Zeta Phi Beta Sorority was founded on the simple belief that sorority elitism and socializing should not overshadow the real mission for progressive organizations to address societal mores, ills, prejudices, poverty, and health concerns of the day. Founded January 16, 1920, Zeta began as an idea conceived by five coeds at Howard University in Washington D.C.: Arizona Cleaver, Myrtle Tyler, Viola Tyler, Fannie Pettie and Pearl Neal. These five women, also known as our Five Pearls, dared to depart from the traditional coalitions for black women and sought to establish a new organization predicated on the precepts of Scholarship, Service, Sisterly Love and Finer Womanhood. It was the ideal 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 founding principles of the organization.

​

          Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. has over 100,000 members in more than 50 chapters including: West Africa, West Germany, Bahamas Islands, Virgin Islands, South Korea, and Italy The sorority 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)

ZETA PHI BETA HISTORY

BLAZING TRAILS

• Zeta Phi Beta was the first sorority to establish chapters on the continent of Africa.
• Zeta Phi Beta was the first and ONLY Sorority to be Constitutionally bound to a fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.
• Zeta Phi Beta was the first sorority to establish auxiliary groups.
• Zeta Phi Beta was the first sorority to have a National Headquarters, located in Washington D.C.​