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The Birth of Bigger and Better
Business as told by Dr. I. L. Scruggs
Excepts from Our Cause
Speeds On
"Philadelphia,
1924, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity 'arrived'. We had a
mob of people at this Conclave. There were
representatives from twenty-eight chapters -and all
the trimmings. The introduction of the Bigger and
Better Negro Business idea was made by way of an
exhibit devoted to this topic.
The Bigger and Better Negro Business idea was first
tested in 1924 with an imposing exhibition in
Philadelphia. This was held in connection with the
Conclave. Twenty-five leading Negro Businesses sent
statements and over fifty sent exhibits. The whole
show took place in the lobby of the YMCA. Several
thousand visitors seemed to have been impressed. The
response was so great that the 1925 Conclave in
Richmond, Virginia voted unanimously to make Bigger
and Better Negro Business the public program of the
Fraternity, and it has been so ever since."
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., believes that the
improvement and economic conditions of minorities is
a major fact in the improvement of the general
welfare of society. It is upon this conviction that
the Bigger and Better Business Program rests. Since
1926, the Bigger and Better Business Program has
been sponsored on a national scale by Phi Beta Sigma
as a way of supporting, fostering, and promoting
minority owned businesses and services. Please visit
www.pbsbbb.org
for more information.
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The
founders of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., were
all educators in their own right. The genesis of
the Education Program lies in the traditional
emphasis that the Fraternity places on Education.
During the 1945 Conclave in St. Louis, Missouri, the
fraternity underwent a constitution restructuring
after World War II, and this lead to the birth of
the Education as a National Program.
he National Program of Education focuses on
programming and services to graduate and
undergraduates in the fraternity. Programs such as
scholarships, lectures, college fairs, mentoring,
and tutoring enhance this program on local, regional
and national levels.
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The History
of Social Action
Excerpts from Our Cause Speeds On and The
Crescent 1949
(35th Anniversary Edition)
During the
20th anniversary of Sigma, the Committee on Public
Policy urged that the fraternity come forth with a
broadly-based program that would be addressed to the
problems of the great masses of the Negro people.
This new departure, in large measure, grew out of
the experiences of the New York group. These men
from Manhattan brought with them a new idea, SOCIAL
ACTION.
i Beta Sigma
has from its very beginning concerned itself with
improving the general well-being of minority groups.
In 1934, a well-defined program of Social Action was
formulated and put into action. Bro. Elmo M.
Anderson, then president of Epsilon Sigma Chapter
(New York) formulated this program calling for the
reconstruction of social order. It was a tremendous
success. It fit in with the social thinking of the
American public in those New Deal years.
In the
winter of 1934 Brother Elmo Anderson, James W.
Johnson, Emmett May and Bob Jiggets came down to the
Conclave in Washington, DC and presented their
Social Action proposition, and just the birth of
Social Action as a National Program.
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