Editing Phi Beta Kappa (section)

==History==
===Origins===
[[Image:PBKclose.jpg|thumb|[[Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall]] entrance at the [[College of William & Mary]]]]
The Phi Beta Kappa Society had its first meeting on December 5, 1776, at the [[College of William & Mary]] in [[Williamsburg, Virginia]] by five students, with John Heath as its first President. The society established the precedent for naming American college societies after the initial letters of a secret Greek motto.<ref>{{cite web |title=PBK History |publisher=Phi Beta Kappa Society |website=www.pbk.org |url=https://www.pbk.org/History |access-date=2019-12-10 |archive-date=December 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219191722/https://www.pbk.org/History |url-status=live }}</ref>

The group consisted of students who frequented the [[Raleigh Tavern]] as a common meeting area off the college campus. A persistent story maintains that a Masonic lodge also met at this tavern, but the [[Freemasons]] gathered at a different building in Williamsburg.<ref name="Brinkley, M. Kent Brinkley">{{cite web |author=Brinkley, M. Kent |date=March 1, 1999 |title=Freemasonry in Williamsburg: An overview history of Williamsburg Lodge #6, A.F.& A.M. of Virginia |place=Williamsburg, VA |publisher=Acacia Lodge No.&nbsp;16 A.F.&A.M. |url=http://www.acacia16.org/GL/History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723112953/http://www.acacia16.org/GL/History |archive-date=July 23, 2008}}</ref> (Some of the original members of Phi Beta Kappa did become Freemasons, but later in life).<ref name = Hastings>{{cite book |author=Hastings, William T. |year=1965 |title=Phi Beta Kappa as a Secret Society with its Relations to Freemasonry and Antimasonry Some Supplementary Documents |location=[[Richmond, Virginia]] |publisher=United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa}}</ref>{{rp|5}}

Whether the students organized to meet more freely and discuss non-academic topics, or to discuss politics in a Revolutionary society is unknown. The earliest records indicate only that the students met to debate and engage in oratory, and on topics that would have been not far removed from the curriculum.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|83–85}}<ref name="Fleming, Bill">{{cite web |author=Fleming, Bill |date=May 6, 1996 |title=Phi Beta Kappa |series=Brief history of fraternities |publisher=[[Sam Houston State University]] |url=http://www.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/frat_hist.html |access-date=October 26, 2015 |archive-date=May 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513091007/http://www.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/frat_hist.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the Phi Beta Kappa Initiation of 1779, the new member was informed,
: "here then you may for a while disengage yourself from scholastic cares and communicate without reserve whatever reflections you have made upon various objects; remembering that everything transacted within this room is transacted ''[[sub rosa]]'', ... here, too, you are to indulge in matters of speculation that freedom of inquiry which ever dispels the clouds of falsehood by the radiant sunshine of truth...".<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|5}}

===Latin letter fraternal societies===
Older fraternal societies existed at [[College of William & Mary]]. The F.H.C. Society (nicknamed "the [[Flat Hat Club]]"), founded in 1750, is the first collegiate secret society recorded in North America; unlike the newer Phi Beta Kappa, the F.H.C. was a Latin-letter society, its name taken from the initial letters of a Latin motto (perhaps {{lang|la|Fraternitas, Humanitas, Cognitioque}}).<ref name=DoG_Becca2004>
{{cite news |author=Millfield, Becca |date=November 2, 2004 |title=Shhh! The secret side to the college's lesser known societies |newspaper=The DoG Street Journal |quote=The [[College of William & Mary]]'s daily online |url=http://www.dogstreetjournal.com/story/2049 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928112053/http://www.dogstreetjournal.com/story/2049 |archive-date=September 28, 2011}}</ref>

A second Latin-letter fraternity at William & Mary, the P.D.A. Society, was publicly known as "Please Don't Ask".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite report |first=Robert W. |last=Storm |year=1973 |title=In token of friendship: Early fraternity medals at the College of William & Mary |type=typed manuscript |series=University archives / Earl Gregg Swem Library |publisher=[[College of William & Mary]] |place=Williamsburg, VA}}</ref> [[John Heath (politician)|John Heath]], chief organizer of the Phi Beta Kappa, according to tradition earlier sought but was refused admission to the P.D.A., though he may instead have disdained to join it (much later, his friend and fellow student William Short wrote that the P.D.A. "had lost all reputation for letters, and was noted only for the dissipation & conviviality of its members").<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|84}}

