Ernestine Alpha Weathers was born on December 5, 1902, in Kansas City, Kansas to George and Gustava (Gussie) Weathers (both of Missouri). Her father was a laborer, and her mother worked as a seamstress. The couple may have moved to Indian Territory before, as it is rumored that they participated in the 1889 Land Run and briefly lived in Bristow, Oklahoma. It is unclear why they departed and moved to Kansas, where Ernestine was born. In 1911, they had a son, Archie. By 1920, the parents must have parted ways since the 1920 census recorded that George was living as a single person in Kansas City. Gussie and her two children were living in Greenwood.

In 1920, Ernestine, whose nickname was “Nee,” was in her first year at Booker T. Washington, one of the jewels in the district. Despite its high reputation, the school contended with underfunding. Unlike white schools on the other side of the tracks, that state did not supply the funds that allowed the institution to have a cafeteria or a library. Consequently, Ernestine recalled that teachers and students became experts at “making do.” Their resolve showed when Jim Ellis, a student from the school, won the city-wide spelling bee. The school’s staff inspired Ernestine greatly, especially her principal, Ellis Walker Woods. She was inspired by his encouragement that “We were as good as ninety-nine percent of all people and better than the other one percent.”[1] This belief profoundly influenced Ernestine throughout her life.

At the start of the Tulsa Race Massacre on May 31, 1921, Ernestine, then a sophomore, was up late preparing for school exams, which were to take place two days later. Normalcy was interrupted, and chaos ensued when a mob of white men descended upon the Tulsa Court House, ready to lynch Dick Rowland, who was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a young white woman. A crowd of Black men, many World War I veterans, sought to protect Rowland. A gun went off outside the building, commotion ensued, and the real trouble began. Many white men started arming themselves, claiming the need to put down a “Black insurrection.”

 Though the violence was still downtown, with several people, both Black and white, lying dead outside of it, a family friend came to the Weathers’s home and warned them to remain inside and turn off their lights for safety. A young man they knew was a family friend who came by a short while later seeking safety.

Initially, Ernestine and her family, which included an eight-year-old female cousin, sought sleep, likely hoping the morning would usher in peace. Instead, the next day, they became a part of an exodus of fleeing residents as the mob descended upon Greenwood and set fire to every building they could, and killed or captured those who tried to stop them, or even those surrendering or fleeing.  In response to accusations in the 1990s that Greenwood was not being attacked from the air, Ernestine maintained that it was.  Like some other residents, the family ended up staying in the woods. During the melee, Ernestine and her mother became separated from Archie.

In an interview with Oklahoma historian and author Eddie Faye Gates, Ernestine shared that a white Samaritan eventually aided her and her mother.  He allowed them to stay in his house until the family was taken by police to be moved to the fairgrounds. As they made their way, Ernestine recalled Greenwood as a war-torn place.  When the family was permitted to return home, the damage was devastating: “We found the only things that were not burned were something like metal-pieces of stoves or beds. All the trees were burned; everything was gone!”[2]

The next day, the Weathers took the train to the nearby suburb of Sapulpa, where they resided with family. They were reunited with Archie, who had swum across the Arkansas River to escape.  One night of lodging turned into many as the family discovered that their home and much of Greenwood destroyed.   The tragedy left Ernestine with deep emotional scars. She later admitted to Gates, “I can shut my eyes and still see the smoke, fire, and ashes from that awful riot. I’ll never forget it. No, not ever!”[3] 

As the Weathers stayed in Sapulpa, Ernestine could not imagine ever returning to Greenwood and hoped they did not. But the Weathers family soon joined other Greenwood citizens who began to try to piece back together their lives.   Upon returning to Greenwood, her mother found work as a laundress and cleaner, which were services that she offered in exchange for a place for them to live.

 Even more, classes resumed, and Ernestine was back in school by early September. It had to be quite the sight, as Booker T. Washington High School had been briefly transformed into a temporary field hospital where the American Red Cross treated nearly 2,000 suddenly homeless residents. Ernestine’s trauma continued; she could not remember what they did in school that year. Nevertheless, she kept going and graduated in 1923.

In June 1924, she married Robert Loyd (R.L.) Cherry of Texas). While R.L. worked as a hotel porter and then as a driver for a local produce company, Ernestine attended classes at nearby Langston University, Oklahoma’s sole historically black college. Little information endures about the marriage. In February 1932, the two divorced.  Ernestine remained in the home, which later became the site of civic meetings and social gatherings.

