The Greek system as we know it today, started in 1776, in Virginia. At that time, Phi Beta Kappa, the first Greek letter society, was formed at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in response to strict faculty members' attempts to rule all phases of students' lives, including their extra-curricular activities.

In protest, nine men decided to bind together to create for themselves an opportunity to secure freedom and the chance to govern their own affairs outside the classroom. Those nine students met in the Raleigh Tavern on December 5th, where they adopted a secret oath, a badge, a handshake, and mottoes in Greek and Latin. Then, soon after, they also devised an initiation ceremony and adopted a Greek letter name, thus the beginning of the first fraternity.

After that initial founding, the stage was set for other Greek letter societies to follow suit, including Delta Tau Delta, which became established in 1858.