THE PURPOSE OF N SEARCH OF HIP HOP XPRESS

The idea behind N Search of Hip Hop Xpress is steeped in the civic engagement scholarship of Tuskegee Institute. Booker T. Washington, President of Tuskegee in the early 1900's, believed that the Institute had the ability to improve the life experience of sharecroppers if they had an opportunity to receive an education. President Washington mandated that Tuskegee Professor, George Washington Carver, Jr., an accomplished agricultural scientist, create a method to extend the knowledge and services of Tuskegee to the sharecroppers by creating a moveable school. Through the philanthropic support of Morris K Jessup, a New York financier, the Jessup Wagon was developed.

Fast forward 100+ years, N Search of Hip Hop Xpress was created by Dr. William M. Patterson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The idea was to create a mobile media classroom, technology showcase, and sound machine that was designed to capture stories and teach Hip Hop generations, the descendants of southern sharecroppers, how to build and sustain community "one record at a time."