A Legacy In Front of Our Own Eyes
The legacy of Oklahoma’s early Black pioneers lives on in our daily lives including American pop culture.
In the fifth chapter in the book of Genesis in the Bible, it lists a series of “this person begat this person.” This is seen numerous times throughout the King James Translation of this book. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines “beget” as “to be the father of” or “to cause.” This resembles a linear direction of cause and effect.
A few weeks ago, a new friend of mine asked “What would you like your legacy to be and how do you want to be remembered?” Initially, I found this question to be challenging, but then I immediately began to think of the legacy of my community.
Last summer, I had the privilege to write in 405 Business Magazine about the history of Oklahoma City’s Black entrepreneurs. This brief story gave a glimpse into some of the first pioneers of our city, many that we benefit from the legacy they have left.
(2012.201.B1180.0791, photo by R. Meek, Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, OHS).
I recently learned about one of Tulsa’s first Black physicians, Dr. R.T. Bridgewater. He was a doctor to many especially after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre as well as an owner of multiple rental properties and community leader. I have no evidence of this, but I’d like to think he and Dr. W.H. Slaughter, Oklahoma City’s first Black physician, were friends. They both were members of the Oklahoma Medical, Dental & Pharmaceutical Association (which was an association of Black doctors). Dr. Slaughter lived a similar life. As a philanthropist, doctor and developer, he was a giant for Oklahoma City’s Deep Deuce community and consider the wealthiest Black Oklahoman from his time. The famous Slaughter’s Hall was the home to his physician’s practice, the Randolph Drug Store and the Dance Hall that was frequented by famous jazz musicians. The Alabama-born physician moved to Oklahoma City in 1903 and in 1907, he married Edna Randolph, the daughter of Dr. J.D. Randolph. Besides sharing initials, I have a deep appreciation for Dr. Randolph. He was considered Oklahoma City’s first Black teacher when he opened up a schoolhouse in 1891, which was the precursor for the historic Douglass High School. Randolph and my great-great grandfather William Sulcer, both educators, came from Tennessee in 1890 to Oklahoma City as early pioneers following the Land Run and “opening” of the “Unassigned Lands,” by the federal government.
Dr. Randolph was a very bright man and influenced multiple generations of Black people in Oklahoma, including a young Ralph Ellison, the famed writer. In Ellison’s book, Going to the Territory, he wrote about Randolph’s impact on him. There was a time where Randolph also worked as the custodian for the State Law Library. Ellison shared that as a boy (probably around 1924) he assisted Randolph with his janitorial duties. Ellison was fascinated how white lawmakers would often seek “Jeff’s” (as the legislators would call Randolph by his first name) counsel on legal matters based in his vast knowledge of the law even without a legal education. He found irony in “the fact that white men of power would show no shame in exploiting the knowledge of one far beneath them in status…” Although these legislators sought Randolph’s knowledge, often times they went along with their own prejudices. This was around the time of the height of pushes for the anti-lynching bill when numerous advocates including Roscoe Dunjee, editor of the Black Dispatch, wrote editorials that highly lift up the political voices and influence of Black Oklahomans in the political sphere. The Dispatch was the only news publication to accurately report on the Tulsa Race Massacre with its headline: “LOOT, ARSON, MURDER!”
“The price we pay to exist in the state of Oklahoma is too great,” — Roscoe Dunjee
I got carried away a bit, but I want to re-center this article around the word “legacy.” Roscoe Dunjee started the Black Dispatch in 1914. Ralph Ellison was once a courier for the paper. According to his biography, authored by Bob Burke and Angela Monson, the paper was at risk of closing in its early years, due to its inability to make rent. Dr. Slaughter, owned numerous buildings in Deep Deuce, offered space in one of his buildings to Dunjee for his paper to continue, rent free until Dunjee was eventually able to pay. This example of cooperative economics (see Ujamaa) planted the necessary seed for Dunjee to growing his business, but more importantly, uplifting the voices of Black Oklahomans by speaking truth to power. Dunjee’s work expanded beyond the paper to his influence and leadership at the local and national NAACP. At Dunjee’s funeral in 1965, federal judge and future Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, shared in his eulogy that Dunjee had paid for the legal fees as Marshall and attorney Amos T. Hall worked on as the NAACP legal counsel including Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents. Both of these cases were precursors for the precedence of Brown V. Board of Education (1954).
