You are standing on the northwest edge of what remains of Black Wall Street, on the west side of Greenwood Avenue. At this location, journalist A. J. Smitherman founded and operated The Tulsa Star. It was the first Black-owned newspaper in Tulsa — and, more notably, the most outspoken periodical in the city.

Originally founded as The Muskogee Star, A. J. Smitherman moved his publication to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1913 and renamed it The Tulsa Star. It was produced right here in the heart of Black Wall Street. Anyone wonder about the annual subscription rate for The Tulsa Star back in the day? One dollar and fifty cents.

Blending a rigorous discipline for investigative reporting with the voice of a passionate activist, The Tulsa Star was a public institution that could not be ignored. Whether it was exposing and, at times, preventing racial violence throughout the state — most notably in 1918 at Bristow, Oklahoma — or delivering blistering editorials about the rise of white mob vigilantism, A. J. Smitherman became Oklahoma’s most visible Black figure.

In 1919, with his stature reaching a peak, Smitherman was the only Black Oklahoman invited by the governor to meet President Woodrow Wilson during a visit to the state capital.

Smitherman was also a staunch voting rights advocate and civil rights leader. One of his crusades was a campaign to have Blacks serve along side whites on local election boards. Though unsuccessful in that effort, Smitherman convinced authorities to create the first-ever all-Black precinct election board. Once established, he became Tulsa’s first African American inspector of elections.

Smitherman’s advocacy extended beyond racial injustices. He used The Tulsa Star to hold law enforcement accountable for a broad range of issues. Smitherman lobbied to have prostitution, gambling, and other organized criminal activity prosecuted and shut down, garnering a reputation as a moral watchdog.

Despite his concern for Tulsa as a whole, A. J. Smitherman was still a Black man wholly unprotected from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and its aftermath. White Tulsans accused Smitherman of stoking racial tensions through his post at The Tulsa Star. Members of the mob burned his business office and smashed his printing presses. They also blamed him for inciting the group that went from Greenwood to Tulsa on the night of May 31 to protect Dick Rowland.

Eventually, Smitherman would be one of sixty-three Black men indicted for instigating the mob violence. No white people were charged.

As a result, Smitherman and his family — who survived the burning of their home by hiding in their basement — were forced to flee Oklahoma, never to return again. Tulsa lost a powerful and effective force for justice and equality on that day, but it did not silence that voice. The family would eventually settle in Buffalo, New York, where Smitherman continued his advocacy and started another newspaper, The Empire Star. The Tulsa indictment against A. J. Smitherman would ultimately be dismissed in 2007.