06/01/2026
Left is Buck Colbert Franklin and right is Mary E. Jones Parrish. These are what heroes of Tulsa history look like.
Franklin, in the embers of his life 105 years ago, working from a tent, fought and beat Tulsa leaders at the Oklahoma State Supreme Court to wrestle the land of Greenwood from the Tulsa Real Estate Commission helmed by Tate Brady.
In that same heap of ash, Parrish, the owner of a typing school on Greenwood Ave., realized that one's story is all they have and captured hundreds of eyewitness accounts of the Tulsa Race Massacre, and assembled them in a book called Events of the Tulsa Disaster (1923).
These people solidified the two primary documents on which all knowledge of the Massacre is built. Without them, the hunter would still be telling the tale of the hunt and we will be further mired in darkness and misinformation.
Use this 105th anniversary weekend to thank their memories and ancestors for the continued work to keep the story correct.
For Greenwood.
