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The struggle to live for African- Americans in the Jim Crow South was at best, extremely difficult, and at worse, deadly. Many African-Americans escaped that oppression in a mass migration North in the hope of finding a better life. That migration is the subject of a new book titled, The Saint Louis African American Community and the Exodusters, authored by Dr. Bryan M. Jack, Winston-Salem State University assistant professor of history.

The book, published by the University of Missouri Press and scheduled for release at the end of January, discusses the first mass migration of African-Americans out of the South and how their migration symbolized freedom and resistance to racial and economic oppression.

The book grew out of Jack's doctoral dissertation at Saint Louis University. "The reason I wrote it was because the Exoduster migration is a little-known, but important event in United States and African-American history," said Jack. "It was the first large migration of African-Americans (about 20,000 men, women, and children) out of the South after the Civil War. They were fleeing racial violence and lynching, economic and political intimidation."

Jack reports that newly freed slaves and descendants of slaves headed to Kansas, where they believed that they would be given free land in the hope of starting new lives. "Most arrived in St. Louis destitute with no means to continue their journey. The St. Louis African-American community came together to feed, clothes, and house them as well as provide for their transportation to Kansas."

He also shares that white southern planters and St. Louis government officials tried to stop the Exodus, because they did not want the African-American labor force to leave the South. Jack says previous studies of the Exodus have portrayed the St. Louis efforts of helping the Exodusters as simply charity, but he argues that the St. Louis African-American community viewed their relief efforts as an assertion of their own freedom and independence.

"The St. Louis African-American community understood that if African-Americans were not allowed to leave the South, then the rights of all African-Americans were in danger."

In doing the research for his book, Jack used the actual affidavits and interviews given by the migrants to St. Louis officials, which were later shared with Congress ional leaders of that time investigating reports of lynchings and other brutalities. "These sources gave the Exodusters a voice to testify against the brutalconditions that they were facing in the South. They also spoke to the hopes that they held for the future."

Jack is scheduled to lecture and do a book signing at Left Bank Books in St. Louis, MO, on April 3, and is hoping to have other appearances especially in Winston-Salem.

The book will be available through Amazon, from the University of Missouri Press, and at various retailers.

For more information about the book, contact Dr. Jack at 336-750- 2976 or e-mail him at jackb@wssu.edu

**********************Winston-Salem State University Ralph Bunche Society (RBS) member Antoinette Dunston has received a $5,000 scholarship from the Phelps Stokes Fund to study in France this semester.

Dunston is a junior Marketing major with a minor in French from Townsville, NC. She currently has a cumulative 3.4 GPA. This experience abroad will be Dunston's third, but this will be her first experience abroad as a Ralph Bunche Society member.

Dunston's first study abroad experience was the summer of 2006 in Chambery, France. Her second was last summer in Benin and Ghana. She will spend the spring 2008 semester at the Université d'Angers in Angers, France. She will be there Jan. 14 - May 26.

'I will be studying French to complete my French minor. Because of my scholarship from the Phelps Stokes Fund, I don't have any out-of-pocket expenses,' said Dunston. "I am very grateful for the opportunity to study abroad again and for the scholarships that I have received."

Dunston said after she graduates she plans to join the Peace Corps and hopefully return to Africa to help out in any way she can. After her tour in the Peace Corps, Dunston said she hopes to land a position within the government, but if that does not work out, she wants to return to France to teach English.

All of Dunston's trips have been coordinated through WSSU's Office of International Programs.

Named for one of the nation's most important proponents of international understanding and cooperation. Bunche was the first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The Ralph Bunche Society is designed to cultivate students' global citizenship, foreign language skills, and Bunche's values as an internationalist. WSSU is the first university in the nation to serve as a host site for a pilot program named in Bunche's honor.

For more information about the RBS and opportunities to study abroad contact WSSU's Office ofInternational Programs at 336-750- 3345 or e-mail Dr. Funwi Ayuninjam at ayuninjamff@wssu.edu

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Sharon Hush, interim registrar at Winston-Salem State University since Sept. 4, 2007, has been officially appointed registrar, effective immediately.

Hush's appointment became effective Dec. 28, 2007, after a national search. She replaces William Cain who retired from the position after more than 26 years of service to WSSU.

"Ms. Hush has done an outstanding job during her tenure as interim registrar. I know she will continue to provide her high level of service now that she has been named to the job permanently," said WSSU provost Pedro Martinez.

Hush has served as an assistant registrar at Oral Roberts University, and as records supervisor and scheduling officer at N.C.State University in a career spanning more than 17 years in higher education positions. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Sociology from N.C. State University.