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Photograph of Ed Osborne standing behind a lectern and speaking at the Tennessee Tech University President's Luncheon Forum on January 16, 1978. Osborne spoke on the needs of current Black students and asked why Tech did not have an advisor for Black students.

Photograph of Ed Osborne standing behind a lectern and speaking at the Tennessee Tech University President's Luncheon Forum on January 16, 1978. Osborne spoke on the needs of current Black students and asked why Tech did not have an advisor for Black students.

: Seven page document calling for the creation of a Black Culture Center addressed to Tennessee Tech University President Angelo Volpe. The document consists of three memorandums written by Richard C. Fuqua, James P. Harris for the Black Student Organization, and John E. James for the Tech Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, followed by a description of three options for the Center. 

Audio recording of an interview of Damon Prince by Joshua Egwuatu conducted over Zoom for the Black Cultural Center Oral History Project. The recording duration is 1 hour, 5 minutes, 18 seconds. Prince attended Tennessee Tech University off and on from 1992 to 2014. Prince discusses his background in a military family, why he decided to attend Tennessee Tech, how Cookeville was different from other places he lived, how changes to high school academic requirements made him ineligible to play football at Tech, his interest in music and career in music, what it was like being a minority student at Tennessee Tech, university employees and friends that pushed and helped him graduate, how he got involved with the Leona Lusk Officer Black Cultural Center (BCC), how students used the Black Cultural Center, his career in human resources, and his work for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). Princes gives advice to students and Egwuatu. Egwuatu compares his experiences with the BCC and college with Prince’s experiences. For a transcript of the recording, see item BCCOH_Prince_20210112_transcript.

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.