[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 133 (Friday, September 9, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO SIGMA PI PHI FRATERNITY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 9, 2011

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
recognize Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.
  In 1904, a small group of top professionals in Philadelphia set out 
to create an organization that would provide a vehicle for black men of 
high stature to network and learn the best from one another. These 
visionaries were Dr. Algernon B. Jackson, Dr. Henry McKee Minton, Dr. 
Edwin C. Howard and Dr. Richard J. Warrick.
  At that time of Sigma Pi Phi's founding, accomplished black men lived 
and worked in isolation as they were not offered participation in 
professional and cultural associations organized by the white 
community. Inequities such as racism, discrimination, segregation, and 
inequality were rampant throughout the United States. It took the 
ingenuity and courage displayed by these men based on their shared 
conditions to form an organization that would not only bring them 
together in fellowship, but benefit the country they loved for more 
than a century to come.
  To quote Dr. Minton ``professional men should have an organization 
that should be a fraternity in the true sense of the word; one whose 
chief thought should not be to visit the sick and bury the dead, but to 
bind men of like qualities, tastes and attainments into a close and 
sacred union that they might know the best of one another.'' Members 
would not be ``selected on the basis of brains alone--but in addition 
to congeniality, culture and good fellowship; that they shall have 
behind them [at initiation] a record of accomplishment, not merely be 
men of promise and good education.'' His fraternity would contain the 
``best of Skull and Bones of Yale and of Phi Beta Kappa.''
  Today, the dream of Drs. Jackson, Minton, Howard and Warrick lives on 
and is stronger than ever. Sigma Pi Phi has over 5,000 members and 126 
chapters throughout the United States and the West Indies. Members of 
Sigma Pi Phi have provided leadership and service during the Great 
Depression, World War I, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and 
addressed social issues such as urban housing, and many other critical 
issues affecting all people.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Sigma Pi Phi for their 
tireless work which has benefited our great nation for more than a 
century. Our country is a better one because of Sigma Pi Phi and I am 
proud to honor them today.

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