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Sigma Pi Phi (ΣΠΦ), also known as The Boulé, founded in 1904, is the oldest fraternityfor 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") in Chicago, Illinois and then Baltimore, Maryland.
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.
Eugene T. Hinson, MD (cofounder of Black founded and operated Mercy Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia, which opened in 1907).
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, 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.
The word boulé, derived from ancient Greek βουλή, originally referred to a council of nobles advising a king. It is also used by the African-American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.
References
"History". Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity — Beta Lambda. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
Olechowski, Carol (April 25, 2002). "Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Supports Scholarships for UAlbany Students" (Press release). University at Albany, SUNY.
^ Harris, William H. (2012). Brown, Tamara L.; Parks, Gregory S.; Phillips, Clarenda M. (eds.). African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision (2nd ed.). 104: University Press of Kentucky. p. 104. ISBN978-0-8131-3662-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
