HITCHING A WAGON TO A STAR: AN ORAL HISTORY STUDY EXPLORING AFRICAN AMERICAN ADULT EDUCATION IN CINCINNATI, OHIO, 1930-1949 by LISA RENEE MERRIWEATHER HUNN (Under the Direction of Talmadge C. Guy) ABSTRACT African Americans have a long and varied history in Cincinnati, Ohio and in adult education. These histories were subjugated for the most part to the historical narratives of the dominant European American population especially within adult education. Some writers of history from within and outside of the field of education explicated the history of African American adult education and these contributions enriched our knowledge of the various institutions, leaders, programs, and philosophies of African American adult education. Few studies included the learners’ voices in the historical narratives. By employing an Africentric theoretical framework and using oral history, this study created a historical narrative that was inclusive of the adult learners’ voices and provided a local history of African American adult education in Cincinnati during the 1930s and 1940s. This oral history study named racism as a pivotal factor in the delivery, structure and curricular emphasis of adult education at both the national and local levels. It detailed some of the learning opportunities that were available to African American adults in Cincinnati and outlined three themes with respect to those opportunities. First, most planned organizational learning opportunities under European American control were circumscribed by a system of racism that resulted in educational opportunities being separate, inferior, and disempowering for African American adults. Second, educational and occupational opportunities and their subsequent outcomes existed in a state of paradoxical tension. That is, those opportunities were designed to maintain a racial caste system that held African Americans in subservience. By design those opportunities were not structured to have the enormous benefit that they did on the lives of African American adults. Finally, the learning experiences of African American adults can be understood as part of a broader resistance effort to racism in Cincinnati. This study showed that African Americans displayed resistance to that racism by developing culturally relevant programs, by maintaining strong social networks, and by exhibiting self-determination. They turned “lemons into lemonade” thus undermining the effects of Jim Crow in adult education and in the society at large. INDEX WORDS: African American Adult Education History, African American Adult Learners, Adult Education, African American, Oral History, Africentric, Cincinnati, Racism, Jim Crow, Resistance HITCHING A WAGON TO A STAR: AN ORAL HISTORY STUDY EXPLORING AFRICAN AMERICAN ADULT EDUCATION IN CINCINNATI, OHIO, 1930-1949 by LISA RENEE MERRIWEATHER HUNN B.A., California State University - Long Beach, 1991 M.A., Morehead State University, 1999 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 Lisa Renee Merriweather Hunn All Rights Reserved HITCHING A WAGON TO A STAR: AN ORAL HISTORY STUDY EXPLORING AFRICAN AMERICAN ADULT EDUCATION IN CINCINNATI, OHIO, 1930-1949 by LISA RENEE MERRIWEATHER HUNN Major Professor: Talmadge C. Guy Committee: Diane Batts Morrow Ronald E. Butchart Ronald M. Cervero Thomas Valentine Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2004 DEDICATION This research is dedicated to my children, Reggie, Gloria and Jahia. You mean the world to me and inspired me to pursue my dreams even when life’s circumstances made the pursuit challenging and frustrating. You were patient, understanding, supportive and encouraging throughout each stage of this process. Thank you for allowing me to be a student in addition to being your mom. I learned so many things by watching you grow up and hope that this work will encourage you to never give up, always try your best, and always know that you have a history worth remembering. With love forever and always, Your Mom iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I give honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for it was only through You that I had the strength, the endurance, and the willpower to accomplish this task. My life’s circumstances were such that statistically many would see me as an anomaly. Those statistics never forecasted this achievement or the many others from my past or in my future. Romans 8:28 says, “Good things come to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” You placed Your mark on me a long time ago and even though I sometimes stumbled and fell, I am thankfully continuing to walk in the purpose that You determine for me before time began. Thank You for Your omnipotence that cleared the way for this magnificent journey; Your omniscience that guided me along this incredible path of knowledge and self-discovery, and Your omnipresence that protected me throughout this extraordinary venture toward self- fulfillment and happiness. May it all be used for Your glory. Second, I pay homage to the many family members and friends who have supported me in my quest for more and more education. I offer this traditional libation to those who have passed on from this life but continue to inspire me by the life that they lived. Grandma Lu Bell Coleman: You lived such an incredible life, always so stylish, and poised. You were revered by all that knew you but no one looked up to you the way that I did and still do. You were the one who helped me with my homework. You finished the math problem in your head before I had a chance to write it out on paper. You were the one that I confided my deepest and truest feelings to. You always knew just want to say. When I left for college, no one could have been more proud of me than you. I remember feeling so overwhelmed v by the prospect of being away at college but you made me believe in myself. I recall that I was given this list two miles long of things that I needed for college. I still smile as I think about your gift to me (a pail decorated on the outside with flowers to carry my toiletries back and forth to the communal showers in the dorm). You were my flower and I wish that you were still here to share this moment in time with me. I love you. Granddaddy Jesse Merriweather: I love you so much. I can’t imagine who I would have become if God had not allowed your quiet presence to fill the space in my life that it did as I grew into adulthood. I didn’t recognize your genius as a man of God until it was much too late. I wish that you were still here so that I could ask you questions and soak up your knowledge. The love you shared with me and had for my children makes me smile when the going gets tough. Granddaddy Leon Coleman: You left my life way too soon. I regret not having a chance to really get to know you. I listen to the stories of when we would visit you and Grandma on Landen Court and I chuckle at the antics I pulled when I was so young. I can only imagine the priceless expressions you must have had on your face as you rescued me time and time again from my mischievous adventures. How much more fulfilled my life would have been if God had seen fit to allow you to stay with me just a little bit longer. James Merriweather (my nephew): I cry tears of pride whenever I think about how at the tender age of three you confronted adversity. You smiled and laughed and knocked the sting out of the death. I didn’t get to know you like I would have liked to but the short time that I had with you taught me a wonderful lesson about how to live life: Just smile and laugh. I know you are in heaven and are dazzling the angels with your gorgeous smile. Love you James. You’ll always have a special place in everyone’s heart. vi Aunt Agnes Allen, Uncle Willie Davis, Uncle Butch Hodges, Aunt Ruth Hodges, Uncle Robert (Mann) Merriweather, Aunt Magnolia Taylor, Uncle Leon Coleman, and Uncle (Horace) Barnes: Each of you always had this way of making me feel like I was your favorite niece and making me believe I could do anything. It is a great honor for me to be known as your niece. Time and space preclude me from saying how each of you uniquely affected my life but suffice it to say that I recognize that the honor of earning my doctorate belongs to each you. There have been so many others who have passed through my life and inspired me by their words and deeds like Sister Skinner, Reverend Martin, Carl Johnson and so many of my older cousins. I know that God placed you in my life for that season for the purpose of preparing me for this particular moment in time. Thank you. God graced His kingdom with a host of my most ardent supporters but I am so blessed that he left a few down here on earth to help me along the way. Mom (Gloria Wallace): You picked up where Grandma Lu Bell left off. I can’t imagine how I could have made it without you. You typed papers for me as I was writing them the night before they were due just to make sure that they were turned in on time. You drove from Cincinnati to the mountains of West Virginia (5 hours away) at the drop of dime because my car had broken down when I was on my way home from school in Maryland.