Omega Psi Phi Fraternity,Inc. (ΩΨΦ) is a historically African-American fraternity. The fraternity was founded on November 17,1911,the first at a historically black university,by three Howard University students,Edgar Amos Love,Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman,and their faculty adviser,Dr. Ernest Everett Just. Since its founding the organization has chartered over 750 undergraduate and graduate chapters.
Jonathan Kimble Simmons is an American actor. He is considered one of the most eminent character actors of his generation,having appeared in over 200 films and television roles. He is the recipient of various Supporting Actor accolades for his performance as the music instructor Terence Fletcher in Damien Chazelle's Whiplash (2014),including an Academy Award,a British Academy Film Award,a Screen Actors Guild Award,and a Golden Globe Award.
James Carter Pankow is an American trombone player,songwriter,and brass instrument arranger who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for his brass arrangments,and for being one-third of Chicago's brass/woodwind section alongside Lee Loughnane and Walter Parazaider.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity,Inc. (ΑΦΑ) is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved into a fraternity with a founding date of December 4,1906. It employs an icon from Ancient Egypt,the Great Sphinx of Giza,as its symbol. Its aims are "Manly Deeds,Scholarship,and Love For All Mankind," and its motto is "First of All,Servants of All,We Shall Transcend All." Its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity,Inc. (ΦΒΣ) is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington,D.C.,on January 9,1914,by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as charter members. The fraternity's founders,A. Langston Taylor,Leonard F. Morse,and Charles I. Brown,wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood,Scholarship and Service while taking an inclusive perspective to serve the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose. The fraternity exceeded the prevailing models of Black Greek-Letter fraternal organizations by being the first to establish alumni chapters,youth mentoring clubs,a federal credit union,chapters in Africa and a collegiate chapter outside of the United States. It is the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a historically African-American sorority,Zeta Phi Beta (ΖΦΒ),which was founded on January 16,1920,at Howard University in Washington,D.C.,through the efforts of members of Phi Beta Sigma.
William Francis McBeth was an American composer,whose wind band works are highly respected. His primary musical influences included Clifton Williams,Bernard Rogers,and Howard Hanson. The popularity of his works in the United States during the last half of the twentieth century led to many invitations and appearances as a guest conductor,where he often conducted the premiere performances of some of his compositions,the majority of which were commissioned. His conducting activities took him to forty-eight states,three Canadian provinces,Japan,and Australia;and for a number of years he was principal conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in the capital of Little Rock. At one time,his "Double Pyramid Balance System" was a widely used pedagogical tool in the concert band world.
Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority,is a co-educational service sorority.
Professional fraternities,in the North American fraternity system,are organizations whose primary purpose is to promote the interests of a particular profession and whose membership is restricted to students in that particular field of professional education or study. This may be contrasted with service fraternities and sororities,whose primary purpose is community service,and social fraternities and sororities,whose primary purposes are generally aimed towards some other aspect,such as the development of character,friendship,leadership,or literary ability.
Harry E. Johnson is a career lawyer,entrepreneur,public servant and partner at the Law Office of Glenn and Johnson in Houston,Texas. He served as City Attorney for Kendelton,Texas from 1996 to 1999,and taught at Texas Southern University in both the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and School of Public Affairs from 1994 to 1999. Johnson is a former National President of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity,and is the President and CEO of the Washington,D.C. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation,Inc.
The Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award is one of the highest honors awarded to members of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity for a lifelong achievement in uplifting the world through art and music. Its recipients include musical legends such as Aaron Copland,W. Francis McBeth,James Levine,Frederick Fennell,Maynard Ferguson,and Col. John R. Bourgeois,USMC (Ret.).
Alpha Lambda Omega Christian Sorority,Incorporated (ΑΛΩ) is a national,inter-denominational Christian sorority founded April 9,1990,by four students at the University of Texas at Austin. The sorority consists of 14 chapters in the states of Texas,Pennsylvania,Michigan,and Oklahoma and is governed by a national executive board in the headquarters in Houston,Texas.
Percy Jewett Burrell was an American author and director of historical and civic pageants. Known for his skills in oratory and elocution,he also taught public speaking and drama,and was known as a "public reciter." A native and lifelong resident of the greater Boston area,he was described by Time magazine as a "professional director of civic and patriotic shows." By the mid-1920s,Burrell had developed a nationwide reputation for his work,having had 75,000 participants in his productions,which had collectively been performed in front of over 900,000 people. According to a printed program used at a service in his memory,"His mastery of the spoken and written word led him to be a well known public speaker with an enviable reputation as a teacher of oratory,and later as an author and director of national distinction." Burrell served as the first supreme historian of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity from 1901 to 1903,and the sixth supreme (national) president of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity from 1907 to 1914,and along with fraternity founder Ossian E. Mills has been credited by fraternity historians with encouraging the early expansion of and formulating the basic ideals espoused by the fraternity. Much of this fundamental philosophy is encapsulated in his presidential messages expounding the fraternity's Object,which appeared in the Sinfonia Yearbooks between 1908 and 1910. Today,these writings are regularly used to instruct the fraternity's probationary members about the fraternity's Object,and the obligations and expectations of fraternity membership.
Henry Ziegler Steinway was the last member of the Steinway family to be president of the piano company Steinway &Sons.
James R. Bennett was an American Republican politician from Alabama. From 1978 to 1983,he served as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and as a member of the Alabama Senate between 1983 and 1993. He went on to serve as Secretary of State of Alabama,from 1993 to 2003 and from 2013 to 2015.
Peter William Dykema was an important force in the growth of the National Association for Music Education,Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity,and the music education profession. Dykema was also active in the Music Teachers National Association and the National Education Association Department of Music Education. He also served as 1924-25 chairman of the Kiwanis International Committee on Music. Through these various avenues of involvement,in addition to his work as a composer,author,and educator,he was one of the leading music advocates of his day.
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (ΦΜΑ) is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "who,through a love for music,can assist in the fulfillment of [its] object and ideals either by adopting music as a profession or by working to advance the cause of music in America." Phi Mu Alpha has initiated more than 260,000 members,known as Sinfonians,and the fraternity currently has over 7,000 active collegiate members in 249 collegiate chapters throughout the United States.
George Irving Shirley is an American operatic tenor,and was the first African-American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Mu Beta Phi Military Fraternity,Inc. (ΜΒΦ) also known as the "Mighty Beta Kings",is an international military fraternity that caters to all 50 states and overseas in Southeast Asia and Europe. The motivation to serve,support and defend the men and women in the local and veteran communities amplified the passion to give back and provide an outlet for men of the Armed Services of all nationalities,continued service within the community,leading to the establishment of Mu Beta Phi Military Fraternity Inc.
