Celebrating Black History Month: Olivia Hooker, first African American woman in the US Coast Guard

Olivia Hooker, born February 12, 1915 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, was the first black woman to enter the US Coast Guard.  Olivia was living with her parents and siblings during the Tulsa Race Riots in 1921.  Her family fled to Topeka, Kansas and then Columbus, Ohio. 

While she was at Ohio State University, she advocated for African American women to be admitted to the US Navy. She applied to the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), but was rejected becauses she was black. She disputed the rejection and was accepted, but she had already decided to join the US Coast Guard.

Hooker reported in February 1945 and sent to basic training in Brooklyn, New York. She became a Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS), being one of only five black women to enlist in the SPARS program.  After basic training, she was assignedd to the Separation Center  in Boston and earned the rank of Yeoman Third Class in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve.  In June 1946, the SPARS program was disbanded and Hooker earned the rank of Petty Officer 3rd Class.

After WWII, she obtained her PhD in clinical psychology and helped form the American Psychological Associatoin's Division 33: IDD/ASD to hep increase quality of life for individuals with IDD/ASD.

She passed away of natural causes in November 2018 at the age of 103.

Interview with Olivia Hooker

Celebrating Black History Month: Charles B. Hall, first African American to receive Distinguished Flying Cross

 

Charles "Buster" Hall, born August 25, 1920 in Brazil, Indiana, was the first African American combat pilot to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in 1941, and assigned to attend Advanced Flight Cadet Training at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in 1942. 

He graduated July 3, 1942, earning his wings and being commisssioned as a 2nd Lieutenant.  Hall was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron.

During WWII, he flew 198 missions over North Africa, Italy, the Meditarranean, and Europe. On July 2, 1943, while on a riad on Castelvetrano Airfield in Sicily, Itlay, Hall shot down a German plane, making him the first African American combat fighter to shoot down an enemy aircraft.

For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, making him the first black man to receive an award. He shot down two more enemy planes in January 1944 over Anzio, Italy. 

After the war, like many other African American WWII veteran pilots, he could not find a job with commercial airlines or commercial transport companies.  He moved to Oklahoma, where he became an insurance agent and in 1949, worked at Tinker Air Force Base until 1967, when he took a position at the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City.

He died on November 22, 1971

Interview with Charles Hall's son

Celebrating Black History Month: Sarah Rector, first black millionaire in Oklahoma

Sarah Rector, born March 3, 1902 in Indian Territory near what is now Taft, Oklahoma, was the granddaughter of Creek Indians who were born before the Civil War.  Under the Treaty of 1866, she inherited land. However, the plot of land allotted to her was unsuitable for farming, and about 60 miles from where she and her family lived.

To help allay costs of property taxes, her father leased Sarah's land to the Standard Oil Company in February 1911.  In 1913, oil was discovered, with a daily yield of 2500 barrels of oil, and $300, which would be equivalent to $9,800 in 2023. Sarah became a millionaire before she was 12, the richest little girl in Oklahoma.

Because of her wealth, the Oklahoma Legislature tried to have her declared white, since many white people could not handle the thought of a young, black girl being rich.

After an article about her appeared in The Chicago Defender, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois became concerned for her welfare, and wanted to be sure she was not taken advantage of.  DuBois established the Children's Department of the NAACP, which investigated claims of white guardians suspected of depriving black children of their land and wealth. 

Rector enrolled in the Children's School, a boarding school at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and entered the institute upon graduation. She increased her wealth by owning stocks, bonds, businesses and a 2000-acre piece of land. 

She moved her family to Kansas City, Missouri and lived a comfortable life, entertaining celebrities such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington.  During the Great Depression she lost much of her wealth, but she became involved in the civil rights movement.

She passed away in 1967.

"Camp Cold Brook" released 2018

Camp Cold Brook, a horror film directed by Andy Palmer, was released February 14, 2018. The movie is about a group of paranormal investigators who set out to check out Camp Cold Brook in Oklahoma, where a mass murder occurred a few decades prior. Joe Dante was its executive producer and it starred Chad Michael Murphy.

