COP Franklin Completes His First Year as Tulsa, Oklahoma's First African-American Police Chief

Chief Wendell Franklin embodies the hope of unity in a racially divided city.

courtesy of journalrecord.com

On February 7, 2021, Major Wendell Franklin just completed his first year as Tulsa, Oklahoma’s new police chief, who happens to be African-American. That may not seem significant to some. However, this is a historical event in light of Tulsa’s violent past. Maj. Franklin's appointment as police chief also coincides with the discovery of possible mass graves containing the bodies of the victims of the Massacre.

People in this community never imagined we would have a black police chief. I know this to be true because many of the people I am familiar with, black and white, have expressed their thoughts on the matter.

My Experience

This event is especially meaningful to me because I observed racial intolerance even when I was younger. I saw violent skirmishes in front of my house in the late 1960s and was singled out as a target because of my skin tone. Later, during my teens, when the movie Roots came out in 1977, tensions ran high, and the high schools erupted into mini riots.

However, I never let the pressure to conform to one side or the other dissuade me from loving all people. Currently, I have a racially mixed family comprising people of all colors and hues. However, I've been following the career of Chief Franklin because his mother and my daughter's father are brother and sister who both died tragically. This brings me back to Police Chief Wendell Franklin and why his first year is vital to the healing of our city.

1921 Race Massacre

Let’s revisit the 1921 Race Massacre when Tulsa experienced the worst race riot in this nation’s history. The thirty-five blocks of businesses, affluent homes, and churches, also known as the Black Wall Street, were leveled over thirty-six hours.

The ensuing massacre was the response to an alleged attack of an African-American teen upon a white elevator operator. Law enforcement provided guns and ammunition to the white rioters who murdered men, women, and children, bombed buildings and burned property.

The district never fully returned to its former glory, and a deep racial divide endured for decades. The white community tried to erase the memory of the attempted genocide by minimizing their actions and ignored pleas for restitution. The African-American community only spoke of the riot with disdain, and sometimes bitterness spilled over into the conservation.

Mayor Bynum

The lines are beginning to blur, though, since the election of Mayor G. T. Bynum, who ran on a platform to open the conversation about geographic and economic disparity to all Tulsans. The mayor also actively endorsed the search for possible mass graves rumored to be located in the proximity of Greenwood Ave, formerly known as Black Wall Street.

Mass Graves

Meanwhile, on December 17, 2019, scientists from the Oklahoma Archeological Society announced they had discovered a gravesite large enough to hold one-hundred bodies using ground-penetrating radar. It is estimated three-hundred people could be buried in mass graves in Tulsa. However, some believe it could be in the thousands.

For decades, rumors of mass graves containing the bodies of victims have circulated. In 1996, while attending the Tulsa Campus of Langston University, a historically black college or university (HBCU), our class attempted to locate the graves based on word of mouth. We gathered over the place and held hands in silent meditation.

The UC Berkeley News also suggests that thousands of bodies may have been dumped in the Arkansas River that runs parallel to downtown Tulsa where the initial encounter occurred that ignited the Massacre. Much of the proof of the Massacre has been lost or deliberately destroyed.

That is why Chief Franklin's presence on the police force is important to this community. If we are to move forward, I believe his leadership will help pave the way for reconciliation. Tulsan's can acknowledge the past and have a conversation about the future.

Despite all the events that the people of this city have endured, change is on the horizon. A sense of optimism is in the air. Maj. Franklin is the culmination of the past and embodies hope for Tulsa’s deep racial wounds carried for almost a century.

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