Dr. Olivia Hooker, 103, Civil Rights Activist and Race Riot Survivor
Military Trailblazer Dr. Olivia Hooker, first Black Woman to enter Coast Guard and Survivor of Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Riot of 1921
At the time of the worst race riot in the Americas, Ms. Olivia Hooker saw and experienced what no young girl of six years old should have had to experience.
This race riot destroyed her community as well as her parents’ home in less than 24 hours and her life was changed forever. Mobs of white men destroyed over 1,000 homes and many many successful business that were in the Greenwood District, a very affluent and independent area in 1921. Because of this community successes and independence, angered whites sought to destroy the entire community by burning it down. Years later the city records estimate the death toll to be 300 but in reality it is noted that many more deaths may be unaccounted for.
Of course, Tulsa, Oklahoma in the pastime had played down this atrocity but times have changed and people are demanding that the truth be reckoned with along with the number of deaths that perished at the hands of these white mobs.
Ms. Hooker recalls vividly how her parents home was destroyed and wrecked as she and her three sibling hid themselves…
