Arizona Cleaver (Stemons), along with her four friends, Pearl Neal, Myrtle Tyler, Viola Tyler, and Fannie Pettie, are the five pearls of Zeta Phi Beta. They are the organization’s founders. The idea for the organization happened several months earlier when Cleaver was walking with Charles Robert Samuel Taylor, a Phi Beta Sigma at Howard University. Taylor suggested that Cleaver consider starting a sister organization to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Although there were already two sororities on the Howard University campus, Cleaver and her four friends were interested and started the process. They sought and were granted approval from university administrators. The five met for the first time as a sanctioned organization on January 16, 1920. They named their organization Zeta Phi Beta. It is the only National Pan-Hellenic Council sorority constitutionally bound to a fraternity; that fraternity is Phi Beta Sigma.
The Five Pearls of Zeta Phi Beta, (l-to-r) Arizona Cleaver Stemons, Viola Tyler Goings, Pearl Anna Neal, Myrtle Tyler Faithful, and Fannie Pettie Watts
Arizona C. Stemons Way
Zeta Phi Beta’s Centennial celebration was a grand affair. How fortuitous that it took place before the word “covid” dominated American life. One of the many events leading up to the big day involved the street upon which a Founder lived. On March 21, 2019, the Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution to name the 1900 block of Federal Street in Philadelphia Arizona C. Stemons Way. Her former home at 1915 Federal Street is owned by the Beta Delta Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. Its front door is painted the distinctive Zeta Phi Beta blue.
Stemons was the sorority’s first President and was named President Emerita. She spent her career as a social worker for the Philadelphia Department of Public Welfare.
October 31-November 2, 1947, Arizona Stemons is seated in the first row on the left.
Stemons founded the Beta Delta Zeta Chapter in Philadelphia. It was chartered on October 14, 1944 and is the Philadelphia Graduate Chapter. It is the only Zeta Phi Beta chapter that owns the home of a Founder. The chapter sponsors the five undergraduate chapters at Temple University, Lincoln University, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and LaSalle University.
She died in March 1980 and is buried in Philadelphia alongside her husband.
