On January 9, 1914, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity was founded at Howard University in Washington, DC. by three young African-American male students: Honorable A. Langston Taylor, Honorable Leonard F. Morse, and Honorable Charles I. Brown. These brothers 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 viewed itself as "a part of" the general community rather than "apart from" the general community. They believed that each potential member should be judged on his own merits rather than his family background or affluence...without regard of race, nationality, color, skin tone or texture of hair. They wished and wanted their fraternity to exist as a part of an even greater brotherhood-sisterhood which would be devoted to the "inclusive we" rather than the "exclusive we".

From its inception, the founders also conceived Phi Beta Sigma 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 the 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 motto, "Culture For Service and Service For Humanity".