Gold and purple décor shimmered beneath the lights of the Austin Moses Room in the Sheffield Thompson building at Shorter University on Saturday night as members of the public gathered to celebrate the chartering of the Tau Mu Mu chapter of Omega Psi Phi, the first black graduate Greek fraternity in Northwest Georgia.

The fraternity, whose cardinal principles are manhood, scholarship, perseverance and uplift, is a social service organization that is dedicated to helping out local service organizations, said fraternity president Joel Berrien Jr.

The Tau Mu Mu chapter will provide services to Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Polk, Walker and Whitfield counties.

“We’ll partner with the fatherhood, youth, troubled youth and local women’s shelters and help out families,” said Berrien. “We’ll just try to pinpoint a lot of issues in the community and address those.”

Berrien said Tau Mu Mu is unique because it’s the first black Greek fraternity in Northwest Georgia.

“Not only that, but we’re also the first black graduate chapter,” he said. “In the future we’re going to open an undergraduate chapter here at Shorter University, and they would be the first black Greek undergraduate chapter of any fraternity in Northwest Georgia.”

Omega Psi Phi began in 1911 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., when three black students — Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper and Frank Coleman — approached faculty advisor Ernest E. Just with a vision of lifting up the community and helping others while instilling in themselves characteristics of strength, goodness and piety.

That meeting gave birth to the fraternity and its motto “Friendship is essential to the soul.” In 1914, Omega Psi Phi was officially incorporated in the District of Columbia and has prospered ever since.

Many years later, Omega Men in Northwest Georgia attempted to establish a chapter of the fraternity and began meeting in January 2011.

It was officially chartered on Nov. 16, 2011, and was celebrated at last night’s ceremony.

Moses C. Norman, the 33rd Grand Basileus who has served as the fraternity’s Grand Basileus for the last six years, was the highlighted guest speaker. Norman emphasized that fraternity brothers must only invite those who are “transformative agents in a society that has lost its glory.”

Tau Mu Mu members will be dedicated to serving Rome and Floyd County and carrying on the dreams of the original, because, as Norman said in his speech, “every reality begins with a dream.”

“We look forward to exemplifying Christian manhood as we engage in social projects,” said Berrien. “We engage to uplift the communities in these counties and our service area. We will be a shining example of how men can serve and uplift and do what we can for our families and communities at large.”