Photograph of John & Loula Williams courtesy of the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum. Tulsa historian Scott Ellsworth’s Death in a Promised Land opens with the story of a young Bill Williams asking his father why they relocated from Mississippi to Oklahoma. “Well,” his father answered, “I came out to … Read More

Photograph of O.W. Gurley (front row, second from the left) courtesy of the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum. During his life, O.W. Gurley was an educator, a church founder, a presidential appointee, a general store owner, a hotel proprietor, a landlord, a deputy police officer, and most famously, the founder … Read More

A. J. Smitherman photo courtesy of the University of Buffalo. A.J. Smitherman is best known for being the founder of The Tulsa Star—Tulsa’s first black newspaper and the first black daily newspaper in the nation, according to his obituary in the Buffalo Evening News. However, there is much more to … Read More