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DELIVERING NEWS YOU NEED
• Vol. 9 • June 3 - 9, 2021
MY TRUTH By Cheryl Smith PUBLISHER
Don’t start tripping about washing your hands
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, we received mixed signals. One message that was constant was, “wash your hands.” Even before the mandate to wear masks, health officials were stressing the importance of washing your hands. The Center for Disease Control instructed, “To prevent the spread of germs during the COVID-19 pandemic, you should also wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol to clean hands.” I loved that directive because I have always wondered about people who didn’t wash their hands. Go into any restaurant and you’ll find signs instructing employees to wash their hands. The CDC gave explicit instructions: Follow these five steps every time. 1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap. 2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails. 3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice. See MY TRUTH, page 12
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Tulsa Race Massacre 100 Years Later
By Valerie Fields Hill News Editor Texas Metro News
A group of Dallas women joined thousands of Oklahomans and others from across the nation in commemorating this weekend’s 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. On Friday, University of Texas at Arlington Adjunct Professor Pamela “Safisha” Hill, a Dallas resident, marched along North Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa with fellow members of the African Ancestral Society, whose peers are from Dallas, Houston, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. “It was very spiritual...very emotional,” said Dr. Hill, who
I WAS JUST THINKING... By Norma Adams-Wade
Virtual world of all beautiful people
Greenwood Survivors during Tulsa Race Massacre Commemoration
drove from her home to Tulsa Thursday afternoon to participate in Friday morning’s march and other weekend activities. On Friday, many of Tulsa’s
larger hotels downtown had sold out of rooms, Dr. Hill said, and some travelers were left looking for accommodations in See TULSA, page 12
Everybody is beautiful on social media. I can prove it. Just look at the comments every time someone posts a new photograph of themselves on one of the social media sites. The parade of comments spill forth: “Beautiful!” “Looking good!” “Beautiful!” “Go girl!” “Beautiful!” “You look amazing!” and so on, and so on, and so on.
Rising from the Ashes
Black Wall Street reflects the Story of a Resilient People Photos and Story By Sylvia Dunnavant Hines
Hannibal Johnson
After a hundred years, the souls of Black Wall Street are rising up to show a resilient people as Tulsa celebrates the centennial of the Greenwood community massacre. “There is an absolute through line between the
Flewellen’s reopens
Flewellen’s Grand Reopening
When Mary Flewellen founded Flewellen’s salon in the Spring of 1970 she had high hopes, but shortly after the launch her family suffered a dev-
Credit: Ed Gray
astating tragedy. Widowed with five children, she was forced to make some tough decisions which included what to do See FLEWELLEN’s, page 14
past and the present not just for Tulsa but for America in general,” said Hannibal B. Johnson author of Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples with Its Historic Racial Trauma. “What happened to Tulsa in terms of the massacre is symbolic of the racial history of America. We know that in the run up
for 1921, the year for the incident in Tulsa, we had the summer of 1919. This was called the red summer. Red which was indicative of the blood that was shed from Black people as the result of racial violence in America.” Last weekend Tulsa commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Black Wall
supporting minority males continues through innovative ZOOM activities planned for students See FUTURE LEADERS, page 3
See THINKING, page 5
See STREET, page 6
Kevin Robinson, “The Pie DUDE”” Beverly Tutt, Carol Mayo and Dr. Jennifer Wimbish.
The work of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.,
Credit: Pinterest
Beauty is such an arbitrary, eye-of-the-beholder quality. I was just thinking… How did it happen that we woke up one day and everybody is beautiful? And have we become so vain that we hungrily post our photographs online and wait breathlessly for the manufactured praises to begin? “Beautiful!” “Beautiful!” “Beautiful!” Ordinary-looking people (like myself) could post a new photograph right now and within the half-hour I would become a pageant queen – if I were to believe the lying, instant-gratification comments that would pop up. Through the ages, songs have given us countless lessons about beauty. The Temptations told listeners in the 1960s that beauty was
Program recognizes leaders
By Carol Mayo and Jennifer Wimbush
Actress Halle Berry