Zeta Tau Alpha was founded October 15, 1898 by nine young women at the State Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia. These 14 - 16 year old young women wanted to maintain their strong friendship for an eternity so they decided to form a Greek letter group patterned after the men's fraternities. Their temporary name was ??? (The Three Questions Marks). As legend goes three of the founders were walking when met by another young woman from another group who motioned, "Who are you?" The three answered, "Yes, Who?, Who?, Who?" March 15, 1902 Zeta Tau Alpha was the first women's fraternity to be chartered in Virginia. Zeta is the only charter ever granted by a special act of legislation. Zeta was also the first southern sorority to qualify for admittance into the Intersorority Conference (now National Panhellenic Congress) in February 1909.

The Zeta Tau Alpha organization was started as a fraternity, meaning they were not started by a brother organization. The young women knew of the fraternity system through brothers and friends. "Their aim was, first and foremost, to band together in a union providing lasting qualities, girls who were congenial companions and close friends, perpetuating those friendships beyond college days. The details were left to the future. the first move was to organize." If one is prone to judge seriousness by age, these Founder-girls present an interesting study. The Normal School was a girl's school for young women to become teachers. Their school days were deadly serious ones with a definite purpose. Yet they were fun loving, seemed overwhelmingly mature, reflective and thought provoking, displaying rare good judgement charaterized by a quiet, forceful and dominant dignity. Zeta Tau Alpha came into being in the hours after classes when "our little crowd" of close friends started meeting secretly for a year or more in 1897.

With the assistance of two of the member's brothers, Mebane Smith and Plummer Jones. These young men were fraternity men and could help them with the intricate details. After a year of contemplation, they came up with the formal name Zeta Tau Alpha which was adopted in April of 1899. Mebane Smith gave us our name based upon the motto from which the organization was built. Plummer Jones helped complete our constitution, rituals, the oath, and the opening and closing for meetings. Thus, the early beginnings of Zeta Tau Alpha came to pass. Now Zeta is the third largest National Panhellenic Congress group with 223 chartered collegiate chapters throughout the United States and Canada and over 260 active Alumnae organizations. Thereby giving Zeta the distinction of being an International Fraternity.