Funeral Held For Survivor Of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

<p>One of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot was remembered on Friday in Tulsa.&nbsp;</p>

Friday, November 23rd 2018, 5:50 pm



One of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot was remembered on Friday in Tulsa.

11/21/2018 Related Story: Tulsa Community Mourns Death Of 1921 Race Riot Survivor

Dr. Olivia Hooker retold the story many times of hiding under the dinner table as her family's house was looted.

Hooker's family had a department store in the Greenwood District that was burned to the ground. The family survived at their home which was damaged but not destroyed. They attended Vernon AME Church, which was burned and rebuilt and that's where a memorial service was held for her today.

The songs of remembrance poured out in a 2-hour service for a survivor who lived the longest to tell the story.

Her mother made sure, in 1921, she was an eyewitness to what she never saw as a riot.

"And she took me to the front window and had me peer through the blinds and said that's a machine gun up there," said Dr. Hooker in a past interview.

Throughout her life, she told the story and ended up changing the conversation.

"This is a not a riot, this was a massacre. This was no newfangled thing young folks came up with, it was Dr. Hooker, who said this was a massacre," said Rep. Regina Goodwin of Tulsa.

The massacre forced 10,000 black Tulsans from their homes. Possibly hundreds of people were killed. The Hooker family which had been successful on Greenwood before 1921  left Tulsa forever.

"She had to leave everything she and her family knew. That didn't deter her. She continued on in her education, got a Ph.D. and she went on to serve her country.  A country that never really did much for her, as far as justice," said Dr. Robert Turner the Reverend of Vernon AME.

Hooker fought for civil rights throughout her life. She was the first African American woman to serve in the Coast Guard. She earned a doctorate, was a teacher, and psychologist.

When she was 100, the Coast Guard named a training facility after her.

"When circles were built to keep her out, she pushed in and she became the first," said Nehemiah Frank of the Black Wall Street Times.

The Hooker family had and lost $104,000 of property during the massacre. One of Friday's speakers speculated how different Tulsa and Greenwood might have been had those families that were driven out been allowed to thrive here.

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