In 1929, Ernestine became a teacher at Booker. T. Washington Elementary is where she would spend most of her career (alongside Dargan and Howell).  While deeply engaged in teaching, she became an early participant (perhaps a charter member) of the Alpha Iota Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.. This international, historically Black sorority aims to address societal issues in the United States and abroad, promote academic excellence, and foster unity among its members.  The graduate organization went inactive the following year and remained this way until 1935. At its reappearance, Ernestine became involved again, eventually serving as anti-basileus.

On August 30, 1935, Ernestine wed Leroy Gibbs, of Newby, Oklahoma. Gibbs, unlike Ernestine, was from a big family with nine siblings. He was “always an entrepreneur,” even at a young age. In fact, in 1915, he opened his first business, Gibbs Fish and Poultry.[4] Although the couple experienced some marital struggles that led Ernestine to file for divorce in January 1941, they endured. They also went into business together.

In 1939, the couple began to sell eggs, an idea inspired by a visit to a relative’s farm in Bristow. Amazed by the volume of eggs they saw, the Gibbs hoped to make money selling chicken. Jeanne Goodwin wrote up their venture in her column in the Oklahoma Eagle. Goodwin shared, “Starting literally ‘before scratch,’ they brought eggs from the relative, took them to the hatchery, and then when the chicks were old enough, transplanted them to the backyard poultry house behind their house…”[5] Gibbs tried his hand at a tavern when the business proved short-lived. It was interrupted by his service in World War II.

After serving in World War II, the couple went into business again. This time, they bought fryers in Arkansas that they sold in Tulsa. When they saw how quickly these went (along with the groceries), they sold alongside them, they opened Gibbs Fish and Poultry in 1946. The business was next door to the Mann Brothers Grocery Store.  Family history holds that Ernestine’s savings and retirement funds allowed them to open the business. They taught the value of saving and serving to their children, Billy and Carolyn, and their grandchildren.

According to their grandson, “Gibbs II,” Leroy used candy and sweets to teach children math. He often aided their parents by allowing them to take goods on credit. The business also provided many jobs to the people of Greenwood. Their business acumen and strong reputation allowed the Gibbs to expand, owning a laundromat, a hardware store, a restaurant, a hardware store, and even a juke joint.

In addition to her business activities, Ernestine was engaged in several civic and social organizations. She belonged to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Tulsa Urban League, the Young Women’s Christian Association, and the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce. In 1946, she and fellow teacher Wilhemina Guess Howell joined with others to create the North Tulsa Recreational Council to promote wholesome recreation in the district.

In 1947, she became one of the earliest participants in the Tulsa chapter of the Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated, a body founded in Philadelphia in 1938 by 20 mothers to develop African American children and nurture future leaders. Alongside other WBWS women like Jeanne Goodwin, she worked to expose children to cultural activities and learning in non-school environments.

Ernestine joined the North Tulsa Businesswomen’s Club, which Doshia Burns first organized in September 1952. The body allowed businesswomen to discuss and plan varied professional events. They also worked together to provide scholarships to local students. Several of the club’s festive holiday events occurred in Ernestine’s home.

In the 1960s, Ernestine retired after shifting to teaching at Charles S. Johnson Elementary in 1951. She had spent nearly 40 years teaching and serving the district’s youth. Even in her retirement, she remained committed to academics and excellence. In one reflection, Gibbs II shared that once, when he wrote his grandmother a heartfelt letter from his bunk in Marine Bootcamp, she returned the letter with corrections. Ernestine held high standards for herself and others. It may have harkened back to E.W. Woods and other Greenwood teachers’ encouragement during her adolescence.

In the late 1950s, the arrival of urban renewal caused the Gibbses to move their business further north in Tulsa. They used this time to expand, purchasing a shopping center that included a supper club. When the Gibbs found the business too challenging to maintain, they sold it. Their more than fifty years in operation were recognized with various awards.

In 1998, the Gibbs couple received the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Community Service Award. They were also honored with a Foundation Image Award from the North Tulsa Heritage Foundation.  In 1996, Langston University honored Ernestine and two other alums at Morning Star Baptist Church in Tulsa. Leroy witnessed some of these accolades before his death in April 1999.

Ernestine remained busy during her retirement from teaching and business. In the 1980s and 1990s, she remained deeply engaged in clubs and groups, including her over forty-year participation in the De Classe Bridge Club. She worked to bring cultural events to Greenwood as a member of Theater North. Ernestine was especially engaged in the Booker T. Washington High School reunion activities. In addition to hosting annual events, she joined several others who traveled out of town on trips. In 2000, the group met in Pomona, California.