===Secret fraternal society===
[[File:Phi Beta Kappa DC.JPG|thumb|Phi Beta Kappa national headquarters]]

The new society was intended to be "purely of domestic manufacture, without any connection whatever with anything European, either English or German."<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|84}} The founders of Phi Beta Kappa declared that the society was formed for congeniality and to promote good fellowship, with "friendship as its basis and benevolence and literature as its pillars."<ref name=Hastings/>  Before the British attempt at reclamation of the sovereign American colonies, including Virginia, there was a temporary closure of the [[College of William & Mary]] and disbandment of Phi Beta Kappa in early 1781. Elisha Parmelee, an alumnus of [[Yale University|Yale College]] and [[Harvard University|Harvard College]], passed through Williamsburg and took charters from the Phi Beta Kappa to establish branches of the society at these schools. A second chapter was founded at Yale College in late 1780; a third, at Harvard College in 1781; and a fourth, at [[Dartmouth College]] in 1787.<ref name=Hastings/>

Phi Beta Kappa was a secret society to protect its members and to instil a sense of solidarity. The new society was given the motto, {{lang|grc|Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης}} or in Latin letters ''{{lang|grc-Latn|Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs}}'', which loosely translated to English means "Love of learning is the guide of life". [[Greek language|Greek]] was chosen because it was the language of science in [[Roman times]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}  Later, in May 1777, a new sign of recognition was devised: "A salutation of the clasp of the hands, together with an immediate stroke across the mouth with the back of the same hand, and a return with the hand used by the saluted". This new complex of gestures was created to allow the mutual recognition of members "in any foreign country or place."<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|10}}

===Transition to academic honor society===
Further chapters appeared at [[Union College]] in 1817, [[Bowdoin College]] in 1825, and [[Brown University]] in 1830. The original chapter at [[College of William and Mary|William & Mary]] was re-established. In 1831, the Harvard chapter publicly disclosed the fraternity's secrets during a period of strong anti-[[Masonic]] sentiment. The first chapter established after Phi Beta Kappa became an "open" society was that at [[Trinity College (Connecticut)|Trinity College]] in Connecticut, in 1845. University of Alabama established in 1851.<ref name=Hastings/> In the pre-Civil War period, Society chapters frequently sponsored addresses by distinguished speakers. [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]'s 1837 address at Harvard, "The American Scholar", is the best-known of those addresses, but there were dozens of others at schools such as Bowdoin, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Union, and Yale.<ref name="blurblawg.typepad.com">Alfred L. Brophy, [http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/greene.pdf The Rule of Law in College Literary Addresses: The Case of William Greene, Cumberland Law Review] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329200920/http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/greene.pdf |date=March 29, 2016 }} (2001) 32: 231–85; Alfred L. Brophy, [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5052591 The Jurisprudence of Antebellum Phi Beta Kappa Addresses].</ref>

As the first collegiate organization of its type to adopt a [[Greek alphabet|Greek]]-letter name, the Phi Beta Kappa is generally considered a forerunner of modern college [[fraternities and sororities|fraternities]] as well as the model for later collegiate honorary societies.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/26/nyregion/phi-beta-kappa-key-being-turned-down-by-many-honorees.html |title=Phi Beta Kappa Key Being Turned Down By Many Honorees |last=Bernstein |first=Emily M. |date=1996-05-26 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2017-06-22 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=September 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915232945/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/26/nyregion/phi-beta-kappa-key-being-turned-down-by-many-honorees.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=This source discusses declining application rates ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=May 2024}} Ironically, it was partly the rise of true "social" fraternities modeled after Phi Beta Kappa later in the nineteenth century which obviated the social aspects of membership in the organization, transforming it into the honorary society it is today.<ref name=Hastings/> By 1883, when the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa were established, there were 25 chapters. The first women were elected to the Society at the [[University of Vermont]] in 1875, and the first African-American member, [[George Washington Henderson]],<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/2678933 |jstor=2678933 |title=The Earliest Black Members of Phi Beta Kappa |last1=Titcomb |first1=Caldwell |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education |year=2001 |issue=33 |pages=92–101}}</ref> was elected at the same institution two years later. In 1885, however, Phi Beta Kappa eliminated those majoring in engineering from eligibility. This practice continues today.<ref name=Hastings/>

