Sigma Pi Phi (), also known as The Boulé, founded in 1904, is the oldest

fraternity A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, "brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in ...

for African Americans among those named with Greek letters. The fraternity does not have collegiate chapters and is designed for professionals at mid-career or older. Sigma Pi Phi was founded in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. The fraternity quickly established chapters (referred to as "member boulés") in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

and then

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

. The founders included two doctors, a dentist and a pharmacist. When Sigma Pi Phi was founded, black professionals were not offered participation in the professional and cultural associations organized by the white community. Sigma Pi Phi has over 5,000 members and 139 chapters throughout the United States, The United Kingdom, The Bahamas, Colombia and Brazil.

Founders

* Henry M. Minton, PhG * Eugene T. Hinson, MD * Robert J. Abele, MD * Algernon B. Jackson, MD * Edwin C.J.T. Howard, MD * Richard J. Warrick Jr., DDS

Membership

Membership in Sigma Pi Phi is highly exclusive, numbering only about 5,000. The organization is known as "the Boulé," which means, in Ancient Greek "the Council". Founded as an organization for professionals, Sigma Pi Phi never established collegiate chapters, and eliminated undergraduate membership during its infant stages. However, Sigma Pi Phi has historically had a congenial relationship with intercollegiate Black Greek-letter organizations, as many members of Sigma Pi Phi are members of both. Sigma Pi Phi founder Henry McKee Minton and Martin Luther King Jr. were both members of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved in ...

, while

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Uni ...

was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. Vernon Jordan and L. Douglas Wilder are members of

Omega Psi Phi Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African-American fraternity. The fraternity was founded on November 17, 1911, by three Howard University juniors Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman, and their faculty ad ...

. James Weldon Johnson was a member of

Phi Beta Sigma Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as char ...

, as was civil rights leader and member of Congress

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashvill ...

(D-GA). University of Massachusetts-Boston Chancellor, Dr. J. Keith Motley, and Hibernia Southcoast Capital CEO (Retired), Joseph Williams are members of Iota Phi Theta. Members of Sigma Pi Phi have provided leadership and service during the Great Depression,

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

, and addressed social issues such as urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues affecting

people of African descent The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were ...

Notable members

Members of Sigma Pi Phi include:

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

, civil rights leader and one of the founders of the NAACP; Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader; Robert J. Abele, Sigma Pi Phi founder and brother of Julian Abele, who served as the lead architect of Duke University; former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume; Ralph Bunche, a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Ambassador and first African-American winner of the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

;

Andrew Young Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...

, civil rights leader and a mayor of Atlanta; Maynard Jackson, a mayor of Atlanta; Douglas Wilder, a

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022. Oath of office On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...

; Kenneth Chenault, a CEO of American Express; Bobby Scott; C. O. Simpkins Sr.; Ken Blackwell; Eric Holder, a

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

;

Ron Brown Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairman of the Democratic National Co ...

; Vernon Jordan;

;

Mel Watt Melvin Luther Watt (born August 26, 1945) is an American politician who served as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency from 2014 to 2019. He was appointed by President Barack Obama. He is a former United States Representative for , from ...

; John Baxter Taylor Jr., the first African-American to win an Olympic Gold Medal; and Calvin Ball, first African-American County Executive. Numerous other American leaders are among the men who have adopted the fraternity’s purpose of "creating a forum wherein they could pursue social and intellectual activities in the company of peers." Sigma Pi Phi is open to members of all races, as can be demonstrated by its well-known Jewish member Jack Greenberg, who succeeded

Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African- ...

as the leader of the

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Al ...

In media

Lawrence Otis Graham reports on the organization and his membership in it in the 1999 book ''Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class''.

Notes

References

External links

Official Site

Journal Articles

Site for Beta Lambda chapter in Hampton Roads, Virginia

Site for Gamma Iota chapter in Rochester, NY

Southeast Region Site

1904–2004: The Boule at 100: Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity holds centennial celebrationStuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Sigma Pi Phi records, 1926-2019
{{Authority control African-American upper class Student organizations established in 1904 Clubs and societies in the United States African-American fraternities and sororities 1904 establishments in Pennsylvania Black elite