A Book to Check Out..

African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision:

by: Tamara L. Brown

Published February 2005

African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision explores the rich past and bright future of the nine black Greek-letter organizations that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council. In the long tradition of African American benevolent and secret societies, intercollegiate African American fraternities and sororities have strong traditions of fostering brotherhood and sisterhood among their members, exerting considerable influence in the African American community, and being in the forefront of civic action, community service, and philanthropy.

The rolls of African American fraternities and sororities serve as a veritable who's who among African American leadership in the United States and abroad. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Morrison, Arthur Ashe, Carol Moseley Braun, Bill Cosby, Sarah Vaughan, George Washington Carver, Hattie McDaniel, and Bobby Rush are among the many trail-blazing members of these organizations.

African American Fraternities and Sororities places the history of these organizations in context, linking them to other movements and organizations that predated them and tying their history to one of the most important movements of United States history-the civil rights struggle. The book explores various cultural aspects of the "divine nine," such as auxiliary groups, branding, calls, and stepping, and highlights the unique role of African American sororities. It also examines such contemporary issues as sexual aggression and alcohol use, college adjustment, and pledging, and provides a critique of Spike Lee's film School Daze, the only major motion picture to portray African American fraternities and sororities as a central theme.