Arizona Cleaver-Stemmons (1898 – March 1980), born Arizona Leedonia Cleaver, was an American social worker. Arizona Cleaver was one of the "Five Pearls," the founding members of Zeta Phi Beta, when it began at Howard University in 1920. While she was a student at Howard University in 1920, she was one of the five founding members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, and its first president. Born in Pike County, Missouri. She Was educated in the public schools of Hannibal, Missouri. Ms. Cleaver’s Graduate & Post graduate studies were pursued at Howard University and at the Pennsylvania School of Social Work. Her first professional employment resulted in teaching at the same Hannibal high school from which she graduated. Arizona Cleaver was the first president of Alpha chapter and the first national president of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. She completed her graduate and post-graduate studies in the field of social work and was responsible for chartering numerous undergraduate and graduate chapters throughout the United States. She was the sorority's first chapter president, and its first Grand Basileus (national president) of Alpha Chapter and the first Grand Basileus of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated. She organized the Philadelphia graduate chapter of Zeta and remained active nationally as the sorority's first president emerita for several decades and was a popular speaker at Zeta events into her seventies. Inspired by Charles Robert Taylor and A. Langston Taylor, fraternity brothers of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, she encouraged the first group of young women to join her in organizing Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. "This country of ours," she said in a speech in 1952, "must oppose movements that divide the races and seek an economy that will feed, clothe, and house the nation, without regard to race, creed, or national origin." After 1933 she worked as a social worker in Philadelphia, working with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and for the city's Department of Public Welfare. Ms. Cleaver became the wife of James Stemmons on June 1, 1928. In 1933, she accepted a position with the Philadelphia Department of Public Assistance. The other professional positions she has held included: Director of a residence hall at Morgan State College in Baltimore, case worker for the Philadelphia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Juvenile Court Probation Officer in Philadelphia. She once stated, "Being the one to say: 'Let's establish a new sisterhood,' then to see it grow from five girls to the present status, indeed gives me quite a thrill. Yet, I am humble and grateful that so many have been and still are willing to go the Zeta way." Ms. Cleaver was a lifelong member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and held membership with Beta, Delta, and Zeta chapters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was responsible for chartering numerous undergraduate and graduate chapters throughout the United States. Sources http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/etaalphazeta/Arizona.htm