Taylor, A. Langston

Impact on the world

Co-founded Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity at Howard University on January 9, 1914, alongside fellow students Leonard F. Morse and Charles I. Brown, coining the organization's enduring motto, 'Culture for Service, Service for Humanity,' and going on to help establish Zeta Phi Beta Sorority in 1920 as the fraternity's formally bound sister organization, making Phi Beta Sigma and Zeta Phi Beta the only constitutionally linked brother-sister pair among all historically Black Greek-letter organizations; he served the fraternity in national leadership roles for twelve consecutive years.

Life & background

Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1890, Taylor graduated from the Howe Institute, now LeMoyne-Owen College, in 1909 before pursuing further studies at Howard and Frelinghuysen University in Washington, D.C. At Howard, he joined fellow students Morse and Brown in founding Phi Beta Sigma in 1914, deliberately conceiving the new fraternity as an organization that would see itself as part of, rather than apart from, the broader community, judging members by individual merit rather than family background, race, or skin tone; fellow members affectionately nicknamed him 'Prof' for always being seen carrying books and papers. He went on to a business career in real estate and insurance from 1917 to 1926, serving as secretary-treasurer of the Potomac Investment Company, a director of the Federal Life Insurance Company, and president of the Taylor Tobacco Company, while continuing twelve consecutive years of national service to his fraternity as president, treasurer, secretary, and field secretary; he was instrumental in establishing Zeta Phi Beta Sorority in 1920 as Phi Beta Sigma's formally constituted sister organization. He died in 1953 and is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.

Sources

1. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. official history; BlackPast.org; Epsilon Psi Sigma chapter history; PBSAD chapter history