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The Tennessee Tech University Commission on the Status of Blacks advises the President on matters of concern to Black faculty, staff, and students, and promotes awareness and programs of interest to Tennessee Tech Black persons.

Title and wall panels for the "A History of Desegregation at Tennessee Tech University" exhibit installed on the main floor of Volpe Library at Tennessee Tech University on August 19, 2021.

Nancy Officer Hancock's reminisces about her mother, Leona Lusk Officer, provided for the Black Cultural Center Dedication ceremony on February 23, 1997.

Yearbook of Darwin High School, Darwin Junior High School, and Darwin Elementary School for the 1961-1962 academic year. The annual was owned by Isaac H. Bohanon, principal of the school.

A biography of Tennessee Tech University's first African American graduate, Leona Lusk Officer. Takako M. Jackson (now Takako Price) delivered the biography at the Black Cultural Center Dedication ceremony on February 23, 1997. 

Text of the digital exhibit "'Imagine Going Half A Day And Not Seeing Anybody That Looks Like You': A History Of Black Students And Employees At Tennessee Tech."

Text of the digital exhibit "'Imagine Going Half A Day And Not Seeing Anybody That Looks Like You': A History Of Black Students And Employees At Tennessee Tech."

Audio recording of an interview of Wentford Gaines by Jerone Dudley conducted over Zoom for the Black Cultural Center Oral History Project. The recording duration is 59 minutes, 55 seconds. Gaines was born on February 4, 1953. He attended Tennessee Tech in the spring quarter of 1973. The football coaches recruited Gaines to play football at Tech. Gaines and other Black student athletes were dismissed from the team for refusing to practice after Tennis Coach Larry Ware abandoned David Brents, a Black tennis player in Johnson City, Tennessee. Gaines describes growing up as a Black child in a single-parent household in Anderson, South Carolina; his time attending and playing football at Ferrum College in Virginia; being recruited to Tennessee Tech; the broken promises, racism, and isolation he faced at Tennessee Tech and in Cookeville; and his life after transferring from Tech. Gaines details going to the University of Cincinnati, his time playing in the National Football League (NFL), living in Texas and New Jersey, teaching and coaching in Jersey City, teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, playing athletics in high school, his sons’s athletic and academic experiences. Gaines describes the isolation of being Black in Cookeville, the lack of interaction between non-local Black students and the Black community in Cookeville, and how he only felt comfortable going out to one bar (likely John’s Place) in the area and otherwise went to Nashville to socialize. Dudley makes comparisons between his experiences and Gaines’s experiences in Cookeville. For a transcript of the interview, see item BCCOH_Gaines_20201127_transcript.

27 page transcript of an interview of Wentford Gaines by Jerone Dudley conducted over Zoom for the Black Cultural Center Oral History Project. Gaines was born on February 4, 1953. He attended Tennessee Tech in the spring quarter of 1973. The football coaches recruited Gaines to play football at Tech. Gaines and other Black student athletes were dismissed from the team for refusing to practice after Tennis Coach Larry Ware abandoned David Brents, a Black tennis player in Johnson City, Tennessee. Gaines describes growing up as a Black child in a single-parent household in Anderson, South Carolina; his time attending and playing football at Ferrum College in Virginia; being recruited to Tennessee Tech; the broken promises, racism, and isolation he faced at Tennessee Tech and in Cookeville; and his life after transferring from Tech. Gaines details going to the University of Cincinnati, his time playing in the National Football League (NFL), living in Texas and New Jersey, teaching and coaching in Jersey City, teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, playing athletics in high school, his sons’s athletic and academic experiences. Gaines describes the isolation of being Black in Cookeville, the lack of interaction between non-local Black students and the Black community in Cookeville, and how he only felt comfortable going out to one bar (likely John’s Place) in the area and otherwise went to Nashville to socialize. Dudley makes comparisons between his experiences and Gaines’s experiences in Cookeville. For the audio recording of the interview, see item BCCOH_Gaines_20201127.

Yearbook of Darwin High School, Darwin Junior High School, and Darwin Elementary School for the 1955-1956 academic year. The annual was owned by Isaac H. Bohanon, principal of the school.

Yearbook of Darwin High School, Darwin Junior High School, and Darwin Elementary School for the 1959-1960 academic year. The yearbook includes notes by the owner on the high school students' appearances. Includes pictures of the seniors' trip to Washington, D.C, and Monticello.