A black author stressed knowing oneself as key to survival of the black race during a speech last night in the Paul Robeson Center.

La Francis Rodgers-Rose, co-author of Strategies for Resolving Conflicts in Black Male and Female Relationships, said blacks must understand themselves and their history in order for the black race to survive.

Rodgers-Rose visit was sponsored by the Upwardly Mobile African-American Women's Committee of the Black Caucus, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the Center for Women Students and other University units.

While tracing black male/female relationships through history, Rodgers-Rose noted that 65 percent of slave families and 70 percent of black families in 1960 had two parents. Today, less than 50 percent of all black families have two parents, said Rodgers-Rose, president and founder of the International Black Women's Congress, a grass-roots organization for blacks.

"What over 400 years of slavery couldn't do, a quarter of a century has done," Rodgers-Rose said citing numerous misconceptions created by whites that are destroying black relationships. The 1960 Monynihan Report about black marriages and black women, a supposed lack of single black men and the alleged sexual aggressiveness of blacks were among those misconceptions Rodgers-Rose discussed.

"Whose knowledge are you carrying around in your head about yourselves?" asked Rodgers-Rose, also a professor of African-American studies at Drew University in New Jersey. "What are we doing to change our own thought processes?"

Rodgers-Rose told the group not to be ashamed of their skin or their past, learn their historical roots and "know thyself. You can't have a positive relationship if you don't know who you are.

"Relationships have to be based on quality," Rodgers-Rose said. Do not base a relationship on looks or money but rather on respect, reciprocity and love, she added.

"I think she's right on target. In order for us to be successful we have to know ourselves. You can't give if you don't know what you're giving," said Cherice Parker.