History of the Fanon Research and Development Center in Los Angeles: A narrative of Dr. Lewis M. King

This chapter deals with an analysis of the successes, lessons learned, and new iterations of the Center. The Frantz Fanon Research and Development Center grew out of world history and more particularly Black world history. As a traveling theory, Fanonian psychotherapy made multiple transnational voyages, the most consequential one being to the radical African American context of the Black Power Movement of the early 1970s with the creation of the first Fanon Center, in South Los Angeles. What began to emerge from this study was a constant and consistent focus on a Fanonian vision in all our actions, explained as, placing the ‘person’ or Life World, in ‘context’ or System World—historical, cultural, social. The central idea of the visit was a search for spiritual rebirth, a deeper understanding of African culture and of ourselves as African scholars and people in the Western space.