Camp Cold Brook won Best Horror Feature at the Shriekfest.  Joe Dante won the Best Feature award at the Horrorhound Film Festival.

I enjoyed the movie but found it to be a little light on the horror. And the trope of an abandoned campground, haunted by a decades old crime is rather tired.  To me, it was mainly a suspense thriller, because most of the paranormal activity was witnessed by the audience and not the characters.  For example, when a girl escapes the shower imagining the room is filled with spiders, the ghost appears behind her.  She never sees it.  Another time, a character passes a wooden sign and fingers curl around the edge after the character walks past.

But I might watch it again.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Jesse Chisholm, Cherokee developer of the Chisholm trail

Jesse Chisholm, born around 1805 in present-day Tennessee, was a Cherokee with Scottish ancestry who developed what became known as the Chisholm Trail.  He moved to Indian Territory with his mother, and became involved with a gold-seeking party, who blazed a trail to explore the area around present-day Wichita, Kansas.

He married Eliza Edwards in 1836 and he became a trader, working and serving as an interpreter between the Republic of Texas and local Native American tribes. He also worked between the US government and Native American tribes in Texas after Texas joined the US.  

After the Civil War, he settled near present-day Kingfisher, Oklahoma and traded into Indian Territory.  He built up a military trail into a road capable of carrying heavy wagons for his goods.  

Later, this trail was used by ranchers driving cattle from Texas to Kansas.  They named it the Chisholm Trail.

Jesse Chisholm passed away in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma in 1868.

Comedian Dan Rowan born 1922

Dan Rowan, born July 22, 1922 in Beggs, Oklahoma, is best known for his comedy show with partner Dick Martin, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.  He graduated from Pueblo, Colorado after being orphaned and then taken in by a foster family.  

In 1940, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles and got a job in the mailroom at Paramount Pictures.  During WWII, Rowan served as a fighter pilot in the 8th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group of the US Army Air Forces.  He shot down two Japanese aircraft before being shot down himself and being seriously wounded.  He received the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart.

After the war, he returned to California and teamed up with Dick Martin and created a successful nightclub act.  They took their act to television and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In debuted in 1967.  The show lasted until 1973.  He won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Variety or Musical Series in 1969 with Martin, Paul Keyes, and Carolyn Raskin.

He passed away in 1987 from lymphoma.

Celebrating Pride Month: Adam Graham, gay mayor, terrorized out of office

Adam Graham, the youngest and first gay mayor of The Village, Oklahoma, resigned after only two months in office because he become the target of threats that were getting more violent.  Graham, elected in May 2022, sent a letter to the city manager that he had been followed home from meetings, threatened while walking his dog, and his tires had been slashed.

He said it had been a "great privilege to break boundaries", but he no longer felt safe to serve as mayor.

Terrorism and hate win again.

Celebrating Pride Month: Jim Roth, first openly gay person to hold a statewide elected office in Oklahoma

Jim Roth, born December 24, 1968 in Prairie Village, Kansas near Kansas City, was elected as Oklahoma County Commissioner in 2002, and re-elected in 2006. He became the first ever openly gay person to hold a statewide elected office in Oklahoma.

He served as one of three members of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission from June 2007-January 2009.   He is now a professor of law at OCU's School of Law. 

Tulsa Race Massacre begins 1921

One of the worst, if not THE worst, race riots began in Tulsa, Oklahoma May 31, 1921. A young black man, Dick Rowland, was accused of assaulting a white woman in an elevator in the city.  The man was arrested, but word got around, mainly due to the white newspaper in Tulsa at the time, spreading rumors of a lynching.  The paper used inflammatory language which stirred up the white population into a murderous frenzy.

The black community rallied around Rowland, by arming themselves and showing up at the jail where he was being held.  The sheriff reassured them that Rowland would not be lynched.  However as the crowd began to disperse, a gunshot was heard and "all hell broke loose".

