Jolivette Anderson-Douoning

I am Jolivette Anderson-Douoning and this is what I do. My research is focused on Race, Space, and Place. It explores the psyche of African Americans in the United States and how they (we) had to negotiate their (our) existence according to the racial history of the United States. U. S. Racial History is grounded and built upon extreme contradictions of theoretical freedom and applied bondage (physical and mental). My research defines and describes the making of the Purdue Black Cultural Center as a place where Black cultures from different Black neighborhoods throughout the nation ( the world) would meet to demand place and space for Black identities to develop at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) during and leading up to- the Second Reconstruction (1945 to 1973). My writings give a cultural history of Black Americans, and it is best described as documenting a Black Cultural Continuum in the United States -- during the time the Purdue Black Cultural Center was founded (1969) and under the leadership of Director Emeritus, Antonio Zamaora (1973 to 1995). I call this time period the Antonio Zamora Years. My research explores the relevancy of BCCs and the working title of my dissertation is: 'The Antonio Zamora Years, The Creation of Black Cultural Centers as Safe Spaces to Teach, Learn and Talk Race: From Hidden Curriculum to Public Pedagogy when Culture Migrates from Black Communities to White Campuses'. My research maps the cultural education received from growing up in Black neighborhoods (using handwritten journals, obituaries, and other primary documents) to the education received from participating in or having access to Black Cultural Centers (using flyers, posters, recordings of speeches, annual calendars, and the administrative papers so that these documents help display the evolution of BCC Operations for engaging with students, upper level administration and the public) at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) of Higher Learning. Both places, 'Black neighborhoods' and 'Black Cultural Centers', developed spaces that offered 'formative' educational experiences that support and reinforce 'formal' experiences in the classroom. On a personal note: I tell the stories of Black people in America, specifically those who lived on Ledbetter Street in Shreveport, Louisiana (the community called Hollywood) and those who attended Hollywood Elementary School, Linwood Jr. High School, and Woodlawn High School between 1955 and 2005. Black people built the Public Education System, especially in the South, don't believe me, read The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860 - 1935 by James D. Anderson