DON THOMPSON: Capturing The Light For Tomorrow

CAPTURING THE LIGHT FOR TOMORROW: The Photography of Don Thompson

by B. L. Eikner

Don Thompson, Baltimore Barbershop, 1970, Silver Gelatin

Capturing the light, the shadow, the reflection, the stillness, the emotions seen, and unseen was the mission of the saddened heart, the strained focus of the eye through the Rolleiflex Medium Format and finger on the shutter button for photographer Don Thompson in the Greenwood District in 1970. The images must last a lifetime.

The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma was founded in 1901 by O. W. Gurley. Booker T. Washington visited this community in 1905 and was impressed with its hotels, restaurants, and many other businesses. He named it the Negro Wall Street, which since has been known as the Black Wall Street. This community was destroyed, and hundreds of citizens killed by deputized white terrorists and city officials on May 31, 1921 and June 1, 1921 based

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Don Thompson, So Near So Far, 1969, silver gelatin Don Thompson, Hope, silver gelatin

on false allegations that a black man, Dick Rowland, had attacked a white woman, Sarah Page, in a downtown elevator. The citizens who remained rebuilt the community. However, this community was destroyed a second time by the construction of a highway that ran through the heart of the community that displaced and destroyed thousands through Urban Renewal. This narrative is the background for the four images and others captured by Don Thompson in 1969 and 1970.

Baltimore Barbershop expresses the emotions and feelings of owner, Mr. David Gardner, peering out of the window at the bulldozers destroying homes, businesses, churches, libraries of the Greenwood District. The day after this photo was taken, Baltimore Barbershop was leveled, and the owner was never seen again. Lost forever under a city and county process called Urban Renewal, but this would not be so.

“I did not take images of the bulldozers destroying the foundation of people’s livelihoods, I wanted to save the images of the people, places, and spaces of Greenwood as much as I could. The bulldozers were swift and since I was doing photographs after work, a lot of possible images were lost.” says Thompson.

Georgola’s Café was located at the corner of Archer and Greenwood Avenue and was saved. It now houses the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center. Like many surviving businesses during that period, it went out of business. Thompson captures the coming of the End in the dark shadows in the café at the counter.

So Near So Far is a photo of the old Katy Railroad that no longer exists. The feel of hopelessness becomes a reality for this railroad track that once was a central transportation route in the community. Like many railroad tracks it has been removed along with the energy and life it once brought to the area.

George Monroe, a survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Tulsa, remembers hiding under the bed with his two sisters the day four white men broke into his family’s home. “One of them stepped on my finger as they set the house on fire. I started to scream-my sister put her hand over my mouth. I guess she saved our lives.” Mr. Monroe is part of the Race Riot Survival story documented by historian, Mrs. Eddie Faye Gates. Don Thompson has over 50 years of photographic experience which began in the US Army. Don is a photojournalist, author, historian, painter, presenter, former educator, and graduate of Northeastern State University. His work is on exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History, in Washington, D.C. Thompson published Hush Somebody’s Callin’ My Name in 2009, and, And My Spirit Said, Yes! The African American Experience: Visions of the Past and Present in 2013. Don is most proud of having received the National Endowment for The Arts Fellowship Award in 1993 for Photography.

Thompson’s cultural and artistic impact in Tulsa is wide reaching, and his work is featured in a wide variety of exhibitions and permanent collections. The Oklahoma State University Tulsa campus houses Thompson’s permanent photographic exhibit, entitled Black Settlers, In Search for the Promised Land, on which he collaborated with Mrs. Eddie Faye Gates in 1994-95.

With photographers Gaylord Oscar Hernan and Eyakem Gulilat, he’s featured in the exhibition Views of Greenwood at the

Don Thompson photo by Trabar & Associates

Philbrook Museum, 2727 South Rockford Avenue, Tulsa, Ok from March 14, 2021 through September 5, 2021. Contact the museum at 918-749-7941 for museum hours.

Reaching Back and Going Forward: Learning Our History So We Can Build a Better Future and World at the Tulsa Artist Coalition, 9 East Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK from May 24, 2021 - June 30, 2021. Contact the gallery at 918-592-0041 for gallery hours.

The Unvarnished Truth at Liggett Studio, 314 South Kenosha Avenue, Tulsa, OK, from May 7, 2021 - June 1, 2021. Contact gallery at 918-694-5719 for gallery hours.

Contact information for Don Thompson is donthompsonimages.com, email: dthompsonk@att.net, and telephone: 918-645-4508. n

B. L. Eikner is an author, journalist, poet, and art consultant. She is owner of Trabar & Associates and a regular contributor to Art Focus Oklahoma. She has published two books, Dirt and Hardwood Floors and How Do You Love …When?. She can be reached at Trabar@windstream.net or on Twitter @trabar1

Don Thompson, George Monroe, 1995, silver gelatin