Phi Beta Sigma (æÃÂã) is an international historically Black fraternity. Founded on January 9, 1914, on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., Phi Beta Sigma has chartered chapters at other colleges, universities, and cities, and named them with Greek-letters. The fraternity's expansion started with its second (Beta) and third (Gamma) chapters, chartered at Wiley College and Morgan State University respectively in 1915. Today, the fraternity serves through a membership of more than 200,000 men in over 700 chapters in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. The following list includes both active and inactive chapters throughout the world.
The fraternity has reserved the designation Omega chapter as a memorial to those brothers who are deceased. Alumni chapters are indicated by Sigma at the end of their chapter name.
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity organizes its chapters according to their regions in the United States and abroad. The seven regions are each led by a regional director and a regional board. A comprehensive list of regions is shown below:
The states that make up the Eastern Region are: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia. In addition to these 14 states, chapters within the United States Virgin Islands, Africa, and Europe are included.
The states that make up the Great Lakes Region are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The states that make up the Gulf Coast Region are: Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas.
The States that make up the Southeastern Region are: North Carolina, South Carolina and all of Tennessee east of the 86th Longitude.
The states that make up the Southern Region are: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi. In addition to those four states, all chapters in the country of The Bahamas are included in this region.
The states that make up the Southwestern Region are: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and all of Tennessee west of the 86th Longitude.
The Western region, with 15 states, holds the largest number of states within a region in Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. The states that make up the Western Region are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. In addition to these states, all chapters within the continent of Asia are in this region.