The Phi Kappa Literary Society is a college literary society, located at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.

The Society was founded in 1820 by Joseph Henry Lumpkin, later to become the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia and eponym for the University of Georgia Lumpkin School of Law, and by William Crabbe, Edwin Mason, and Henry Mason, who formed the society after splitting from the Demosthenian Literary Society.

Literary societies were nineteenth century forerunners to the modern social fraternities and sororities that emerged early in the twentieth century on college campuses. Literary societies tended to focus on debate and parliamentary procedure as a way of preparing their student members for roles in public and political life. Few societies remain active in holding regular meetings and debate; some, like the Phi Beta Kappa Society have become honorary societies.

The Phi Kappa Literary Society is one of the few active literary societies left, meeting every academic Thursday at 7pm on the University Georgia's North Campus in Phi Kappa Hall. The Phi Kappa Literary Society still holds debates and a forum for creative writings and orations.

Phi Kappa Hall, one of the oldest buildings on the North Campus of the University of Georgia, was built at a cost of $5,000 and dedicated on July 5, 1836. Currently, though, the Phi Kappa Literary Society does not privately own the rights to their hall, and share ownership with the Georgia Debate Club.

Famous alumni

• Joseph Henry Lumpkin, First Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Georgia
• Benjamin M. Palmer, First Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America
• Howell Cobb, Secretary of U.S. Treasury, Constitutional Convention Chairman of the Confederate States of America
• Morris Berthold Abram, Founder of UN Watch, Permanent U.S. Ambassador to UN
• Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, Confederate General and Editor of the first Georgia Code
• Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America
• Henry W. Grady, Editor of the Atlanta Constitution, the voice of the "New South" Movement
• Eugene Talmadge, Georgia Governor/Segregationist
• Richard B. Russell, United States Senator
• Ernest Vandiver, Georgia Governor
• Herschel V. Johnson, Georgia Governor, 1860 Democratic Party Vice Presidential Nominee
• Carl Sanders, Georgia Governor
• Phil Gramm, United States Senator
• William Tate, University of Georgia Dean of Men
• Nathaniel Harris, Georgia Governor, Founder of Georgia Institute of Technology
• Francis S. Bartow, Confederate Congressman/Brigadier General C.S.A.
• Henry L. Benning, Confederate General/Eponym of Fort Benning
• Augustus O. Bacon, United States Senator/ President Pro tempore
• Norman S. Fletcher, Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court 2001-2005

Source Information

• E. Merton Coulter's College Life in the Old South
• Thomas G. Dyer's The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History
• T.W. Reed's History of the University of Georgia
• F.N. Boney's A Pictorial History of the University of Georgia

External references

• Phi Kappa Literary Society Web Site