CULTURE the Va N Guard by Susan Dragoo
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MUSIC CULTURE The Va n guard By SUSAN DRAGOO WHO SHOULD HAVE A PLACE ON A DEFINITIVE LIST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST, THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ART AMONG ACHIEVERS, THE MOST IMPACTFUL INDIVIDUALS DANCE IN A STATE RICH IN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM AFRICAN AMERICANS? WE ASSEMBLED A SEVEN-MEMBER PANEL OF EXPERTS, AND THE RESULT OF THEIR COLLECTIVE WISDOM IS THE FOLLOWING LIST OF THE FORTY-FIVE Our positive, productive activities help children discover MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICAN AMERICANS IN OKLAHOMA. new talents, abilities, self-con dence, and pride while also deterring juvenile delinquency in our community. Available Onsite Programs: • Summer Arts GREENWOOD • Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools • Women of Tomorrow • Applying Essentials of Art CULTURAL • Exploring Art CENTER N G A, T . . . OklahomaToday.com 37 TY E I HANNAH DIGGS ZELIA N. BREAUX CHARLES HENRY TING NANCY RANDOLPH OC KE R S OPUBCO ATKINS “CHARLIE” CHRISTIAN MA DAVIS CAL [ 1880-1956 ] RI O [ 1923-2010 ] [ 1916-1942 ] RSITY [ b. 1926 ] IST E H Zelia N. Breaux had a far- NIV U Hannah Diggs Atkins was reaching impact on American Charlie Christian’s life was U Nancy Randolph Davis has S O Y/ Oklahoma’s first female African music and culture. As a OKLAHOMA JAZZ HALL OF FAME short in years but long on proven her own assertion OKLAHOMA American legislator. Elected to music teacher at Frederick impact. He took up the guitar at that persistence and focus HOCKLE S L the Oklahoma House of Rep- A. Douglass High School age twelve, playing music while I lead to success. In 1949, resentatives in 1968, she served and supervisor of music a student at Douglass High PH the Sapulpa native became until 1980. During her time in for Oklahoma City’s black School under the mentorship the first African American office, the North Carolina transplant, who represented the schools, she mentored a group of future stars that included of Zelia Breaux and perfecting his craft busking and playing student to enroll at Oklahoma State University (then 97th House District in Oklahoma City, was an advocate Charlie Christian, Ralph Ellison, and Jimmy Rushing. Her in Deep Deuce dance halls. His stylistic innovations on the Oklahoma A&M). She earned her master’s degree for Oklahoma’s most vulnerable citizens. In 1980, President music venue in Deep Deuce, the Aldridge Theatre, hosted electric guitar changed it from a rhythm instrument to an im- there and taught home economics in the Oklahoma Jimmy Carter appointed her a U.S. delegate to the United prestigious traveling musicians, and her Douglass High portant solo presence in ensembles. Christian died of tuber- City area for forty-three years. In December 2008, the Nations. “She was an outstanding, dynamic trailblazer of the School marching band was among the best in the country. culosis at twenty-five. In a 1982 interview, Benny Goodman, Oklahoma Human Rights Commission honored the first magnitude,” says panelist Hannibal B. Johnson. Breaux was educator Inman E. Page’s daughter. who played with Christian in the Benny Goodman Sextet, Oklahoma City resident with an award for her dedica- said, “He was unique! A brilliant musician. Inventive…. He tion as a pioneer in education and human rights. was way ahead of his time and a joy to listen to.” TY E I EUM S JAMES HERMAN W.A.J. BULLOCK N O SOC TI A I BANNING N ROSCOE DUNJEE CAL c. 1877-1946 [ ] O OC RI PACE MU PACE S O TOM COLBERT SS A & 1899-1933 1883-1965 [ ] [ ] DIVISI E IR O W.A.J. Bullock was a Chickasha G T [ b. 1949 ] A AL A NTY HIST RIT N PHO O James Herman Banning, a surgeon and family physician Roscoe Dunjee published OU HE B TI S A L N Canton native, was the first black for more than forty years. While Born in Oklahoma City, Tom Oklahoma City’s first DY C N A A R G NI pilot to fly coast to coast across serving as regional director of Colbert earned his juris doctor- black newspaper, the Black O S OKLAHOMA H IT the United States. Shortly after the NAACP’s southwestern ate from the University of Dispatch, from 1915 to M S his historic journey with copilot Oklahoma branch, he joined Oklahoma in 1982. In 2000, he 1954. Whether in oratory and fellow Oklahoman Thomas Roscoe Dunjee in accompany- became the first African Ameri- or in scathing editorials C. Allen, he tried to rent a plane to fly in a San Diego air show ing Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher to OU President George L. Cross’ can appointed to the Oklahoma denouncing injustice, but was refused because of his race. Instead, he was a passenger office in 1946 as she attempted to enroll in OU’s College of Court of Civil Appeals, where he was uncompromising in his stand for equality. on a flight with a less-experienced pilot. When their biplane Law. Bullock