This past weekend, on February 15th 2015, Dr. Olivia J. Hooker was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the NYS Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators' Caucus. She turned 100 years old two days prior. Her story is amazing and it should continue to be shared.
Dr. Olivia J. Hooker was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1915, and moved with her family to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her father was a successful businessman who operated a clothing store and her mother was a former teacher in the Greenwood District, which was referred to as “the prairie’s own small turn-of-the-century Harlem”.
Dr. Olivia Hooker was six years old when her community in Tulsa was destroyed on May 31, 1921, in the worst race riot in the history of the United States. The Tulsa Riot resulted in the deaths of more than three hundred people, and the burning of more than one thousand homes and businesses. Dr. Olivia J. Hooker vividly remembers being awakened by the thudding sounds of machine gun ammunition raining down on her family’s home.
The race riots in Tulsa were a result of white anger at the wealth an prosperity of blacks in the Greenwood District, commonly known as "Black Wall Street."
Throughout her later life, Hooker has been actively involved in raising the American consciousness about the Tulsa Race Riots. In 1997, along with other survivors, Dr. Hooker helped found the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, which drafted recommendations for restitution. She has participated in the creation and dissemination of the documentary Before They Die, which seeks reparations for riot survivors from the American government. She has also testified on Capitol Hill in unsuccessful hearings organized by the Congressional Black Caucus on restitution for Greenwood residents.
Dr. Olivia J. Hooker earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Ohio State University, went on to earn a Masters Degree in Psychological Services from Teachers College at Columbia University, and then earned a Doctoral Degree from the University of Rochester, where she was one of two black female students.
To learn more about her experience in Tulsa and the circumstances of the riot, check out Dr. Hooker's interview with CUNY professor Dr. Roscoe C Brown, Jr. and Reggie Turner (director of Before They Die):
http://youtu.be/GqIwcuMeJtQ
NYS Black and Puerto Rican Legislators' Caucus 2015 Awards Reception
NY Senate: http://www.nysenate.gov/story/dr-olivia-j-hooker
Feminist Voices: http://www.feministvoices.com/olivia-hooker/
