Who founded the first Greek-letter fraternity and in what year?

• A. John Heath, 1776
• B. Thomas Jefferson, 1776
• C. John Adams, 1789
• D. Benjamin Franklin, 1765

Answer: (A)

The first Greek-letter fraternity was Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. It began as a small group of five students who formed a secret society to celebrate scholarship in the liberal arts, using Greek letters as its emblem. John Heath is recognized as the central founder, along with his four fellow students, and the year 1776 places its creation squarely in the American colonial era. This is why the option naming John Heath and the year 1776 is the best answer: it matches the historical record of the very first fraternity to adopt Greek letters and to base its identity on scholarly merit rather than social or religious criteria.