The Founding of Gamma Xi Boule’ (Sarasota, Florida) 
 
Located on Florida’s West Coast on the Gulf of Mexico, Sarasota is a popular tourist site. Its warm climate, center for arts and culture, has attracted over four hundred African Americans from other areas of the country. After successful careers in many professional fields of endeavor, they have integrated residential areas throughout Sarasota and Bradenton.
 
Following the dictum of Sigma Pi Phi founders in 1904, four African American professionals retiring to this area saw the same need as our founders to establish a Boule. Archon Matthew Carter, Grand Grapter of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity; Archon John R. Branche and the late Archons Sidney B. Lawson and Elbert Powell had a vision of bringing together outstanding African American professionals to create an organization which would combine “what was thought to be good fellowship and congeniality on the one hand with scholarship and achievement on the other”. These archons assembled sixteen men of like qualities drawn from long time residents of the Sarasota community and professional men who had retired from distinguished careers from throughout the country.
 
Gamma Xi Boule was chartered on March 18, 1995 at the Country Club of Sarasota, Florida. In attendance were the Grand Sire Archon, Grand and Past Grand Officers of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity for the initiation and chartering ceremonies launching the establishment of Gamma Xi Boule. The occasion was characterized by Past Grand Sire Archon Richard McKinney as “the best chartering service in the history of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.”
 
The first Sire Archon was James C. Brown, a native of Sarasota and a product of the local school system. He retired as Associate Dean of students at Manatee Community College.