Sigma Pi Phi
Fraternity
Beta Theta Foundation
Knoxville, Tennessee
HISTORY
2009 Copyright Beta Theta Foundation Knoxville * All rights reserved.(F)
Sigma Pi Phi was and remains unique. It was conceived to fill an adult social need among black professionals who certainly represented the upper stratum of human society and endeavor. The organization emphasized the genuineness, the essence of a fraternity. It would bind together mature professionals, college graduates who were already high achievers. The earned academic degree was the basic requirement for consideration. Its members must be men of similar backgrounds, of professional excellence, of cultivated tastes. Because of the negativism of American society, such black men were without a full, wholesome, sophisticated means for expressing themselves. So the thirsting intellectuals came together in a common bond. They respected themselves and they respected each other.
The Boule’ is composed of successful, mature, educated men who are bound to each other by cultural and spiritual ties. It is an elite group of black men who enjoy their camaraderie in a deserved and refurbishing society of equals.
The local Boule’ (Beta Theta) was formed in 1996 in Knoxville, Tennessee by twelve charter members. The number has grown to 20 current members as of 2010. The membership consists of college professors, corporate executives, college administrators, including two former college presidents and a dean of the Veterinary School, business owners, psychologists, real estate brokers, business managers, church pastors, radio talk/TV host, and retired professionals.
Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity is the first of the African-American Greek-Letter Fraternities and it was founded on May 15, 1904 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by a small group of black men. Each of these men was outstanding in his profession but they sensed a void, created by the permeating pattern of exclusion that was a basic, firm characteristic of life in the United States at that time in history.
