Photo of Dr. Olivia J. Hooker courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard. In September 2018, the nonprofit organization StoryCorps recorded Dr. Olivia Hooker’s recollections about being the first Black woman admitted to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945. She spoke about her worries as well as her sense of great … Read More

by Carlos Moreno and David GoodwinPhoto of E.L. Goodwin courtesy of the Oklahoma Eagle. Eleven-year-old Edwin Lawrence Goodwin arrived in Greenwood in 1914 with his sisters Anna and Lucille, brother James Jr., and parents James Henri and Carlie Greer Goodwin. The family had come from Water Valley, Mississippi, where James … Read More

Most of what we know today about the 1921 Race Massacre comes from white newspapers (the Tulsa Tribune and the Tulsa World) and white journalists and historians such as Scott Ellsworth, Tim Madigan, James S. Hirsch, and others. While these authors have certainly helped bring attention about the Massacre to … Read More

Photo of B.C. Franklin courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives. B.C. Franklin’s autobiography, “My Life and an Era,” takes its readers back in time to a period of Oklahoma’s history when Black families enjoyed an abundance of prosperity, peace and freedom. His parents were Choctaw and Chickasaw and … Read More

Photo of Vernon AME Church, in 1919, courtesy of pastor Robert Turner. In 1777, Richard Allen converted to Methodism. In 1780, Stokely Sturgis agreed to let Allen hire himself out in order to earn money to purchase his freedom for $2000. In addition to doing manual labor, Allen began to … Read More