The John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, on two and a half acres at the intersection of the African American community of Greenwood (Black Wall Street) and downtown Tulsa, is one of the most unusual parks in the United States. Situated in Tulsa, which currently has … Read MoreJohn Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park
Nathan Hare, the founder of The Black Scholar: A Journal of Black Studies and Research and called by many scholars “the father of Black and Ethnic Studies,” was born on April 9, 1933, in Slick, Oklahoma, to Seddie H. Hare, a sharecropper from Arkansas, and … Read MoreNathan Hare (1933-2024)
The Katz Drug Store Sit-Ins occurred from August 19 to August 20, 1958, at the Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The leading cause of the sit-in was the racial segregation at the lunch counter, which was the official policy of the drug store … Read MoreThe Katz Drug Store Sit-Ins (1958)
U.S. Army Air Force World War II veteran Joseph Dubois Elsberry was the first Black fighter pilot to shoot down three German aircraft in a single mission. Elsberry was born on April 25, 1921, in Langston, Oklahoma. His father was Joseph Dean Elsberry, and his … Read MoreJoseph Elsberry (1921-1985)
Tuskegee Airman Earl Roscoe Lane was born in the rural all-Black town of Red Bird, Oklahoma, on July 22, 1920 to Levi and Christine Lane. In 1930, when he was 10, his family moved to Wickliffe, Ohio. His younger sisters were Barbara Lane Martin and … Read MoreEarl Roscoe Lane (1920-1990)
Marietta Cooper Bryant was an Arizona educator and civil rights activist best known for fighting for her right to teach in integrated classrooms prior to the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Born Marietta Cooper on June 28, 1911, in … Read MoreMarietta Cooper Bryant (1912-2003)
Jalen Alexander Hurts is a professional football quarterback for the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Eagles for the National Football League (NFL). He will lead his team against Patrick Mahomes II and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Arizona on February 12, 2023. This … Read MoreJalen Alexander Hurts (1998-)
Laura and L.D. Nelson were a mother and son who were dragged from a jail and lynched in Oklahoma, on May 25, 1911. Austin Nelson married Laura in 1896, and their son, Lawrence, was born the following year. The Nelson family lived on a farm … Read MoreLynching of Laura and L.D. Nelson (1911)
Clifford Wayne Houston is a nationally recognized microbiologist and became the first African American president of the American Society of Microbiology. Houston was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on December 3, 1949, to Mae Frances Hanley and Edgar Houston. He attended Gordon Oaks Elementary and … Read MoreClifford Wayne Houston (1949- )
Charles Wade Mills was a notable Caribbean-American political philosopher and distinguished professor. He was born in London on January 3, 1951 to Jamaican parents, Winnifred and Gladstone Mills, who were both pursuing their graduate degrees in the city. The couple returned to Kingston shortly after … Read MoreCharles Wade Mills (1951-2021)