Each chapter is designated by its state and a Greek letter indicating its position in the order in which that state's chapters were founded. For example, Alpha of Pennsylvania refers to the chapter at [[Dickinson College]], founded in 1887; Beta of Pennsylvania, the chapter at [[Lehigh University]] (founded later that same year); Gamma of Pennsylvania, the chapter at [[Lafayette College]] (1890); and Delta of Pennsylvania, the chapter at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] (1892).<ref name=Hastings/> By 1920, a total of 89 chapters existed at a variety of schools.<ref name=Hastings/> Phi Beta Kappa was one of six honor societies that co-founded the [[Association of College Honor Societies|ACHS]] on {{dts|1925|12|30}}. Its participation was short-lived, with the decision to withdraw and operate again as an independent society made just over a decade later, effective {{dts|1937|12|15}}.<ref name="moore">{{cite web |url=https://www.achsnatl.org/moore.asp |title=Historical Information |author=Maurice L. Moore |access-date=October 23, 2021 |archive-date=July 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702182419/https://www.achsnatl.org/moore.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Post-war era ===
In the 1960s, [[Vanderbilt University]] professor [[Donald Davidson (poet)|Donald Davidson]] claimed that Phi Beta Kappa was under the influence of Communists.<ref name="southerncharacter177">{{cite book |last1=Houston |first1=Benjamin |editor-first1=Lisa |editor-last1=Tendrich Frank |editor-first2=Kilbride |editor-last2=Daniel |title=Southern Character: Essays in Honor of Bertram Wyatt-Brown |chapter=Donald Davidson and the Segregationist Intellect |date=2011 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville, Florida |page=177 |isbn=9780813036908 |oclc=949154540}}</ref> In 1988, the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa officially changed its name to ''The Phi Beta Kappa Society'', recalling the name under which the organization had been established in 1776.<ref name="Hastings" />

In 1996, Emily Bernstein of ''The New York Times'' reported declining rates of Phi Beta Kappa membership acceptances at the [[University of Connecticut]] due to a decrease in social prestige. Citing an article by ''The Key Reporter'', Bernstein claims that this is due in part to increasing numbers of 'first-generation college students, students who do not consult their parents on such matters, and students who have gone to public schools, all of whom are less likely to have heard of the society.<ref name=":2" /> Earlier, in 1970, Robert Reinhold similarly reported for ''The New York Times'' that recipient students at the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California at Berkeley]] expressed a mix of distaste and shame about the degree. Other members expressed a lack of satisfaction with the society for its significance.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Reinhold |first=Robert |date=June 7, 1970 |title=School Ferment Roils Phi Beta Kappa: School Ferment Roils Phi Beta Kappa |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/119052825 |work=The New York Times |pages=1, 70|id={{ProQuest|119052825}} }}</ref>

A 1997 article from [[The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education]] critiqued the society for under-representation at [[historically black colleges and universities]]. The authors wrote that "Only 3 of the nation's 100 black colleges and universities are members of ''Phi'' ''Beta'' ''Kappa''" due to a rule that 10 faculty members at a university must be existing members, for which Black faculty would be socially disadvantaged due to a historic lack of admittance into relevant universities. Additionally, they created a list of "Predominantly White But Second- or Third-Tier Colleges and Universities That Have Been Awarded ''Phi'' ''Beta'' ''Kappa'' Chapters," which included [[Allegheny College]] and [[Millsaps College]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=Summer 1997 |title=News and Views: Phi Beta Kappa and HBCUs; The Least-Favored Universities |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/195551440 |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education |publisher=BruCon Publishing Company |issue=6 |pages=16 |id={{ProQuest|195551440}} |via=ProQuest}}</ref>

Today, Phi Beta Kappa participates in a more loosely coordinated lobbying association of four of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honor societies, called the [[Honor Society Caucus]]. Its members include Phi Beta Kappa, [[Phi Kappa Phi]], [[Sigma Xi]], and [[Omicron Delta Kappa]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Honor Society Caucus {{!}} Honor Society |url=https://www.phikappaphi.org/join/why-join/the-phi-kappa-phi-difference |access-date=2021-10-22 |website=www.phikappaphi.org |archive-date=March 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309170537/https://www.phikappaphi.org/join/why-join/the-phi-kappa-phi-difference |url-status=live }}</ref>