Information About Sigma Pi Phi, The Oldest Black Greek Letter Fraternity (video & article excerpts)

WebTvMediaOhio, Jun 29, 2022

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a 2022 YouTube video about the Lambda boule (chapter) of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the oldest African American Greek letter fraternity.

This post also presents online excerpts about Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity as well as the auto-generated transcript of that video with my minimum corrections to that transcription.

The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are associated with this showcase video and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series about historically Black Greek letter fraternities.

Click the tags below for pancocojams post on that subject and information about pancocojams post about the subject of  "The talented tenth and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity/the Boule."

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INFORMATION ABOUT SIGMA PI PHI FRATERNITY
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_Pi_Phi
"Sigma Pi Phi (ΣΠΦ), also known as The Boulé, founded in 1904, is the oldest fraternity for African Americans. The fraternity does not have collegiate chapters and is designed for professionals at mid-career or older. Sigma Pi Phi was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The fraternity quickly established chapters (referred to as "member boulés"[A]) in Chicago, Illinois and then Baltimore, Maryland.[1] The founders included two doctors, a dentist and a pharmacist.[2] When Sigma Pi Phi was founded, black professionals were not offered participation in the professional and cultural associations organized by the white community.[3] Sigma Pi Phi has over 5,000 members and 139 chapters throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, The Bahamas, Colombia and Brazil.[4]

Membership

Membership in Sigma Pi Phi is highly exclusive, numbering only about 5,000.[10] The organization is known as "the Boulé," which means, in Ancient Greek "the Council".[11] Founded as an organization for professionals, Sigma Pi Phi never established collegiate chapters, and eliminated undergraduate membership during its infant stages.[12] 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, while Arthur Ashe was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. Vernon Jordan and L. Douglas Wilder are members of Omega Psi Phi. James Weldon Johnson was a member of Phi Beta Sigma, as was civil rights leader and member of Congress John Lewis (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 II, the Great Recession, and addressed social issues such as urban housing, and other economic, cultural, and political issues affecting people of African descent.

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Excerpt #2
https://betaetaboule.org/history/
"I. Mission Statement

The mission of the Grand Boule of Sigma Pi Phi fraternity is to maintain an organization for the purpose of binding men of like qualities into a close, sacred, fraternal union, that may know the best of one another, and that each in this life may to his full ability aid the other, and by concerted action bring about those things that seem best for all that cannot be accomplished by individual effort."

II. Vision Statement

"The Grand Boule of the 21st Century will continue to serve as the pre-eminent fraternity for African American men of achievement. The Boule also will continue to aid the community by encouraging Archons to become better informed about and to take appropriate action on major public policy issues of concern to the community, and by supporting or providing social action programs that benefit disadvantaged African Americans."

III. Northeast Region Mission and Values

"This organization should be a fraternity in the true sense of the word, one whose chief thought should be …to bind men of like qualities, taste, and attainment into a close, sacred union that they may know the best of one another”.

IV. History of Sigma Pi Phi

“I believe that one of the greatest functions of history is to create inspiration, to inspire us to do greater things than have been done.”

First Grand Sire Archon (1908-1909)-Dr. Henry M. Minton, Founder

With this sentiment in mind, Grand Sire Archon Minton and 3 other esteemed men-Dr. Algernon B. Jackson, Dr. Richard J. Warrick and Dr, Edwin C. Howard, established Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1904. The named their chapter, Alpha, the first letter in the Greek alphabet, was selected as the inaugural chapter’s name.

Through their monumental efforts, Sigma Pi Phi, thus became the first of the ‘Negro-American Greek-letter fraternities in the United States.’

These pioneering men, although impeccable in their character and successful by any standard of comparison, were nonetheless, “segregated in most areas of life, ostracized from the city’s (mainstream) social life, separated from the main stream in their educational and cultural activities and restricted to relatively few professions and occupations”, according to the ‘History of Sigma Pi Phi,’"...
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The term "Archon" refers to individual members of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. 