Roscoe Dunjee, or as I call him, “The Godfather of Oklahoma Civil Rights,” impact has been multigenerational, directly and indirectly influencing notable Black leaders including Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, author Ralph Ellison, Oklahoma State Sen. E. Melvin Porter, educator and activist Clara Luper, former Oklahoma Sec. of State Hannah Diggs Atkins, and many, many others.
“A little bit of freedom is a dangerous thing.”
Clara Luper, I would call, The Mother of Oklahoma Civil Rights. She and Dunjee are arguably the most significant civil rights leaders in Oklahoma history. Mrs. Luper had a deep affinity for youth. She believed that children were not just our future, but our present too. She never met a child that she didn’t believe could change the world (I know for myself). As an educator at Dunjee School (yes that Dunjee) in Spencer, she led the Oklahoma’s NAACP Youth Council, which was established January 5th, 1948. She received her education from Langston University and her Master’s in 1951 from the University of Oklahoma, thanks to the legal work of Dunjee, Fisher, McLaurin, Hall and Marshall. On August 19th, 1958, she led 13 kids of the NAACP Youth Council to sit-in the Katz Drug Store in downtown Oklahoma City, in protest of their segregation policy. Of these 13 children, included her two own, Stanley Evans, Portwood Jr. and Donda Williams, and Barbara Posey, and 8others. (I mention Donda and Barbara for a reason).
Donda was the daughter of Portwood Williams, Sr. who helped Mrs. Luper drive the kids to the store. Donda went onto to have a fulfilling academic career as a professor, get married and gave birth to a son she named, Kanye. Yes, THE Kanye West, muscian and fashion mogul.
Barbara, similar to Donda, went on to fulfill a promising career as a professor and dean, got married and had several children, including a son named Bomani. Yes, THE Bomani Jones, sports journalist.
These two women, students of Clara Luper, took the belief and wisdom she instilled into them and passed to their sons. Kanye and Bomani are the manifestation of multiple generations of Black Oklahoma leaders guiding, influencing and educating the next generation. They provided each succeeding generation with wisdom, tools, knowledge, history, capital, housing, opportunities and community. Whether it was the guiding hand that J.D. Randolph influenced on Ralph Ellison, or it was Clara Luper through her investment in your students at her schools, the NAACP Youth Council or the many young Black women who participated in the Miss Black Oklahoma pageants Luper ran for decades. Their devotion and dedication in life was not only to invest in the future but to also honor the past and those who gave them the gifts they possess.
It started with Randolph begetting Slaughter and Ellison. Then, Slaughter beget Dunjee. Dunjee beget Luper. Luper beget Williams-West and Jones. Williams-West and Jones beget their sons, Kanye and Bomani, respectively. Today millions of people listen to these two men for their voice, perspective and craft. They would not be who they are had it not been for numerous generations prior to them pouring into the next. It is my great hope that North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm West understand and continue the legacy of their paternal great-grandfather and grandmother.
I dedicate this post to the many Black elders that have poured into me in my life, especially a few to mention: my grandmother Geraldine Carr Downey, her schoolteachers Clara Luper and Nancy Davis, and living legends, NAACP Youth sit-inners Joyce Henderson, Stanley Evans, Calvin Luper and Marilyn Luper Hildreth, and Dr. George Henderson. All that I am and ever hope to be, I owe to each of thee.
Note to reader: In my previous posts, I had failed to share links and sources of information. Moving forward, in order to continue to advance our collective understanding and knowledge, I intend to cite most of the non-primary sources of the information I share in these posts.
