Towering Work

by: Staff Reports
Friday, May 14, 2010
5/14/2010 6:46:59 AM

Workers battle rainy conditions Thursday while installing the Tower of Reconciliation at John Hope Franklin Park in downtown Tulsa. Photos by Corey Young/Tulsa World.

Account of 1921 riot once again in print

by: Staff Reports
Sunday, April 25, 2010
4/25/2010 7:59:16 AM

Long after the smoldering remains from the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot cooled, a veil of secrecy hung over the tragedy for generations.

The event was omitted from U.S. and Oklahoma history books, but the terror remained alive in the minds of those who lived through the torment.

“Events from the Tulsa Disaster” is a chronicle of the aftermath by Tulsa resident Mary E. Jones Parrish. Her first-hand account was published in 1923 and is filled with stories from witnesses and victims sharing their perspectives on these tragic events.

Parrish’s book was for many years out of print. Now — thanks to funding from Anne and Henry Zarrow Family Foundation, the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Foundation and the Oklahoma Humanities Council — the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation has reprinted this historically important book.

Copies were donated to Tulsa Community College, Tulsa Public Schools and the Tulsa City-County Library.

TCCL received 50 copies, which will be available for checkout from any of TCCL’s 25 locations. Books also will be included in TCCL’s African-American Resource Center’s Tulsa Race Riot educational kit for teachers. The kit includes:

History Channel DVD and Study Guide “In Search of History: The Night Tulsa Burned.”

The books “Riot on Greenwood” by Eddie Faye Gates and “Black Wall Street” by Hannibal Johnson, along with special study guides for each volume.

Reproductions of 1921 “Race Riot Post Cards” in black photo album.

1921 Race Riot “Angels of Mercy” Identification Card and Police Protection Card.

For more information on TCCL’s African-American Resource Center, call coordinator Alicia Latimer, 596-7920, or visit the library’s website, tulsaworld.com/library.

L.A. attorney discusses role of local historian in civil rights

by: DEON J. HAMPTON World Staff Writer
Thursday, April 08, 2010
4/8/2010 5:31:14 AM

The United States perpetually faces divisions and discrimination, a Los Angeles civil rights attorney told University of Tulsa law students Wednesday night.

Connie Rice also spoke of her deep admiration for the late historian John Hope Franklin, a Tulsa native, during the 10th annual Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights lecture. Read the rest of this entry »

Tulsans Gather for Inaugural Reconciliation Dinner

A capacity crowd of about 600 people gathered at the Greenwood Cultural Center for the first John Hope Franklin Dinner of Reconciliation. The spirit of the evening was reflected in the diversity of the audience and the significance of the words spoken. Read the Tulsa World Story here.

Community-wide meeting on Assessing Race Relations in Tulsa

Please join us on Wednesday, October 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Greenwood Cultural Center for a community-wide meeting on Assessing Race Relations in Tulsa.  Click here to download a copy of the invitation.

Work to begin at Franklin park site

Tulsa World: As former President Bill Clinton joined a lengthy list of academics memorializing John Hope Franklin on Thursday, work was set to begin on the Tulsa park named for the distinguished historian and one of Tulsa’s most famous sons. Read More

UPDATED: Ground broken on race riot memorial

Tulsa World: Nearly a century after the Tulsa Race Riot devastated black homes and businesses in one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history, Tulsans have dedicated a park to the memory of the tragedy and the ongoing racial reconciliation.  Read More