The riots, arson, and murders took place in the Greenwood area of Tulsa, a wealthy, black neighborhood, which had been dubbed "Black Wall Street". 

Over the course of two days, people were killed, houses were burned, businesses were looted, and scores injured. The exact number of casualties is unknown but estimates range from 36 dead to 300.

For decades, the incident was kept quiet and omitted from local, state, and national histories.  The Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was formed in 1996. The commission reported that the city had conspired with the racist mob.  Oklahoma passed legislation to establish scholarships for descendants of the survivors, and develop a park in memory of the victims of the massacre.  Schools in Oklahoma have been required to teach students about the massacre since 2002, and the massacre became an official part of the Oklahoma school curriculum.

However, the governor and the state superintendent of schools have declared teachers cannot teach that the massacre was based on race.

To read more about this go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre

"Oklahoma!" wins two Academy Awards 1956

The movie adaption of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma! won two Academy Awards at the 28th annual ceremony on March 21, 1956.  It won the awards for Best Sound Recording for Fred Hynes, and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for Robert Russell Bennett, Jay Blackton, and Adolph Deutsch.

This was the first of five Academy Awards for Hynes, who would win awards for South Pacific and The Sound of Music. It was the only Oscar for Bennett and Blackton, but the first of three for Deutsch.

It was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Color and Best Film Editing, did not win either.  It was one of five movies to win two or more Oscars that evening!

Remembering Toby Keith (1961-2024)

Toby Keith, born Toby Keith Covel July 8, 1961 in Clinton Oklahoma, passed away yesterday, February 5, 2024 at 62 from his battle with stomach cancer. His family moved for Fort Smith, Arkansas for a few years, and then moved to Moore, Oklahoma.  This is where he began his love for music, watching the live musicians who played at his grandmothers club in Fort Smith.

After graduating from Moore High School, he worked in the oil fields, and formed a band with some friends. They played at local bars until the oil industry tanked.  He played football for the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers, but continued to perform with his band Easy Money Band.  

He got his break in 1993 when his debut single Should've Been a Cowboy went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. Over the course of his career he released over 20 albums.  In 2001, Keith won the Academy of Country Music's Top Male Vocalist and Album of the Year.

In December 2011, he was named Artist of the Decade by the American Country Awards. In September 2023, he received the first Country Icon Award at the inaugural Peoples Choice Country Awards.  

I met Toby Keith in September 2011 at a New York Jets game.  We were guests of then-head coach Rex Ryan and watched the game from his booth.  We found out that Toby was delivered by the same doctor that delivered me and my sister.  We were all born in Oklahoma General Hospital in Clinton, Oklahoma.

Celebrating Black History Month: Earl Lloyd, first African-American to play in the NBA

Earl Lloyd, born April 3, 1928 in Alexandria, Virginia, became the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association.  He played basketball in high school and named to the All-South Atlantic Conference three times and the All-State Virginia Interscholastic Conference twice. He received a scholarship to play basketball at West Virginia State University.

Lloyd led WVSU to two Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Conference and Tournament Championships in 1948 and 1949. 

He was drafted into the NBA during the ninth round in 1950 by the Washington Capitols. Lloyd was one of three black players to be drafted at the same time.  He played his first game on Halloween night, one day ahead of Chuck Cooper, and four days ahead of Nat Clifton. 

The Nationals folded in January 1951, and he was drafted into the US Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He served time in the Korean War before coming back to basketball in 1952. He played six seasons with Syracuse Nationals and two with the Detroit Pistons.

He retired in 1961. He passed away in February 2015 in Tennessee. 

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Jean Hager, author of Cherokee mystery novels

Jean Hager, born June 2, 1932 in May wood, Illinois, is the author of two series of mystery novels featuring Cherokee sleuths in Oklahoma. One series features Police Chief Mitch Bushyhead, and another feature civil rights investigator Molly Bearpaw.  Both series have been critically acclaimed, and Hager has been inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame.  

