Finer Womanhood

Founded January 16, 1920, Zeta began as an idea conceived by five coeds at Howard University in Washington, D.C.: Arizona Cleaver Stemons, Myrtle Tyler Faithful, Viola Tyler Goings, Fannie Pettie Watts, and Pearl Anna Neal. These five women, also known as our Five Pearls, dared to depart from the traditional coalitions for black women and sought to establish a new organization predicated on the precepts of Scholarship, Service, Sisterly Love and Finer Womanhood. It was the ideal of the Founders that the sorority would reach college women in all parts of the country who were sorority minded and desired to follow the founding principles of the organization. Founder Viola Tyler was oft quoted to say "[In the ideal collegiate situation] there is a Zeta in a girl regardless of race, creed, or color, who has highstandards and principles, a good scholarly average and an active interest in all things that she undertakes to accomplish." 
     The Sorority was the first Greek-letter organization to charter a chapter in Africa; to form adult and youth auxiliary groups: the Amicae, Archonettes, Amicettes, and Pearlettes; and to be constitutionally bound to a brother group, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated. Since its inception, the sorority has expanded to encompass more than 500 graduate and collegiate chapters. These chapters are located throughout the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the Bahamas, Eastern Caribbean Islands, West Africa, and Germany and are organized into nine regions.