IOTA PHI THETA FRATERNITY, INC.
National History
“Building a Tradition, Not Resting upon One,” is the motto of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, the most recent Greek letter organization to join the National Pan Hellenic Council.
On September 19, 1963, at Morgan State College (now Morgan State University), 12 students founded what is now the nation’s fifth largest, predominately African American social service fraternity: The Honorable Founders of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity were:
Albert Hicks · Lonnie Spruill, Jr. · Charles Briscoe · Frank Coakley · John Slade · Barron Willis · Webster Lewis · Charles Brown · Louis Hudnell · Charles Gregory · Elias Dorsey, Jr. · Michael Williams
Iota Phi Theta, 1964
Many of these men were what are now referred to as “Non-Traditional Students” and were 3-5 years older than the average college student. Gregory, Willis, and Brown were all service veterans, and Brown, Hicks, and Briscoe were married with small children.
Of this group of 12, several were also working full-time jobs and all were full-time students. Based upon their ages, heightened responsibilities, and increased level of maturity, this group had a slightly different perspective than the norm for college students. It was this perspective from which they established the Fraternity’s purpose, “The development and perpetuation of Scholarship, Leadership, Citizenship, Fidelity, and Brotherhood among Men.”
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. Consequently, the Fraternity, often referred to as Iotas, Centaurs and Theta men experienced a surge in membership. By the early 1980s, Iota Phi Theta had expanded its presence to the west coast, with the establishment of a chapter at San Francisco State University in 1983.
On Nov. 12, 1996, Iota Phi Theta was unanimously accepted into the National Pan Hellenic Council, joining the existing eight historically black fraternities and sororities. Collectively, they were thereafter referred to as the “Divine Nine.”
Established in the midst of the Civil Rights era, Iota Phi Theta members considered themselves militant at a time before militancy was popular. One of their first acts in support of the movement was boycotting a segregated shopping mall in Baltimore shortly after the first chapter formed. Further activism among the Iotas included community service projects with the NAACP, United Negro College Fund and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 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.