Ernestine also kept abreast of changes in education and frequently wrote letters to the editor of the Oklahoma Eagle. Her letters expressed her concern about what she felt was the decline in students’ home lives and the individualism she saw taking hold. Ernestine shared that her commitment to others is still shown in her monthly contributions to Meals on Wheels and regular donations to the Salvation Army.

Ernestine also worked hard to keep the history of Greenwood and the Tulsa Race Massacre alive. She appeared on the Today Show with Bryant Gumbel and the History Channel’s In Search of History.  In February 2003, she joined other survivors to seek reparations in a 2003 lawsuit. She passed away a few months later, which led the plaintiff’s legal team (Represented by Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree) to petition that the accounts of survivors who were passing away due to advanced age be videotaped and allowed as evidence.  On an appeal to the Supreme Court, the case was struck down in 2005 without comment.

In 2015, Ernestine’s and Leroy’s descendants purchased Gibbs’s old business when the new owner lost it to foreclosure. In honor of the founders’s sacrifice and hard work, they invested heavily in the venture, dubbing it Gibbs Next Generation. The business follows in Ernestine and Leroy’s footsteps by providing community services, including programs that promote children’s literacy and incubator space for artists.

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[1] Eddie Faye Gates, “Jeanne Goodwin,” They Came Searching: How Blacks Sought the Promised Land in Tulsa (Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1997), 85 (83-86).

[2] Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research & Education on Women, Inc., “Ernestine Gibbs,”  https://www.uncrownedcommunitybuilders.com/person/ernestine-gibbs (n.d).

[3] Gates, They Came Searching, 86.

[4] “Foundation to Honor 5 people,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), February 19, 1995.

[5] “Gibbs Market a Successful Poultry Business, Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), March 1, 2001.

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Citation: “Ernestine Weathers Gibbs,” in Brandy Thomas Wells, Ed. Women of Black Wall Street, 2025, https://blackwallstreetwomen.com/ernestine-gibbs/ (Access date).

Student Authors: Carson Bullock, James Dunlop, Katie Etheredge, Kyndal Hinton, Ellery Price, Abigail Richards, Haley Smith, Trever Sockey, and Blake Whort.

Student Editor: Brett Smith, WBWS Intern, Fall 2024.

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Sources:

US Federal Census, 1910 [Kansas City, Kansas], accessed via Ancestry.com.

US Federal Census, 1920 [Kansas City, Kansas], accessed via Ancestry.com.

US Federal Census, 1920 [Tulsa, Oklahoma], accessed via Ancestry.com.

Kansas City, Kansas 1903 City Directory, accessed via Ancestry.com.

 “The Final Chapter of a Walking History Book,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), August 1, 2003.

Eddie Faye Gates interview with Ernestine Gibbs, “Tulsa Race Riot (Massacre) Commission Interviews Tape 1.” Published December 2, 2019.

 “Race Riot’s Oldest Survivor Dead at 100,” Tulsa World, 21 May 2020.

Victor Luckerson, Built from The Fire: The Epic Story Of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street (New York: Random House, 2024).

Associated Press, “Damage Lingers after 100 years after Tulsa Race Massacre.” Video. 3:08.

Oklahoma City Thunder, “Descendants Carry on Gibbs Family Legacy.” Video. 3:49.

Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research & Education on Women, Inc., “Ernestine Gibbs,”  (n.d).

“Marriage Licenses,” Pawhuska Daily Journal (Pawhuska, Oklahoma), June 14, 1924.

 “Marriage Licenses,” Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, Oklahoma), February 8, 1932.

 “School Teachers to Be Given Sick Pay,” Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, Oklahoma), September 1, 1929.

 “Zetas and Their Pledges at Start of a Week of Jubilation,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), November 1, 1951.

“Clubs and Greek Letter Society,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), February 1, 1951.

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“Foundation to Honor 5 people,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), February 19, 1995.

“Marriages,” Tulsa Daily Legal News (Tulsa, Oklahoma), May 27, 1943.

“Gibbs Market a Successful Poultry Business, Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), March 1, 2001.

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 “Fourteen New Teachers Join Local Schools,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), September 6, 1951

Funeral Program for Leroy Gibbs, National Museum of the African American History & Culture, Washington D.C.

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Ann Brown, “Scoopin the Scoop,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), December 11, 1997.

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“Leaving Tulsa by Jet…” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), September 7, 2000.