Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was founded January 16, 1920, at Howard University in Washington, D.C by five dynamic women, also known as our Five Pearls Thes women 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.
Over the years, since the sorority's inception, Zeta Phi Beta has chartered hundreds of chapters and initiated thousands of women around the world. Zeta has continued to thrive and flourish while adapting to the ever-changing needs of a new century. Despite the Great Depression, discrimination, segregation, and a host of other challenges, Zeta has continued to hold true to its ideals and purpose.
The Epsilon Theta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated was chartered on the campus of Mississippi State University on October 8, 1977. Fifteen courageous women, "The 15 Spices of Life", took it upon themselves to charter a new chapter. Epsilon Theta has proven to be a valued asset on the campus as well as in the community of Starkville by exhibiting the principles on which our organization was founded.
Arizona Cleaver Stemmons · Pearl Anna Neal · Viola Tyler Goings
Myrtle Tyler Faithful · Fannie Petty Watts