Phi Beta Sigma is a predominantly African-American fraternity which was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914. by three young African-American male students. The founders A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of brotherhood, scholarship, and service. The fraternity is the only one of its kind to aid in the creation and hold a constitutional bond with a predominantly African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta. The fraternity was incorporated on January 31, 1920 in Washington D.C.

Alpha Phi Alpha is the first intercollegiate fraternity established by African Americans. Founded on December 4, 1906, on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Alpha Phi Alpha has initiated over 185,000 men into the organization and has been open to men of all races since 1940. The fraternity utilizes motifs and artifacts from Ancient Egypt to represent the organization and preserves its archives at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. The founders, Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy, are collectively known as the "Seven Jewels".

Kappa Alpha Psi is a collegiate Greek-letter fraternity with a predominantly African American membership, founded on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington. The founders of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. were: Dr. Elder Watson Diggs, affectionately known as 'The Dreamer', Dr. Ezra Dee Alexander, Dr. Byron Kenneth Armstrong, Atty. Henry Tourner Asher, Dr. Marcus Peter Blakemore, Mr. Paul Waymond Caine, Mr. George Wesley Edmonds, Dr. Guy Levis Grant, Mr. Edward Giles Irvin, and Sgt. John Milton Lee:

Omega Psi Phi is an international fraternity and is the first African-American national fraternal organization to be founded at a historically black college. Omega Psi Phi was founded on November 17, 1911, by three undergraduate students and one faculty advisor, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. The founders were Howard University juniors, Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman and their faculty adviser Dr. Ernest Everett Just. Each of the founders graduated and went on to have distinguished careers in their chosen fields: Bishop Edgar Amos Love became Bishop of the United Methodist Church; Dr. Oscar James Cooper became a prominent physician, who practiced in Philadelphia for over 50 years; Professor Frank Coleman became the Chairman of the Department of Physics at Howard University for many years; Dr. Ernest E. Just became a world-renowned biologist.