{"id":420,"date":"2026-05-22T04:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/famous-zeta-phi-beta-members-zetas-who-made-history\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T04:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:00:32","slug":"famous-zeta-phi-beta-members-zetas-who-made-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/famous-zeta-phi-beta-members-zetas-who-made-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous Zeta Phi Beta Members: Zetas Who Made History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zeta<\/figure>\n

Five women founded Zeta Phi Beta at Howard University in 1920, and in the 106 years since, the roster has grown into more than 100,000 members worldwide. Among them are Pulitzer Prize winners, the first Black student to integrate a southern university, a Congresswoman who fought for healthcare and housing, and a roster of singers, actresses, and attorneys who carried Zeta colors into rooms that had never seen them before.<\/p>\n

This guide walks through the Zetas who made history. Some are founders. Some opened doors that had been closed for centuries. Some are the modern faces of the sorority today.<\/p>\n

A Quick Note on the Five Pearls<\/h2>\n

Every Zeta member traces her lineage back to five coeds at Howard University on January 16, 1920. Arizona Cleaver Stemons, Myrtle Tyler Faithful, Viola Tyler Goings, Pearl Anna Neal, and Fannie Pettie Watts created a sorority based on the principles of scholarship, service, sisterhood, and finer womanhood. Their founding stamp shaped everything that followed, from the academic standards they set to the auxiliary groups Zeta would later pioneer.<\/p>\n

Pearl Anna Neal earns her own line in this guide later. The other four founders set the institutional groundwork that allowed the rest of the names on this list to become Zetas in the first place.<\/p>\n

Pioneers Who Broke Barriers<\/h2>\n
\"Zeta
Six Zetas honored on Founders Day for shaping Black history.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gwendolyn Brooks<\/h3>\n

In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize, recognized for her poetry collection Annie Allen. A prolific poet, author, and teacher, Brooks used her work to highlight the beauty, struggles, and resilience of the Black community. Her name still sits at the top of conversations about American poetry, and her membership underscores Zeta’s stake in arts and cultural enrichment.<\/p>\n

Maggie Lena Walker<\/h3>\n

Walker was the first Black woman to charter a bank and serve as its president. In 1903 she founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia, providing African Americans with access to financial services during a time of systemic exclusion. Her work tied Zeta’s principles of service and economic empowerment together long before the modern conversation about racial wealth gaps existed.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Koontz<\/h3>\n

Duncan Koontz became the first Black president of the National Education Association (NEA) in 1968. Across her career she fought for equality in schools, in labor, and in civil rights, and she shaped national education policy from the inside. Her leadership exemplifies Zeta’s commitment to academic excellence and service to humanity.<\/p>\n

Autherine Lucy<\/h3>\n

Lucy made history as the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama in 1956. Her admission was a landmark moment in the fight to desegregate higher education in the South, even though violent opposition cut her time at the university short. Lucy’s courage in that moment laid the groundwork for the generations of Black students who followed her into integrated classrooms.<\/p>\n

Julia Carson<\/h3>\n

Carson was a political trailblazer who became the first Black person to represent Indianapolis, Indiana, in the U.S. Congress, serving from 1997 to 2007. She fought for affordable housing, healthcare, and veterans’ benefits, and her leadership made the case that Zeta’s service mission extended to legislation written on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

Voices That Defined Music and the Arts<\/h2>\n
\"Vivica
Vivica A. Fox at the Zeta Phi Beta Centennial Founders’ Gala, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dionne Warwick.<\/strong> Grammy winning singer whose career stretched from the Bacharach and David songbook through the present, with a notable appearance at the 46th Kennedy Center Honors in December 2023. She is one of the most recognizable Zeta names in music.<\/p>\n

Minnie Riperton.<\/strong> Singer with a five octave range whose voice still defines what range can sound like. Riperton’s membership made Zeta a name in 1970s R&B and pop.<\/p>\n

Syleena Johnson.<\/strong> Singer who attended the Zeta Phi Beta Centennial Founders’ Gala in Washington, D.C. on January 18, 2020, alongside other Zetas marking the sorority’s 100th year.<\/p>\n

Towanda Braxton.<\/strong> Actress and singer who carries Zeta letters into both reality television and music. Her career spans the Braxton Family Values era and a steady stream of acting work.<\/p>\n

Authors and Cultural Architects<\/h2>\n

Zeta’s literary lineage runs through two of the most important Black women writers of the 20th century. Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, was a Zeta and served as a professor in the Drama Department at North Carolina College for Negroes from 1939 to 1940. Her work as a folklorist, anthropologist, and playwright shaped what the Harlem Renaissance is remembered for.<\/p>\n

Gwendolyn Brooks belongs in this section too. Beyond the 1950 Pulitzer, her work behind a typewriter at home in Chicago, captured in the famous photo from May 1950 just after the Annie Allen win, became one of the defining images of mid century Black literary life. Together, Hurston and Brooks gave the sorority a literary register that few Greek-letter organizations can match.<\/p>\n

Modern Faces of the Sorority<\/h2>\n
\"Dionne
Dionne Warwick and other Zetas at a sorority event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vivica A. Fox.<\/strong> Award winning actress whose career runs from Independence Day through Kill Bill and a long stretch of producing work. She appeared onstage during the Zeta Phi Beta Centennial Founders’ Gala at the Washington Hilton on January 18, 2020.<\/p>\n

Sheryl Underwood.<\/strong> Comedian, actress, and former International President of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated. Underwood is one of the most visible modern Zetas, holding both an entertainment career and a leadership tenure at the top of the organization.<\/p>\n

Anita Hill.<\/strong> Attorney and professor whose 1991 testimony shifted the national conversation about workplace harassment. Hill is currently a faculty member at Brandeis University and continues to write and speak on civil rights and gender equity.<\/p>\n

Elisabeth Omilami.<\/strong> Human rights activist and CEO of Hosea Helps, the Atlanta organization founded by her father Hosea Williams. Omilami’s work feeds and houses tens of thousands of Atlantans each year and keeps Zeta’s service principle visible in one of the largest Black cities in America.<\/p>\n

What This Legacy Looks Like Today<\/h2>\n

The names above span 106 years of Zeta history. They are a Pulitzer winner, a bank founder, a Congresswoman, an integrationist, a Grammy winner, an attorney, an activist CEO, and a sitting comedian. They share four founding principles handed down by the Five Pearls<\/a> and a service mission that began at Howard in January 1920.<\/p>\n

Zeta is part of the Divine Nine<\/a>, and it carries the only sorority-to-fraternity constitutional bond inside the National Pan-Hellenic Council, partnering with Phi Beta Sigma<\/a> on programming and founders day celebrations every January. The roster of famous members keeps growing, but the through line stays the same. Scholarship, service, sisterly love, and finer womanhood, carried into every room a Zeta enters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A guide to famous Zeta Phi Beta members who made history, from Gwendolyn Brooks and Autherine Lucy to Dionne Warwick, Vivica A. Fox, Sheryl Underwood, and Anita Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greek-life-divine-nine"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ireishprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}