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Excerpt #3
From https://moguldom.com/311983/fact-check-is-there-a-black-secret-society-of-elites-called-the-boule/#google_vignette "Fact Check: Is There a Black Secret Society Of Elites Called The Boulé?"

Written by Isheka N. Harrison, Oct 20, 2020

"If you’ve never heard of the Boulé, that’s probably because it’s by design. Officially known as Sigma Pi Phi, the Boulé was founded in  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1904 by Dr. Henry McKee Minton and five of his colleagues. Among the group were doctors, dentists and a pharmacist. It is the nation’s first Black Greek organization.

Before being exposed to the general public by various individuals in the 1990s and 2000s, the Boulé was on par with white organizations like Skull and Bones – people knew they existed but couldn’t really prove it.

Meaning “Council of Chiefs” or “Adviser to Kings” in Greek, the Boulé was for much of its existence an elite, invitation-only secret society for Black men of high regard. Members are chosen based on their professional accomplishments and community standing.

It is considered the “father” of the Black Greek-letter organizations that make up the Divine 9 (Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma, Iota Phi Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho).

In a 2011 interview, political researcher and speaker Steve Cokely called the Boulé an “illegal criminal enterprise” full of “Black complicity in this centralization of worldwide power the new world order.”

Truth Trafficker

@seethingsista

Boule has kept us in this position for all these decades.

7:53 PM · Oct 19, 2020

[…]

Cokely accused the Boulé of being in cahoots with white power structures to keep wealth and power limited to a very small part of the population.

“In page 28 of its first [Boulé] history book, it noted that it wanted to be like Skull and Bones at Yale,” Cokely said. “Those societies … and The Boule tend to make up a[n] aristocracy … in the terms of deputizing 10 percent of the population to assure that the 90 percent never catch on.”

In a 1990 interview with the Los Angeles Times, then incoming Boulé president Dr. Benjamin Major told reporter Karen Grigsby Bates that initially the organization was committed to maintaining its exclusivity.

However, Major said, they were shifting their focus to be more socially-engaged and making a commitment to uplift the less fortunate members of their community.

“Until eight or 10 years ago, we were just what we were perceived to be,” Major told the Times. “We don’t want to appear as if we were remaining above the problems of most black people. We know we didn’t get here solely by the dint of our own hard work. We owe a lot of people, and we have to give back to our brothers and sisters.”

The Boulé boasts some of the most notable Black men throughout history among its ranks, many of whom are admired and respected for their work to attain equality for the Black community. They include: W.E.B DuBois, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Whitney Young, Arthur Ashe, John Lewis, Andrew Young, Ron Brown, Eric Holder, Kweisi Mfume, Herman Cain, etc."...

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TRANSCRIPT OF THIS SHOWCASE VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR4h_lYcrHQ

This is an autogenerated Transcript without the time stamps and the capitalization and punctuation and few spelling corrections that I added.

"In the beginning you really can't talk about the beginnings of Lambda boule without first giving a little bit of background about Sigma Pi Phi fraternity.

The founding of the Boule is very interesting.  We're talking about the turn of the century.

The Sigma Pi Phi fraternity uh represents the very first historically African-American fraternity of men and it was founded in Philadelphia in 1904.

But let's just back up just a little bit and take a glimpse at what life was for the black community.

Uh we know having just recently celebrated Juneteenth that what that was all about the slaves in the state of Texas getting the word much later that at least the emancipation had already happened.

And with emancipation came quite a resistance from much of the white community and particularly white southerners newly freed slaves in the last quarter of the 19th century just prior to when Sigma Pi Phi fraternity began had experienced a little taste of what life could be only to have it snatched from them.

At the turn of the century the worst uh killings and lynchings uh which is the movement all unto itself- uh when I'm teaching black history, I don't just talk about slavery.  I talk about the slavery that existed after slavery um and the the uh rise of the Klan and other white citizens groups and so on.

