Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated   was organized at Howard University on January 16, 1920 as the result of encouragement given to our five founders by Charles Taylor and A. Langston Taylor, members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated.  These Sigma brothers felt the campus would benefit by the development of such an organization as sisters to the fraternity.  Thus, Zetas and Sigmas became the first official Greek-letter sister and brother organization.

The five founders dared to depart from the traditional coalitions for African-American women and sought to establish a new organization predicated on the precepts of scholarship, service, sisterhood, and Finer Womanhood. For eighty-eight years, the trail blazed by the founders has been traveled by thousands of women dedicated to the emulation of the objectives and ideals of the sorority.

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 Bahaman Islands, West Africa, and West Germany.  The sorority is the first organization to charter a chapter in Africa and in Germany; to form adult and youth auxiliary groups, the Amicae, Archonettes, Amicettes, and Pearlettes; to organize its internal affairs within a central, national office administered by a paid staff; and to be constitutionally bound to a brother fraternity.

Zeta's national and local programs include endowment of its National Education Foundation; community outreach services; and support of multiple affiliate organizations. Zeta chapters and auxiliary groups have given untotaled hours of voluntary service to educate the public, assist youth, provide scholarships, support organized charities, and to promote legislation for social and civic change.

A nonprofit organization, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, is incorporated in Washington, D.C. and in the state of Illinois. The Sorority is supported by the dues and gifts of its members.