by Hannah O’Daniel McCallon
Caption: Photograph of students posing as a group in the Black Cultural Center on October 14, 1999. Source: Office of Multicultural Affairs records
The Archives is creating three digital exhibits to celebrate the 30-year Anniversary of the Tennessee Tech Leon Lusk Officer Black Cultural Center. The second exhibit is on the history of the Center. It traces the philosophy of Black cultural centers in the United States to the Black student movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibit outlines the climate in which Tech Black students decided to push for the founding of their own center in the late 1980s. Exhibit pages describe the continuity and changes in the Center overtime, spotlight the staff and leaders of the Center, and provide a detailed biography of the Center’s namesake, Leona Lusk Officer, the first African American student and graduate of Tennessee Tech University. The exhibit includes over 60 items, ranging from photographs, webpages, scrapbook pages, news releases, flyers, and other documents.
The exhibit is available here: https://tntecharchives.omeka.net/exhibits/show/bcch . It is best viewed using a device with a large screen, such as desktop or laptop computer.
Be sure to check out our first exhibit on events held by the Black Cultural Center here.
For more on 30th Anniversary events, check out the website here.
