African Scientific Research Institute
Saving Historical African American Spaces
ASRI’s mission is to save historic African American places and things.
Dr. Jihad Muhammad, Chairman, and Founder of ASRI have been nominated as a 2021 Scholar for the Saving Places Program by the National Trust for Historic Places.
Dr. Muhammad will be leading the archeological recovery by saving this historically significant structure.
ASRIs mission is to improve infrastructure status for Blacks in Southeast, Missouri by getting as many structures as possible onto the National Registry of Historic Preservation Places and Things for the purpose of saving from oblivion the early history of the enslaved African peoples who had contributions the making of America the untold stories of African Progenitors.
ASRI is pursuing the recommendation that Lincoln School in Sikeston, MO be placed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its historic significance.
The state of Missouri turned out to be the crossroads for North and South during The Black Great Migration, for people migrating from the antebellum Southern States. Many migrants would come through designated towns in Missouri like Hayti and Sikeston, before continuing their journey to more industrialized urban cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee.
Uncovering backstories in the turbulent era of the Great Migratory movement surrounding the peopling of the Southeast Missouri Delta rural region has two goals; to establish Lincoln School as a major tourist attraction and to engage the citizenry in public discourse.
Lincoln Jr High School in Sikeston Mo. has been designated ASRIs Archeological Site
ASRI Field Schools is a Scientific Archeology School applies science technology engineering and science (STEM) in its programs and activities. ASRI is looking for partners and funding to support African American Students in carrying out this great mission to preserve protect and premiere African American History as American History.
PROJECT OUTCOME
The anticipated outcome of this project is to identify individuals who came through Sikeston, MO, and attended Lincoln School. ASRI intends to conduct oral interviews and take photographs of the individuals who are now in their 80s and 90s. The research and civic engagement meetings will be used to discern if the site can be designated as a public place for historic reference, and the base of the tourism network for neighboring Black communities.
The target audience will be the current residents and the descendants of the people who migrated through these towns to highlight their culture and history to bring economic and business activity to the region to eliminate the inequalities that have been forced upon people of color.
Bringing tourism to this Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) can provide an economic engine to this under-resourced area.
The success of this project will be measured by successfully compiling the research and collecting artifacts to support the historical significance of the contributions of Blacks to the development of the agricultural economy of the Bootheel Region.
Our current goal is to acquire the financing needed to engage historic consultants to produce the research and to pay staff to commence dialogue with necessary state and local agencies as well as community members.
Lincoln Jr. High School in Sikeston Missouri, was built for Blacks in the (Sunset Community of Sikeston) in the early 1940s is one of the few schools left in Southeast Missouri which is scheduled for demolition, ASRI is in a race against time to raise the funding to save this historically significant Place.
As a student of Lincoln Jr HS, Dr. Jihad Muhammad has experienced firsthand the cultural experiences of the various groups of black that were moving north during the great migration. Lincolon Jr. HS was established under the ideology of Jim Crow of separate but equal which created a self-reliant independent, experience and also a very unique cultural experience.
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African Scientific Research Institute
Saving Historical African American Spaces
