On Friday evening, November 17, 1911, three Howard University undergraduate students, with the assistance of their faculty adviser, gave birth to the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. This event occurred in the office of biology Professor Ernest E. Just, the faculty adviser, in the Science Hall (now known as Thirkield Hall). The three liberal arts students were Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper and Frank Coleman.� From the initials of the Greek phrase meaning "friendship is essential to the soul," the name Omega Psi Phi was derived. The phrase was selected as the motto: Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance and Uplift were adopted as cardinal principles.�

The purpose of the fraternity is to bring a union of college men of similar high ideas of scholarship & manhood in order to occupy a progressive helpful and constructive place in the civic and political life of the community and of the nation; to prepare its members for greater usefulness in the causes of humanity, freedom and dignity of the individual; and to aid down trodden humanity in its efforts to achieve higher social economic and intellectual status.�
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