The Uncrowned Queens Instrumental in Righting an 86-year old Injustice

William Evans, Gen. B.O. Davix, Sr., unknown, .J. Smitherman, June 1944, (photo courtesy of the Buffalo.Urban League)

In 2003, when Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram and I were informed that our application to the Oklahoma Centennial Commission for the “Uncrowned Queens of Oklahoma 1907-2007” was accepted as an official Centennial project, we had an idea but could not fully imagine the impact that this project would have.   It has taken us across the state of Oklahoma, from Oklahoma City, to Enid, to Tulsa, to Altus, and introduced us to many gracious and welcoming Oklahomans.  And, as was our goal, it has taken us across time into Oklahoma’s rich African American history, while simultaneously providing some unanticipated bridges connecting two communities, separated by distance but united by culture and history.

At the time that we began to formulate the Uncrowned Queens of Oklahoma Project, we became acquainted with Mrs. Eddie Faye Gates of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Mrs. Gates is a retired educator, who is a member of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, a body appointed by the Governor to examine the incidents related to the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Black district.  Mrs. Gates came to Buffalo in 2003 to keynote the Uncrowned Queen’s third annual conference.  Her poignant stories of the Race Riot survivors were riveting and sparked our interest in learning more about this historic event, which was so thoroughly hidden that many Tulsans were not aware of the catastrophe that occurred in their own city.

At some point, thanks to “They Came Searching: How Blacks Sought the Promised Land in Tulsa”, one ofseveral books written by Mrs. Gates, I came across Mr. Andrew Jackson Smitherman, the owner/publisher/editor of the “Tulsa Star” newspaper.  Smitherman, a leading citizen of Tulsa at the time of the riot had also been accused of inciting the riot and indicted for his alleged role in that incident.  Forced to flee Tulsa, he settled in Springfield, Massachusetts for a short time before moving to Buffalo in 1925 and making this city his home.  Mr. Smitherman started a new newspaper in 1932, appropriately named, the “Buffalo Star”. 
As I continue (it’s an ongoing process) to research the life of Mr. Smitherman in Buffalo and Tulsa, I have found a man of great courage, conviction and moral integrity – a true “community builder”.  To date, history has been fairly silent on his life since Tulsa.  However, given Smitherman’s history of community building in Tulsa and Buffalo, the role of racism in the events leading up to the Tulsa Race Massacre and Riot and the un-substantiated charges against him, I decided to ask for redress to one of the injustices he experienced.
In May of this year, I wrote to the District Attorney of Tulsa County, Mr. Tim Harris, and requested that he review Mr. Smitherman’s case and consider clearing his record of the alleged charges of inciting the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.  Upon review of the Smitherman indictment and that of about 50 other falsely accused men, Mr. Harris has made the decision to drop the charges thus leading to the expungement of their records after 86 years!  Per my conversations with Mr. Harris about his decision, he said, “it’s the right thing to do.”  And that “Tulsa needs a healing.”

On December 11, 2007, Dr. Brooks-Bertram and I will be in Tulsa for the ceremony to officially expunge the records of Andrew J. Smitherman and others who were indicted for inciting the Tulsa Race Riot and Massacre*.  This historic ceremony will be attended by political leaders from the state of Oklahoma and the City of Tulsa, members of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission, Tulsa Race Riot Survivors and their families and others.  This will be an historic occasion, to which the Uncrowned Queens Institute is proud to have been the initiator and which we hope, with Mr. Harris, will contribute to the City’s efforts to heal the wounds that still scar the soul of this community.
Barbara A. Seals Nevergold, Ph.D., Co-founder, the Uncrowned Queens Institute
Read more about Andrew Jackson Smitherman at http://uncrownedkings.com