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Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Turns 100
By Derek Smith
Jan 8, 2014 - 11:07:45 AM

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Above: Members Attend Centennial Church Service at Holy Cross Anglican Church on January 5, 2014. Photo: Derek Smith

Nassau, Bahamas - Phi Beta Sigma has a near century long commitment to service that is centered in the fraternity’s three international programs; Bigger and Better Business, Education and Social Action.

For more than 60 years, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity has made manhood training for young boys a fraternity priority through its Sigma Beta Club founded in 1950. There are over 120 Sigma Beta Clubs throughout the world. In 2005, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity adopted Junior Achievement Bahamas and the Red Cross as two of its primary volunteer initiatives.

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Above: Fraternity members with Bro. Phenton Neymour at his Greek Hall of Fame Induction in 2013 Photo: Derek Smith

Today, Phi Beta Sigma Bahamas boasts of two firsts within the international fraternity - the first undergraduate chapter (Beta Beta Lambda at The College of The Bahamas 2004) of any fraternal organization outside of the USA and its territories and the first alumni chapter (Delta Epsilon Sigma 1978) of the fraternity in a Caribbean nation.

In The Bahamas, some of Phi Beta Sigma prominent members include Kendal Major, Speaker of The House of Assembly; Hon. Shane D. Gibson, Minister of Immigration, Labour and Training; Hon. Phenton Neymour, former Minister of the Environment and trade unionist; Raymond Winder, Managing Parter - Deloitte and Junior Achievement Bahamas Chairman; Rev. Dr. Enoch Backford, educator, sports icon and civil service giant; Ryan Antonio, BTC VP Credit & Collections; Bradley Cooper, two-time Olympian, Canon Crosley Walkine, rector of St. Matthews Anglican Church; Kevin Hanna, Bank of The Bahamas Treasury Head; Phil Smith (deceased), veteran broadcaster; Sterling Quant, Bahamian Sports Hall of Famer for basketball and former Registrar General and Omar Archer, Director of Campus Life at The College of The Bahamas

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Above: Charter Member William Dean and others at Fort Charlotte Park clean up. Photo: Derek Smith

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity is steeped in scholastic, social advocacy and cultural traditions, having as members some of the most historical figures of the 20th Century’s “social change” and cultural movements. Some notable international members are: the first African American Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Alain Leroy Locke, the first black Executive Secretary of the NAACP and writer of the “Black National Anthem,” Lift Every Voice and Sing, James Weldon Johnson, the person singularly responsible for saving the South’s agriculture industry with his 20th Century advancements in crop rotation, Dr. George Washington Carver and the most significant figure in America’s Pro-Black Radical movement and co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Dr. Huey P. Newton.

Phi Beta Sigma also counts amongst its members four American educated African Presidents; Ghana’s first President, the Honorable Kwame Nkrumah; Nigeria’s first President, the Honorable Nnamdi Azikiwe; the Honorable William V.S. Tubman, the 19th President of Liberia; and the Honorable Dr. William Tolbert, the 20th President of Liberia, as well as one American President, the Honorable William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States.

Phi Beta Sigma chapters of The Bahamas have embarked on a '100 Point Community Impact Plan' to commemorate the centennial.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity was founded at Howard University on January 9th, 1914. It founders were three young scholars, Abram Langston Taylor, Leonard Francis Morse and Charles Ignatius Brown and the fraternity’s membership has grown to more than 150,000 men who have become members over the past 100 years, represented in over 700 chapters across the world.


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