Contact: Bob Ratliff
The author of a best-selling book on the founding of collegiate African-American fraternities and sororities speaks Tuesday [April 16] at Mississippi State.
The 7 p.m. public lecture by Lawrence C. Ross Jr. of Los Angeles, author of "The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities," will be held in the Simrall Hall auditorium. The university's Panhellenic Council and Office of Student Life are sponsoring his campus visit.
A reception and book signing sponsored by the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center and Delta Sigma Theta service sorority at MSU will follow at the same location.
Published in 2000, "Divine Nine" was a best seller among black college students for more than a year. Now in the fourth printing, it remains among the Top 10 purchases in Amazon.com's African American Studies listing.
Ross, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity attending the University of California at Berkeley during the 1980s, established the West Coast's first black-owned Internet service provider system.
He began writing about African-American life in 1995. Two years later, he was named managing editor of Rap Sheet, one of the first national magazines focusing on hip-hop music.
His second book, "The Ways of Black Folks: A Year in the Life of a People," is scheduled for publication in 2003.
For more information, telephone (662) 325-3322.