Born out of this situation was a group all of whom were medical, in in medical fields-most of them physicians--came together because they were bound by likeness and and shared uh systems of of belief and apparently philosophy.  And they got together and they found this bond amongst them and decided to organize.  And from that initial group they were smart enough to realize that if the crop is good you want to grow it.. So that first group of what we call our Alpha chapter uh the first group uh spread to uh the second group uh uh Beta in Chicago and and and so on.  So much so that there are now over 5 000
men and and way over 100 uh member Boules throughout the country.

That's important to know because it was essentially that philosophical and social cultural imperative that they understood that helped to shape another kind of fraternal explosion that came shortly thereafter for black people to survive this oppressive state we find ourselves in.  We gotta use our minds so we gotta value education.  We have to value education that will be …perhaps we felt certainly during segregation days our best ticket that would be the best way we could arm ourselves.  So when somebody says “I ain't got time for fraternity”.  Sir that's fine.  i don't try to argue with them long about that.  Uh hopefully they'll see the light and they'll see the good that comes from all of these sororities and fraternities.  But the very first one was Sigma Pi that provided a framework upon which the work that was done uh and all of the others.   Sigma Pi Phi helped to be a beacon of light .

Lambda Boule was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1921. It was founded by a man named Truman Gibson who came from Atlanta from the Mobile Kappa Boule to help create the Lambda Boule chapter.  There were six initial men inducted. Each were men and prosperity and Columbus African-American men. Some were medical doctors.  Some were lawyers primarily. A couple [were] educators.  These men were considered leaders in the African-American community particularly in the Lincoln district.  The reason why this chap… this membership was created based on what's going on in the country at the time after world war:  one there was a lot of continued impoverishment of African Americans in the country, [a] lack of access to education, lack of … a lot of the diversity opportunities that weren't being given to us.  And the Sigma Pi Phi national organization saw Columbus as a city of prosperity for African Americans. So by bringing them here the goal was to establish a base for African-Americans in Columbus to advance affordable housing, removing poverty, bringing medical, retail, and other things to the city of Columbus.

Well known Boule members in Columbus include such icons as Kurt Moody who was the founder and president of the largest minority owned architectural firm in the world right here in the city of Columbus. A great man, Louis Smoot, founder of… not founder but president of uh Smoot uh construction company, [a] great company minority-owned.   People know him all over the nation.  Adobe..Autobadi, a great lawyer, uh done great things in this community.  As well everybody knows Otto Beatty. Uh it just goes on and on and on…Ted McDaniels, you know, a great musician. One of the best there is out there.

My favorite Boule event is the Christmas is for the Archousai event because we come together.  Black tie…The Archousai are beautiful in their evening gowns and their outstanding outfits and it's fun we come together and have fun.  And that's what i enjoy about Boule.  We enjoy the company of one another.  And the quality of that event is of the highest quality because we're honoring our spouses in our Archousai.  So I always enjoy that. We always have fun dancing and the older generation like myself we still do the electric slide but the younger generation have all kinds of new moves.  But everybody has a good time and it's an opportunity during the holiday season to say thank you to one another and to really express the appreciation that we have for one another in terms of all the things we do during the year whether it's the mentoring we do, the scholarship program that we do, the other kinds of community events that we support and sponsor.  Christmas for the Archousai is always an enjoyable event and my wife and I have loved that particular event."
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*"Archousai" is the name of the group for wives of Sigma Pi Phi members.

[Several men describe how they became members of the Lambda Boule]
 
“You know as I've described my background to you,  my parents didn't have a college education not to mention the professional background that you typically see with Lambda Boule members.  And i was not exposed to or had experience with Lambda or any other Sigma Pi Phi or any other fraternities coming up up until the time that i went to undergrad which we've had that conversation where i found out about Alpha Phi Alpha.  And [after that] that experience, I was introduced to Sigma Pi Phi through some professional friends in Sacramento.  So boule has been a part of my life for as long as i could remember.”

