February 15, 2014

In this issue, Michael Wallis shows us the dark side of Route 66, Kavin Ross introduces us to Nelson Mandela’s Tulsa friend, Steve Gerkin profiles the once czar of Greenwood, and Cortney Stone takes us on Oklahoma’s long journey to women’s suffrage. Plus, we celebrate James Dean Week in Tulsa.

THE OTHER MOTHER ROAD: Michael Wallis reveals a Route 66 once off-limits to people of color and explores the green book they used to navigate it.

THE EXONERATED CZAR OF GREENWOOD: Steve Gerkin looks into the life of J.B. Stradford, a Greenwood District businessman who played an important role during the events of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

A FRIEND INDEED: J. Kavin Ross introduces us to Nelson Mandela’s friend from Tulsa.

AGAINST ALL FRAUDS: Cortney Stone takes us inside decades-long battle that gave Oklahoma women the right to vote.

LESSON LEARNED: A little girl’s first lesson on racism, learned in Mississippi, 1993. A poem by Claire Collins.

REST STOP: A girl who’s gotta go reminds a rest stop clerk of the woman on her way out of his life. Fiction by Caitlin Horrocks.

ORIGINAL OKIE: Rosetta Funches is the founder and director of the Oklahoma Black Museum and Performing Arts Center in Oklahoma City.