Burning Sands — Al B. Quarles II

Dynamic author, Al B. Quarles II takes us on an extremely realistic journey and illuminates the reason that pledging an African American college fraternity in the 1980's was revered as one of the toughest yet most rewarding periods known to man for pledging and hazing. This is the era that ultimately led to all of these grand organizations in “The Divine Nine” to eliminate the word “pledging” from their organizations all together. This is a coming of age story in which a rite of passage leads an extraordinary journey. This story is an offbeat adventure with all of the makings of a thriller and a comedy, rolled up into a realistic and unforgettable look at two young black men that grow up together in suburban Philadelphia, became enthralled with the concepts and magnitude of black fraternal organizations, and then embark as college freshmen upon a historic black college campus in the mid 1980s. Amidst the parties, romance, fraternities, sororities, freshman initiation rituals, and the infancy of hip hop music, their inevitable rite of passage begins. Let's be clear, this book is not a spin-off of Spike Lee's “School Daze” from the 1980's, and there is no "Big Brother Almighty" making them go “coo-coo for coco-puffs”. Big Brothers like “Big Bill”, “Black”, and “Scooter Destroyer” were true fraternal beasts. And the word “hellacious” is the only way to describe pledging in the “Bloody Triangle” during this period. Add two dashes of romance, three more dashes of comedy, a hyped HBCU campus and a good smoke. Voila! Why are many called but few chosen? You will know soon. *There are nine historically Black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs) that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council. These organizations are referred to as "The Divine Nine." Each of these fraternities and sororities make up the who's who of African American society and began when the inclusion of African Americans in universities proved to be a trying time for black students in the early 1900's.