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News and Views: Phi Beta Kappa and HBCUs; The Least-Favored Universities
Black students have been eligible for Phi Beta Kappa Society keys since 1894. But overall membership by African Americans in the honorary society is severely restricted by the fact that Phi Beta Kappa chapters have been established at only 3 of the nation's 100 black colleges and universities. This statistic might be of no racial import except for the fact that a number of white colleges, which one might rank academically below some nonmember historically black colleges, do have Phi Beta Kappa chapters.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society, unlike most other honorary societies in the United States, does not have a visible history of excluding blacks from its academic honor rolls. William Monroe Trotter, a journalist and a member of the Niagra Movement, was the first African American to be elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Phi Beta Kappa key in 1894 during his junior year at Harvard. Some notable black Phi Beta Kappa members today include author John Edgar Wideman, former energy secretary Hazel O' Leary, Earl Hamilton Holmes, the first black undergraduate at the University of Georgia, Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings, Emory University law professor and former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver, and University of Virginia professor and former U.S poet laureate Rita Dove. The noted historian John Hope Franklin is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In fact, he has served as the organization's president.
The society reveals no information on the percentage of its members who are black.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Charters were established quite quickly at Harvard and Yale in 1779. Currently there are 249 chapters at American colleges and universities. To date, 600,000 people have been selected as members of the society. About 500,000 of these are still alive. Women were first elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1875.
Traditionally, members of the society are selected from the top 10 percent of the graduating class at member institutions. Students who are elected to Phi Beta Kappa are...