Love are among its graduates.Ī year later in 1918, retired Colonel Charles Young, rode 500 miles on horseback, from Wilberforce, Ohio, to the nation’s capital, to show he was always fit for duty. Johnson, John Purnell and founders Frank Coleman and Edgar A. Omega played a vital role when the United States entered World War I in 1917 by having several brothers in the first class of black soldiers graduate from Camp Fort Des Moines, a military training facility located in Iowa. Under his leadership, the fraternity’s first official hymn, “Omega Men Draw Nigh,” was written by Otto Bohannon. Holmes served as Omega’s sixth Grand Basileus. Hall, the fourth Grand Basileus, authorized the establishment of Gamma chapter in Boston.īrother Clarence F. Omega Psi Phi was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia on October 28, 1914. As a result, the fraternity operated without official sanction, until the university withdrew its opposition in 1914, the same year Beta chapter was chartered at Lincoln University. In 1912, Howard University officials did not initially recognize the fraternity as a national organization and Omega Psi Phi’s leadership refused to accept limited recognition.
Cooper and Frank Coleman were elected the chapter’s first Basileus, Keeper of Records, and Keeper of Seals, respectively.īrother Cooper became the fraternity’s second Grand Basileus in 1912 and authorized the investigation of establishing a second chapter on the campus of Lincoln University located in Pennsylvania.īrother Love was elected as the third Grand Basileus in 1912 and served until 1915. Eleven undergraduate men were selected to become the charter members.Īlpha chapter was organized with fourteen charter members on December 15, 1911. Cooper and Frank Coleman were selected to be the Grand Keeper of the Records (National Secretary) and Grand Keeper of Seals (National Treasurer), respectively. Love became the first Grand Basileus (National President). Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance and Uplift were adopted as Cardinal Principles. Joining them was their faculty adviser, Ernest Everett Just.įrom the initials of the Greek phrase meaning, “ friendship is essential to the soul“, the name Omega Psi Phi was derived. The founders were three undergraduates - Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman. On the evening of November 17, 1911, Omega Psi Phi was founded inside the Science Building (later renamed Thirkield Hall) at Howard University located in Washington, D.C. is the first international fraternal organization founded on the campus of a historically black college.
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