was an important part of Fisher’s remarkable he later served as chief judge. In 2004, Governor Brad Henry Dunjee led the Oklahoma branch of the NAACP stalled in a steep climb and crashed, Banning died at age thirty- story, and in her 1996 autobiography, she describes him as the appointed Colbert to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, making for more than a decade and was a key figure in four. “We appreciate Mr. Banning’s courage and resolve,” says “chief spokesman, role model, and protector of Chickasha’s him its first African American justice. In November 2012, several landmark court cases affecting segregation in panelist Loretta Y. Jackson. entire African American community.” Colbert’s fellow justices elected him chief justice, a term that Oklahoma. Dunjee was, says Hannibal B. Johnson, “a expired at the end of 2014. “Justice Colbert’s groundbreak- giant among giants—a trailblazer in journalism and ing ascendancy to Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme civil rights.” Court broke what once seemed an impenetrable barrier,” says Hannibal B. Johnson. R E ND KEVIN DURANT HU ThE BUFFALO SOLDIERS TY b. 1988 ITY T E [ ] I C 1866-1890s OC GREEN I. CURRIN [ ] S The reigning Most Valuable CAL [ c. 1842-1918 ] These African American cavalry and infantrymen, who RI O OKLAHOMA Player of the National served in the U.S. Army after the Civil War, were pio- IST H Green I. Currin was the first Basketball Association neers in post-slavery America and the first professional African American to serve and its four-time scoring black soldiers in the army. Playing a vital role in Indian OKLAHOMA in the Oklahoma Territorial leader, Kevin Durant is a Territory, they built infrastructure, protected tribal Legislature. Born in Tennes- household name. He is the members on reservations, enforced territorial laws, see, he moved west following star of the Oklahoma City and prevented land rushers from staking early claims. emancipation, working as a Thunder, but the Maryland native’s character invites “African Americans have long been willing to defend lawman in Kansas. During another level of worldwide admiration. Durant donated SS their country and make the ultimate sacrifice, but the E the Land Run of 1889, Currin staked a claim in King- $1 million to aid Moore tornado victims in 2013 and country has not always been willing to defend their full NGR fisher County and became one of five county delegates engaged other major donors to help. Another NBA CO rights as citizens,” says panelist Bob Blackburn. “The OF elected to the House of Representatives. To address great, LeBron James, said of Durant, “Besides being an RY RY lessons to be learned from the Buffalo Soldiers range A R violent racial attacks against African Americans, Cur- unbelievable talent, he’s a great guy who understands B I L from courage and commitment to perseverance and rin introduced the territory’s first civil rights legislation, what it means to be a role model. Oklahoma City is .S. U the fight for freedom.” which was ultimately unsuccessful. lucky to have KD.” 38 January/February 2015 OklahomaToday.com 39 no meaning in the vocabulary of Oklahoma lawmakers,” says Association of Negro Teachers in 1948 and represent- ST U R T RALPH WALDO panelist Alicia Latimer. “At the time of the 1921 race disas- ing Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher with Thurgood Marshall in ALBERT C. HAMLIN ABLE ELLISON ter, it was Mr. Franklin’s keen mind and dogged fortitude the landmark Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University [ 1881-1912 ] RIT that helped Tulsa victims in their struggle for justice.” Buck of Oklahoma. “He was an amazing, gifted lawyer and HA [ 1913-1994 ] N C O Franklin was historian John Hope Franklin’s father. civil rights advocate,” says Hannibal B. Johnson of Born to former slaves in Kansas, IS LL Ralph Ellison came of age in the man who later became the first African American Albert C. Hamlin and his fam- NNY E Oklahoma City’s Deep Deuce judge elected in the state. “His influence during his ily moved to Logan County in A & F neighborhood and was a rare art- JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN lifetime extended well beyond the borders of the state 1890. In 1908, Hamlin became RALPH ist who could capture the spirit of of Oklahoma.” the first African American [ 1915-2009 ] THE time and place with poetic beauty. elected to the Oklahoma legis- “Through his essays and fiction, In his 1947 work From Slavery lature. He ran for re-election in TY E Ralph Ellison used words like no one else to explore the world to Freedom, Rentiesville native I RUBYE HIBLER HALL 1910, but the growing strength of the Democratic Party and OC around him, whether it was the soul-crushing oppression of John Hope Franklin showed S its Jim Crow laws helped defeat him, making him the only CAL [ 1912-2003 ] RI racism or the creative complexity of jazz,” says Bob Blackburn.