I've read all of them and need to read them again!

Celebrating Native American Heritage: The Washita River Massacre 1868

The Washita River Massacre (also the Battle of the Washita River) happened on November 27, 1868 in Indian Territory, near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma. The 7th US Calvary attacked a Cheyenne camp, killing men, women, and children, and taking many captives.  

In October 1867, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes had to relocate from Kansas and Colorado to Indian Territory, by the Medicine Lodge Treaty from the US Congress.  It forced them to move from their traditional hunting grounds where buffalo were plentiful, to the western Oklahoma plains, where buffalo were scarce and the land was infertile.

In November 1868, Black Kettle, a leader of the Cheyenne tribe, had camped with other tribes along the Washita River, which they called Lodgepole River, after the local pine trees.  Black Kettle and other leaders had been pleading for peace between their people and the US Government. However, the younger warriors seemed pleased that peace had not been made. They claimed that the Lakota and other northern bands would come down the following spring to "clean out the entire country." 

Colonel William Hazen, who had been involved in the negotiations, took the young warriors seriously and requested two more companies of the 10th Cavalry to Fort Cobb. Other generals such as Philip Sheridan and George Custer considered the Cheyenne and Arapaho to be "hostile" and planned a winter campaign against the tribes.

On the night of November 26, 1868, Custer divided his force into four parts, surrounding Black Kettle's village.  They attacked at daybreak, catching the village unawares.  The conflict was soon over but Custer had to quell remaining resistance which took longer.  

Black Kettle and his wife Medicine Woman were shot in the back while fleeing.

Estimates of the Cheyenne casualties range from 13 to 150 killed, with dozens of women and children captured.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: David Pendleton Oakerhater, first Native American Episcopal saint

David Pendleton Oakerhater, born in 1847 in Indian territory (Oklahoma), was the first Native American (Cheyenne) to be designated as a saint by the Episcopal Church. He participated in the Native Americans fighting against the European invaders.  He was taken prisoner after the Red River War in 1874-1875. 

He was sent to Fort Marion, near St. Augustine, Florida.  While there he began creating art, along with other Native American prisoners, becoming a prolific artist. He was given the name "Making Medicine" when he was arrested.

In 1877, Mary Douglass Burnham, an Episcopal deaconess, arranged for their release, and Oakerhater was sent to St. Paul's Church in New York.  Reverend J. B. Wicks provided Oakerhater's religious teachings, where he took  the Christian name David and he was baptized in 1878.  He became a deacon in 1881. 

He went to Indian Territory and Dakota Territory.  He encouraged the Cheyenne population near El Reno, Oklahoma to attend Episcopal services. He traveled to Anadarko, visiting and caring for ailing people of different tribes. 

In 1887, he built the Whirlwind Mission in Fay, near Watonga, Oklahoma. He remained there until he retired in 1918.  He moved to Clinton, Oklahoma and then back to Watonga, where he passed away in 1931. 

In 1985, the Episocpal Church designated Oakerhater as a saint, based on his work as a missionary and his ministries.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Jerry Elliot High Eagle, Osage Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee

Jerry Elliott High Eagle, born in 1943 in Oklahoma City, was one of the first Native American employed at NASA.  His contributions as lead retrofire officer during the Apollo 13 disaster earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Although facing racial discrimination from the professors at University of Oklahoma, he received a degree in physics, being one of the first Native Americans to achieve such an accomplishment. He joined NASA as a flight mission operations engineer in 1966.  He was Program Staff Engineer during the Apollo-Soyuz Program.

He was the only Native American in mission control during Apollo 11's successful moon landing.  He was lead Retrofire Officer during the Apollo 13.  For his work on helping bring the astronauts home safely, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.

