Phi Beta Sigma/Abram Langston Taylor

Native Tennessean Abram Langston Taylor conceived near 423 Beale Avenue the idea of establishing an international organization of college and professional men dedicated to “Culture for Service and Service For Humanity.” On January 9, 1914, at Howard University, Taylor, together with Leonard F. Morse and Charles I Brown, became the principal founder of the organization he had envisioned. Taylor later recalled that on a dull summer day in 1910, after stopping at Bumpus Beale Avenue Grocery and speaking with a young man recently graduated from Howard about Greek letter fraternities there, he got the idea from which Phi Beta Sigma began to take shape. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1890, Taylor completed his education at Howe Institute, Howard University, and Frelinghuysen University, then operated various insurance and investment companies. He served as the first International President of Phi Beta Sigma and was primarily responsible for its conception, early growth, and development as an organization dedicated to the principles of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service. Taylor, who died in 1953, is presented as the unbroken link with the past and the living beginning of the organization, and his idea of the fraternity, envisioned in 1910 in Memphis, lives around the world today.

Memphis, Tennessee · United States