TU Law to launch Buck Colbert Franklin Legal Clinic

A century after attorney Buck Colbert Franklin (18791960) set up shop in Tulsa’s Greenwood District to offer legal counsel to an underrepresented community, The University of Tulsa’s College of Law is returning to that neighborhood to carry on Franklin’s legacy and give hope to those most in need.

The Buck Colbert Franklin Legal Clinic will be the latest addition to TU Law’s Clinical Education Program. It will provide free legal services to clients in Greenwood and North Tulsa who require assistance with a variety of issues identified in consultation with community leaders and service providers. Legal assistance will be available, for example, on issues including housing, such as foreclosure prevention and evictions; disability applications; expungements and pardons; unemployment applications; small business formation; and problems repaying business loans.

The clinic is named after Tulsa attorney Buck

Colbert Franklin, who was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar in December 1907 and established his law practice in Tulsa with Attorney I.H. Spears on Greenwood Avenue in 1921. Franklin moved to Tulsa 100 years ago this month from Rentiesville, where he had lived with his wife, Molly Parker Franklin, and his two youngest children, Anne Harriet and John Hope. His family had lived in Oklahoma since they arrived in the 1830s, enslaved to the Birney Chickasaw family.

In the aftermath of the 1921Tulsa Race Massacre, Franklin served his community and his profession by

assisting massacre survivors. Working from a tent because his office had been burned down, Franklin fought back against the injustice of the massacre and the city’s assault on Tulsa’s Black community. Through his advocacy, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a City of Tulsa ordinance passed in the aftermath of the massacre that allowed survivors to rebuild their homes only if they used fireproof building materials.

“My grandfather, B.C. Franklin, helped his community rebuild after a white mob destroyed Greenwood in two days. You will note that his clinic, photographed June 6, 1921, accommodated his partner, I. H. Spears, and their temporary secretary, Effie Thompson, my grandfather’s college classmate from Roger Williams University in Nashville. The tent held lawbooks, a typewriter and a telephone! Residents lined up to submit their insurance claims,” said historian John. W. Franklin, a program manager and curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. “I am very pleased that the new TU B.C. Franklin Legal Clinic honors Grandpop’s commitment to public service.”

“The TU College of Law is well recognized for providing outstanding clinical programs that serve multiple needs and diverse communities in our city,” commented Dean Lyn Entzeroth. “The College of Law Buck Colbert

FranklinLegalClinic,whichgrewoutofthecollaborative work of TU alumni, faculty, students and community members, expands the breadth of the college’s clinical offerings and carries on Mr. Franklin’s legacy of service, leadership and justice.”

The Buck Colbert Franklin Legal Clinic is possible thanks to the generosity of donors who contributed to the recent ‘Cane Crowd fundraising campaign in support of the 1921 Race Massacre Centennial Coalition, a new entity at TU Law comprised of students, faculty and alumni. The coalition’s mission is to mark the centennial of the tragedy with hope and action. Members of TU Law’s vibrant Alumni Association have been particularly instrumental in conceiving of and financially supporting the coalition and the clinic.

(Printed with permission from the University of Tulsa College of Law from their website https://law.utulsa.edu/buck-colbertfranklin-legal-clinic/ )