was a member of Phi Beta Sigma

Phi Beta Sigma

Phi Beta Sigma is a predominantly African-American fraternity which was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students. The founders A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I...

, as is civil rights leader and member of Congress John Lewis (D-GA). Members of Sigma Pi Phi have provided leadership and service during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the Civil Rights Movement

Civil rights movement

The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

, and addressed social issues such as urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues affecting people of African descent

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

Famous members

Members of Sigma Pi Phi include co-founder of the NAACP http://www.naacp.org/about/history/timeline/ W. E. B. Du Bois, Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume

Kweisi Mfume

Kweisi Mfume is the former President/CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , as well as a five-term Democratic Congressman from Maryland's 7th congressional district, serving in the 100th through 104th Congress...

, former United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

Ambassador Ralph Bunche

Ralph Bunche

Ralph Johnson Bunche or 1904December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize...

, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young

Andrew Young

Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...

, former Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

Governor L. Douglas Wilder

Douglas Wilder

, American Express

American Express

American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...

President Kenneth Chenault

Kenneth Chenault

Kenneth Irvine Chenault is an American business executive. He has been the CEO and Chairman of American Express since 2001. He is the third African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 company.-Early life, education, and legal career:...

, Ken Blackwell

Ken Blackwell

John Kenneth Blackwell is an American politician and activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1979 to 1980 and Ohio Secretary of State from 1999 to 2007. A Republican, he was the first African-American to be the candidate for governor of a major party in Ohio. In 2006, Blackwell...

, Ron Brown

Ron Brown (U.S. politician)

Ronald Harmon "Ron" Brown was the United States Secretary of Commerce, serving during the first term of President Bill Clinton. He was the first African American to hold this position...

, Vernon Jordan, Arthur Ashe

Arthur Ashe

, Mel Watt

Mel Watt

Melvin Luther Watt is the United States House of Representatives for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education and career:...

, and Hank Aaron. Numerous other American leaders are among the men who have adopted the fraternity’s purpose of "creating a forum wherein they could pursue social and intellectual activities in the company of peers." http://www.unityfirst.com/pressreleaseboule.htm
Sigma Pi Phi is also open to members of all races, as can be demonstrated by its well known Jewish member Jack Greenberg

Jack Greenberg (lawyer)

Jack Greenberg is an American attorney and legal scholar. He was the Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1961 to 1984, succeeding Thurgood Marshall....

who succeeded Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...

as General Counsel of the NAACP. http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:2kHXhy9xg24J:www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_11_59/ai_n6158341+thurgood+%22sigma+pi+phi%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 Lawrence Otis Graham

Lawrence Otis Graham

Lawrence Otis Graham is an African-American attorney, speaker, and a named best-selling author by The New York Times.-Biography:Lawrence Otis Graham was born in New York, New York and raised in Westchester County, NY....

talks about the organization, and his membership, in his book Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class.

External links

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