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

African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision. Edited by Tamara L. Brown, Gregory S. Parks, and Clarenda M. Phillips. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, c. 2005. Pp. x, 496. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8131-2344-8.)

The fairly recent trend of hazing-related injury or death perpetrated by members of fraternities and sororities--both black and white--has resulted in several high-profile lawsuits and in the passage of antihazing laws in forty-four states. Despite the large amount of funds that the national offices of these organizations have had to spend in litigation and damages and their consequent inability to end inappropriate uses of violence by their collegiate chapters, the intent of this collection of essay is to present a balanced picture of the controversy. The volume's argument--stated boldly by Tamara L. Brown, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky and herself a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority--is to enter the public "debate about pledging and hazing," which she believes, "was a one-sided--almost propagandist--one" (p. 2).

The anthology, which is divided into three parts, attempts to provide historical, cultural, and social evidence that engendered the formation and development of black, Greek-letter organizations (BGLOs). Gloria Harper Dickinson, Craig L. Torbenson, William H. Harris, Robert L. Harris Jr., and educational specialists Michael H. Washington, Cheryl L. Nunez, Anne S. Butler, and Andre McKensie attempt to show that the voluntarism of BGLOs had its origins in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century self-help and benevolent societies. Furthermore, they identify African retentions such as call-response patterns and ring shouts in the rituals of the early organizations that have persisted in BGLO activities to this day. Unfortunately, Dickinson is not critical of the commodification of African American core-culture values when she writes, "the first Kente stoles were produced by Alpha Kappa Alpha entrepreneur Twyla Lang-Gordon.... vendors produced T-shirts, ice buckets, stemware, hats, umbrellas, plastic mugs, and countless other products bearing Kente (and later Malian mud cloth) patterns in each organization's colors" (p. 27).

The second and third sections thoroughly analyze and examine presentist concerns--concerns such as the comparative differential treatment of females by both black and white fraternities; public rituals such as branding, calls, and stepping; and the kinship systems that develop as a result of membership in sororities. (Whether or not these kinship systems are of African origins, however, is debatable.)

Brown and her cohorts' excellent analysis of perhaps the most controversial issue with which BGLOs have to contend--pledging and hazing--attempts to split the difference with antithetical positions on pledging, arguing that "the reasons behind these practices and what they symbolize for members are largely a mystery to non-BGLO members, as are the mechanisms by which they transmit leadership skills to their members. We have presented what little is known about these topics, but clearly, much more research is needed"--which brings us to the issue of the value of sources used to buttress the arguments proffered in this volume (p. 466).

Most of the sources are based on official histories of the fraternal and sororal organization, secondary books and articles, and interviews and questionnaires. The editors are certainly cognizant of the shortcomings resulting from their contributors' dependence of these sources and add that this volume "serves as a catalyst for more research on BGLOs" (p. 469).

To sum up, BGLOs have historically served important civic functions for black America--and this fine anthology has more than empirically established that claim. What is needed now is to develop a means to censure those members of the fraternities and sororities who constitute the thuggish elements. This book, in short, is well worth reading.

VERNON J. WILLIAMS JR.

Indiana University--Bloomington