General History Of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students. The founders, Honorable A. Langston Taylor, Honorable Leonard F. Morse, and Honorable Charles I. Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would truly exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship, and Service. the founders deeply wished to create an organization that wiewed itself as "a part of" of the general community rather than "apart from" the general community.

They believed that each potential member should be judged by his own merits rather than his family background or affluence...without regard of race, nationality, skin tone or texture of hair. They wished and wanted their fraternity to exist as part of even a greater brotherhood which would be devoted to the "inclusive we" rather than the "exclusive we".

From its inception, the Founders also conceived Phi Beta as a mechanism to deliver services to the general community. Rather than gaining skills to be utilized exclusively for themselves and their immediate families, the founders of Phi Beta Sigma held a deep conviction that they should return their newly acquired skills to the communities from which they had come. This deep conviction was mirrored in the Fraternity's motto, "Culture for Service and Service for Humanity"

History Of Delta Iota Chapter

After brothers began to graduate, it became apparent that a graduate chapter was needed in the New Haven area. With the assistance of various grad brothers in the greater New Haven area in 1987, Delta Iota Sigma graduate chapter was re-chartered by Brothers Don McAulay, Sr., Bishop Benjamin K. Watts, III, Paul Howard, Anthony.G. Miles and Brian Walker.

Since 1987 the graduate chapter has been responsible for keeping alive Phi Beta Sigma in the New Haven area during periods of inactivity with the undergraduate chapters. Delta Iota Sigma hosted the New England area meeting in 1995 and partnered with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. to host two major Blue and White scholarship balls. In the 90s and early 2000s, the graduate chapter had mainly focused on supporting the undergraduate brothers and providing mentorship and direction. With the number of graduate Sigmas being low in the New Haven area, the groups primary focus was maintaining the life/blood of the organization, which is the undergraduate chapter.

With that said, Delta Iota Sigma supervised the initiation of somewhere between 85 - 90 new undergraduate brothers over a 15 year period. In April of 2007, Delta Iota Sigma chapter initiated their first group of graduate brothers.

With the introduction of new brothers into the chapter, Delta Iota Sigma has embarked on establishing a new infrastructure which will allow the organization to take advantage of a non-profit status and broaden their community based programs and funding. One of their main programs in the community has been their youth mentorship (one on one or group) with male youths ages 8-15 years old.