May 1968, the dawn of Purdue’s Black student revolt, over 150 black students carrying bricks in a silent protest marched to the Executive Building with a 9-point petition, which was presented to the administration of Purdue University. President Hovde responded positively to the demands and established the Schuhmann Committee for the purpose of studying and working with special student problems.(1)

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March 1969, the 9-point petition’s third point stated that Black students “…demand the immediate integration of student organizations.” (2) In response to this demand the Student Advisory council of HSSE called a meeting on March 19, 1969 to which all Black students were invited. The Black students present were asked to provided the lead in suggesting ways in which the council and the HSSE School might take steps to meet the needs and aspirations of Black students and also so that the rest of the University could be provided with a more meaningful educational experience concerning Black culture. As a result of this meeting, a set of proposals was developed under the leadership of Eric McCaskill (3) and for the first time the idea of a Culture Center was presented as a demand. The Student Ad Hoc committed chaired by Eric McCaskill served as the official representative body which worked with the Schuhmann committee (Officially known as the Advisory Committed on Special Student Problems) to operationalize student demands; and among these demands the Cultural center was gaining greater priority, (4)

April 3, 1969, the Schuhmann committee officially endorsed their support of a Black Cultural Center and charged the University to give its support and assistance to this Center. (5) A week later the McCaskill committee presented their proposal for a Cultural Center. (6)

June 6, 1969, the Board of Trustees approved among other requests, the establishment of a Black Cultural Center. The board suggested that funds from the Purdue Research Foundation be used to provide the former Christian Center, the present building located at 315 university Street, for this purpose. The Board supported the plan that Black students under the direction of the Chairman of the Coordinating Committee spend the summer planning activities for the Center; and that returning Black students in the Fall have the opportunity to participate in the election of all student offices and in the approval of the general planning procedures. (7)

Summer 1969, during the early part of September 1969 a series of meetings were held to discuss the proposed charter for the Center. (8) At the Freshmen orientation meeting strong opposition to the Charter became evident. This meeting resulted in disagreement over the issues concerning the operation of the Center. (9) While the issues were still hot and unresolved the referendum was presented to Black students on September 22, 1969. The Charter was defeated by a narrow margin, 102-97. (10) It should be noted that the idea of a Cultural Center was never defeated for the majority of those who opposed the Charter felt that the Center needed to be independent of University’s financial support and control.” (11)

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Spring Semester of 1970 – The Freshmen Black Students were determined to have the Center opened. As a result they organized another campus-wide election. The Charter passed by an over-whelming majority, 174-10. (12)

August 1970, the newly appointed Black Coordinator, Professor Singer Buchanan, called a committee of students together to help direct the renovations, decoration, and the first-year program activities of the Cultural Center:

Fall Semester 1970, Purdue University saw the opening of the Cultural Center and also the election of a policy board. (13) As each member present in this auditorium is invited to see the building is well on its way to being an attractive physical edifice. In the last few weeks, an average of 150 students a day have visited the Center. But more important than the physical building are the objectives and purpose of the Center:

Black Purdue students support the idea of a Black Cultural Center because it is a most important step in developing a sense of identity, unity, and security among the Black student community as well as a very important education mechanism in helping White students to become familiar with Black history, culture, art, and etc. To achieve these goals the Black Cultural Center will offer: 1) a place for Black students, faculty and staff to gather in an environment relevant to the Black experience and to Black culture in general, 2) a place for Black and White students to interact and learn of each others cultures and a place for the entire university and community to have the opportunity to be educated about the totality of Black culture through participation in a variety of cultural examples, art exhibitions, and musical performances), educational (examples, Black related seminars and classes; and tutorial programs for Black Purdue students as well as Black children in the Lafayette community), and social activities (examples, dances and informal get- togethers) (14)

Hopefully, the center can fulfill these objectives and hopefully Purdue students, Black and White, can respect and appreciate each other’s culture. For as we look at the origin and purpose of the Black Cultural Center and the present situation of America and Purdue, perhaps nothing describes more lucidly the situation, than the statement made by Dr. Martin Luther King in his book… Chaos and Community, he states:

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today, we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now3… We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be (Purdue’s and America’s) last chance to choose between Chaos and Community.”

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A dance workshop was started by Geraldine and Earline Holman of Gary, Indiana. This dance workshop would eventually be named the Jahari Dance Troupe. When the university agreed to fund an Artist-in Residence program, professional artists were brought in to work with students.

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The first official director of the BCC was Mr. John Houston. He was a graduate student. He resigned after one school year to focus on his studies.

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Mr. Antonio Zamora was hired to be the BCC Director and the center became the premier institution of its kind under his leadership from 1973 to 1995. Part of Mr. Zamora’s philosophy toward developing the Black Cultural Center dealt with making the BCC the ‘applied’ arm of the cultural experience at Purdue while the Black Studies department and classes in general were the ‘theoretical’ arm.

Here is a list of events and activities, now called the Cultural Arts Series, from 1973. See other years on the website for a list of names and faces of people who helped to build the reputation of the BCC by sharing their knowledge and expertise with students at Purdue University.

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New Directional Players (NDP) was founded as the ‘Drama Workshop’ with the help of Steven Henderson and the BCC. “It was a cooperative with the Creative Writers Workshop where the actors would perform the writers works and not much more. In 1976, acting became the prominent idea behind the group under the direction of George Coker, a theatre instructor.

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BVOI established fall semester 1975 under direction of Mr. Robert Ray, Prof. of Music Univ. of Illinois. Few activities and events are documented for this year. One of the most famous persons of the 20 th century visited Purdue in 1975. Soon after the death of Elijah Muhammad, Minister Louis Farrakhan visited the BCC.

Mari Evans “Dimensions in Black Poetry”

Minister Louis Farrakhan “The Black Student

Barbara A. Reynolds “Remember the Dream”

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Thus far, we have only been able to find one event for this year. Ms. Barbara A. Sizemore spoke on ‘Minorities in Education: Is Accommodation enough?

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During this year, the BCC welcomed the following people who spoke on various topics and presented the following programs that helped the BCC’s mission of educating all students, faculty and staff at Purdue University about the black experience throughout the Diaspora.

Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander Images of Black Women in Black American Literature

Dr. John Hope Franklin The Old Order Changeth Not

Dr. Sam Hay The Black Man as ‘Rapist and Enuch’

The Black Cultural Center welcomed the following persons to Purdue in 1978.

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. - ‘The Law and Institutional Racism’

Gwendolyn Brooks & Dudley Randall - ‘Very special Guest Poets’

Preston Jackson - ‘Black Perception: A Natural Response’

Prof. John G. Jackson - ‘Restoring the Lost Pages in African History’

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The Black Cultural Center welcomed the following persons to Purdue in 1979.

Dr. Darlene Clark Hine - ‘What Manner of Man Tribute to Dr. King

Dr. William H. Wiggins - ‘The Folk Dimension of the Afro American Experience’

Julian Bond - ‘The Significance of Politics for the Future and Black America’

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