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“My great uncle was in Boule in a Boule in Atlanta, Georgia and he was very close to our family.  We called him “Uncle Bud” and for any Boule meeting or any time he came to Atlanta or anytime we came to Atlanta, he would want to take my father to his Boule meetings.  And vice versa when he would come up to Columbus my father would do the same and that was something that was very near and dear to my Uncle Bud who I cherished and who was a big part of my life when I was at Morehouse College.  In addition to my uncle (my great uncle and my father's brother) my uncle is in the Boule in the Washington DC area.

I also have an uncle on my mother's side who is in a Boule in Atlanta, Georgia and then i have a cousin who is in the Boule in Nashville, Tennessee. 

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“I heard about the Boule because there were a couple brothers that were Alphas that were in the Boule and they talked about this other ..for instance “Are you Alpha?  Are you us? You know what's this other thing”.. So i learned a little bit about it.  But then about 10 years ago …It's been about 10 years since i've been in the Boule.  Somebody approached me and said “Hey um.  We got another class coming in. Would you, would you consider being part of it.”  And so [I] checked it out.  You know some of the brothers are here are really good brothers.  I mean you would know most of them if I mentioned their names but [they are] just really good guys.  And what they were trying to do is to be part of the community.  Some of the philanthropic things that they had gone…Some of the social activities that were…It wasn't just about becoming another member of a social thing.   It was really more about the work that they were doing.”

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“Um you know i was not aware of Lambda. of the Boule, in college out of college.  Uh, I never heard of it.  I mean uh a friend of mine, a guy named Rob Frazier who was at Huntington Bank at the time said “You know there's a group…You think you want to be part of and I want to sponsor you to come in here”. He introduced me and the good thing was [there] is so many other successful men that I would not [have] run into without Lambda.”

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“Interestingly, I became aware of Lambda boule in New York City.  I was in New York representing the governor at that time.  I was his chief legal counsel and as you know we drafted Ohio's minority business development act. And again that's one of the things that I'm most appreciative of and proud of.  And so the governor sent me to New York actually to meet with Earl Graves who was the founder and editor of Black Enterprise [magazine].  And they were going to do a feature on the state of Ohio and the fact that we were one of the first states to pass a state minority business development act.  And while I was there meeting with Earl, interestingly, John Jacobs who at the time was the president and ceo of the Urban League came into Earl's office and i got to meet him.  And they were talking and Earl said “Oh, by the way, you should come to the Boule picnic this weekend”.  And i must have had a quizzical look on my face because he looked at me and said “Are you not a member of Boule?   Do you not know what boule is?”. And I said “Well (I've always been honest) No i do not know what boule is.”.  And he said “If you are at the top of your profession and if you are a leader in your community, you definitely should be in boule”.

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[first speaker]

Boule is [being] committed I think to taking action that will hopefully level the playing field for blacks in society and and every Boule and every person in the national Sigma Pi Phi has been told that social action should be your priority.  I mean it's fine to have you know holiday party and gather and enjoy one another's company.  There’s nothing wrong with that at all and we do that in any professional or social organization uh does that.  But you have to have a higher purpose and and a greater meaning.  And the challenge continues I mean but we do have a lot of initiatives to try to achieve those goals.

I think the number one thing in my mind is mentorship.  You know we've…you know sort of having an affiliation with an elementary school, Island elementary school to try to help the mentorship there.  And I think we've had an impact but I do worry that you know we're doing enough to have a lasting impact.  You can't just go into a school and say you know “I somehow made it” you know. “I pulled up my bootstraps and made it through elementary school and high school and a nice college and professional school when you're talking to kids who have nothing.”

This [is] one opportunity to get together.  And when we get together, let's do something that's concrete.  Let's do something that's positive and that's going to have a meaningful if not lasting impact.  And when you give scholarships to outstanding students, that has a lasting impact.  Because if we can change the trajectory of these families by helping out with education, then we change the trajectory of community.

You have to start there."

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