His name "High Eagle" was given to him by tribal elders when he turned 41.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Moses Yellow Horse, 1920s MLB player

Moses J. Yellow Horse, born January 28, 1898 in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), was a full-blooded Pawnee, who played two seasons in Major League Baseball. He began playing baseball when he attended the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. After leaving Chilocco, he pitched for the Little Rock Travelers, a minor league team in the Southern Association.  He helped the team win its first championship in 1920. 

In 1921, he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates.  His MLB debut was on April 15 when he relieved pitcher Peter Hamilton.  The Pirates won the 3-1 over the Cincinnati Reds.  Later that year, he injured his arm and the surgery forced him to sit out for two months.  In 1922, he injured his arm a second time.  In his two years with the Pirates, he compiled a record of 8 wins and 4 losses.

With his major league career over, Yellow Horse moved to the minors, but his career was plagued with injuries and alcoholism.  He played for the Sacramento Senators of the Pacific Coast League. He was traded to Fort Worth but then soon was returned to Sacramento.  They sold him to Omaha.  He pitched his final game May 16, 1926. 

In 1945, he stopped drinking, which had created a divide between him and the Pawnee tribe, and found steady work.

He passed away in Pawnee, Oklahoma in April 1964.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Johnston Murray, first Native American governor in the US

 Johnston Murray, born July 21, 1902 in the Chickasaw Nation, in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), was the first Native American to be elected as governor in the United States. His mother Mary Alice Hearrell was one-eighth Chickasaw, but Johnston never opted to enroll as a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.  

His father William Murray was an advisor to Governor Douglas Johnston of the Chickasaw Nation, and served as ninth governor of Oklahoma from 1931-1935.

Johnston Murray attended public schools in Tishomingo, Oklahoma and attended college at the now Murray State College (named for his father), graduating in 1924.

He became active in state politics with the Democratic Party, and in 1940, he was elected chairman of the Oklahoma Electoral College. He then served as the Democratic chair of Oklahoma's 8th Congressional District.

Murray was elected Governor of Oklahoma in November 1950, taking office January 21, 1951. He was the first Oklahoma governor to be elected as Chairman of the Southern Governors Conference.  He funded the Turner Turnpike, which connected Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  The project had been approved by the legislature in 1947, and it was completed during his administration.  Murray was instrumental in purchasing the state fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. 

After leaving politics he worked in Fort Worth, Texas for a while, before returning to Oklahoma City, in 1960.  He passed away in April 1976 after a surgery for a ruptured abdominal blood vessel.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Juanita Howling Buffalo, first woman chair of Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes

Juanita Howling Buffalo, born September 6, 1930 in Canton, Oklahoma, became the first woman to chair the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. After finishing her education she served in the Women's Army Corps where she met John W. Learned, whom she married and had 10 children with.

In 1965, she was a write-in candidate for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee and was not elected.  She obtained an injunction and was successful. A new election was held in 1966, and she and two other women won council seats. 

She became the first woman to serve as tribal chair in 1982.  During her term, she led protest against closing of the Concho Indian School and managed to obtain an injunction, but the school closed in 1983. 

Learned went to Washington DC with other tribal leaders in 1990 to reclaim the land and facilities of Fort Reno (near El Reno, Oklahoma) which had been vacated by the military in 1948 and transferred to the Dept. of Agriculture. In 1991, she helped reorganize the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

She passed away in Oklahoma City in 1996.

"Oklahoma!" released nation-wide 1956

The movie adaptation of  Rodgers and Hammerstein's wildly successful Broadway musical Oklahoma! opened in theaters across the US, November 16, 1956, the forty-ninth birthday of the state.  It had premiered in Los Angeles and Chicago the previous year. 

It starred Gordon MacRae as Curly and Shirley Jones as Laurey.  Eddie Albert, James Whitmore, and Rod Steiger also appeared.

Oklahoma! was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two: Best Sound Recording and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.  The two other nominations were for Best Cinematography, Color and Best Film Editing. 

On the centennial birthday of Oklahoma, November 16, 2007, the movie was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.