Motto: Building a Tradition, Not Resting Upon One Where: Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD) 1963 was a turbulent year in the United States and out of the harsh political and social climate these students developed a fraternity for the development and perpetuation of scholarship, leadership, citizenship, fidelity, and brotherhood among men. It was founded at Morgan State University, in Baltimore, Maryland by twelve students.
J.Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Incorporated was the last of the Divine Nine organizations to be founded.
IOTA PHI THETA PROFESSIONAL
Elvin Hayes – professional athlete, member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.Michael Frisby –White House correspondent, The Wall Street Journal.Other programs the Thetamen have supported over the years include: Developing Better Fatherhood Project, Afya Njema Program (Swahili for good health) – educating the public on physical, mental and spiritual health, Iota Minority Political Mobilization and the Community Reclamation Initiative. One of the fraternity’s best-known service initiatives is the Iota Youth Alliance, of which a major project is the African American Male Education Network for mentoring and tutoring males age 8-13 in academic, social and leadership skills. In 1993, the Iotas launched the National Iota Foundation, which has enabled the organization to award grants, scholarships and underwrite their annual Iota Black College Tour, which began in 1996. Coming to the aid of Big Brothers of America during the 1960s and 1970s, president Polaris Thomas Dean appeared in television interviews to broadcast the importance of the program and the need for additional participants and funding.Īssisting the National Federation of the Blind and the National Sickle Cell Foundation are among initiatives Iota Phi Theta members continue to support in their respective communities. Further activism among the Iotas included community service projects with the NAACP, United Negro College Fund and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. One of their first acts in support of the movement was boycotting a segregated shopping mall in Baltimore shortly after the first chapter formed.
Ten years later, the Zeta Nu chapter was chartered at UMES in 2006.Įstablished in the midst of the Civil Rights era, Iota Phi Theta members considered themselves militant at a time before militancy was popular. Collectively, they were thereafter referred to as the “Divine Nine.” 12, 1996, Iota Phi Theta was unanimously accepted into the National Pan Hellenic Council, joining the existing eight historically black fraternities and sororities. By the early 1980s, Iota Phi Theta had expanded its presence to the west coast, with the establishment a chapter at San Francisco State University in 1983. Consequently, the fraternity, often referred to as Iotas, Centaurs and Thetamen experienced a surge in membership. Proudly displaying colors of charcoal brown and gilded gold, the men heralded the principles of scholarship, leadership, citizenship, fidelity and brotherhood among men along the east coast. In 1967, a group affectionately known as the Pied Pipers gathered to spread Iota Phi Theta’s message. For the first few years, members were mostly non-traditional students, which made recruitment of new undergraduate members challenging. Some had families, served time in the military or were working while pursuing an education. 19, 1963, it was composed mostly of non-traditional students who had known each other for a long time. When the fraternity was established by 12 young men at Morgan State College on Sept. “Building on Tradition, Not Resting on One,” is the motto of Iota Phi Theta fraternity, the most recent Greek letter organization to join the National Pan Hellenic Council.
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