Join Author Melvin Patrick Ely for a discussion of "From the Old South to Amos 'n' Andy: Finding the Unexpected in America's Racial Past" Wednesday, 16 January at Noon At the Library of Virginia in Historic Downtown Richmond A book signing will follow. Mel Ely is Professor of History and Black Studies at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of The Adventures of Amos 'n' Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon, recently issued in paperback by the University Press of Virginia, and the forthcoming, Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom, 1796-1870. The latter book concerns the history of Israel Hill, a free black community near Farmville, Virginia, and is based on Ely's painstaking research in the pre-Civil War records of Prince Edward County, held at the Library of Virginia. It should be interesting. For more information, contact the Library of Virginia at 804/692-3592. To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html