AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOOL BUILDING REVIVAL
Digital Research Internship Program
Product Developers
Emily O'Connell, Lucien Mensah, Marisa Long & Wendy Yang
Interns
Ananya Anand |
Danielle Walder |
Ifeoma Osakwe |
Helena Wang |
Tess Kleanthous |
Kristen Osborne |
Isabella Blair |
Claire Ramsay |
Meghan Nagia |
Hannah Bartels |
Catherine Hu |
Isabelle Haines |
Zoe Oboler |
Rhea Majumdar |
Kai Xia |
Madeline Nellis |
Evan Hendrickson |
Acknowledgements and thanks must begin with the people who most directly inspired and contributed to this project through their own vision and efforts to preserve historic schools. We extend endless admiration and thanks to:
The John S. Dawson Alumni Association Foundation, especially Dr. Henry Hardy, Kenneth Dawson, Rufus McKnight, Calvin Miller, Sr., and Mrs. Mattie Hardy; Donna Isaacs, LEED AP, Executive Director, Campti Field of Dreams; Sabine High School Revitalization Project, Inc. especially Sandra Garner-Coleman, Connie Levo Howard, and John Sibley; and Doug Sapp, Building Blocks for Better Communities, LLC.
We also thank everyone who has ever reached out about their historic school. Every one of you inspired and contributed to this project. Special thanks to Mayor Clarence Fields of Pineville for sharing your memories of and dreams for Slocum High School. Thank you to Jose Cotto for bringing your interest and excellent photography talent to our field visits. We are grateful for your participation and all of the images and recordings you created. Further we thank everyone who kindly responded to our inquiries about in-progress and completed schools projects. Extra thanks for exceptional generosity of your time and knowledge goes to:
Rebekah Dobrasko, Section Director, Cultural Resource Management, Environmental Affairs Division at Texas Department of Transportation Michael E. Glenn, Luna Development Paige Pollard, Commonwealth Preservation Group and E. G. “Ned” Fowler, President, Shelter Investments Development Corporation.
Funding and Team
This project was made possible through funding by the Richard L. Blinder Award from the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation http://fitchfoundation.org/ Thank you to Fred Bland, Lizzie Olson, and Cristiana Pena for your ongoing patience and support of this work. We value your interest and advice.
Project support was provided by the Tulane School of Architecture through its Graduate Research Fellow program and research fund. Thanks to graduate research fellows Laurel Fay, Kaylan Mitchell, Mary Helen Porter, Tiffany Bell, and Monica Davis, and to undergraduate project assistant Yazmine Parker. We could not have gotten anywhere with this project without the hard work of all of you. Finally, for development of this beautiful website, we are indebted and grateful to the Newcomb Institute Tulane University Digital Research Internship Program. Special thanks to 2021-22 Project Developer Lucien Mensah for listening to all our desires and so capability leading in their execution. And thank you to the 2022-23 team for taking the website to the next level and designing a fantastic logo.