Three of the four National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) sororities celebrate their foundings during the same week. All three, Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and Zeta Phi Beta were founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. For this year’s Founders’ Dya posts, I’ve centered on the chapters at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. The idea for Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, happened when Arizona 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. She, along with her four friends, Pearl Neal, Myrtle Tyler, Viola Tyler, and Fannie Pettie, are the five pearls (founders) of Zeta Phi Beta.
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.
Xi Beta Chapter at Lincoln University
This week, I’ve written about the chapters at Lincoln University, an HBCU, located in Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1950, the Xi Beta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was chartered on the Lincoln University campus.
An early group of Xi Beta Chapter members.
In the fall of 1949, a group sought to bring the fourth of the four NPHC sororities to the Lincoln campus. Zeta Fontella Eton was a transfer from Stowe Teacher’s College (now Harris-Stowe State University). She and fellow Zeta Mary McAfee-Turner, a librarian at the college, led the effort.
Members getting ready for a 1960s Sadie Hawkins Day dance.
The charter members of the Xi Beta Chapter at Lincoln University were Dorothy Martin Wallace, Dolores Clinton, Neculia Johnson, Lucille Horace, Bessie Powell and Frances Watson.
