WHEN DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE, AND CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE STORY THAT YOU HEARD? 

There was no discussion about it in my history or social studies classes in high school or middle school. I actually went to about ten different schools, from kindergarten through the end of high school. I crossed different states as well. Nothing was ever discussed.  It wasn’t until college at the University of Kansas that I actually learned about it. It was very brief. They just said that there was an incident. They didn’t really go much into the prosperity of Greenwood or anything like that. 

Despite having members of my family who lived through the Massacre or who lived in Tulsa, we never discussed the actual Massacre itself—-not in great length.  I think it was a protection mechanism. My elders wanted the family’s youth to feel encouraged about the future, so they tried to shield us from such negative things. I also think they continued to hold some reservations and fear that at any time, their successes could be taken away in a very violent way.

WHEN AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT GREENWOOD?   WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT BLACK WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS LIKE YOUR AUNT?

I became really interested in Black Wall Street and Tulsa during the George Floyd protests. It looked like people were interested in making some significant changes towards systematic racism.  As a Greenwood descendent, I hoped to shine a light on Greenwood’s history and the Tulsa Race Massacre as one of the worst incidents of American violence and connect it to the present. 

I started to research what happened, what was life like in Greenwood and what happened after the Massacre. I noticed that in write-ups about Greenwood, my uncle, Pressley Little, was described as the sole owner of the Bell and Little Café.  Through our oral family history, though, I knew that his sister, Susie Bell, was also a co-owner.

I started doing Google searches on Susie Bell, and it brought me to the Tulsa Star newspaper. I was blown away by how much information I could find about the restaurant, about her, even just life on Greenwood. It was almost like looking at an OG Twitter feed or an OG Instagram. You really got a feel for the day-to-day life in the Tulsa Star newspaper. Once I started doing that, I started trying to utilize public records to corroborate some of the information that I found.  I discovered that Susie Bell had a major influence in Greenwood. She was a well-respected woman. It just made me even more interested in sharing her story so that people can put names and faces to Greenwood’s other community members.  

WHEN YOU WERE RESEARCHING YOUR AUNT, DID YOU NOTICE OTHER BLACK WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS AT THE TIME? IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT STUCK OUT TO YOU? 

When we hear stories about business leaders of Greenwood, it’s a very male-dominated group. You hear about the J.B. Stadford and O.W.Gurley and others, and you kind of think that that’s what it was. 

But if you look at the Tulsa Star, you see that women were seamstress, salon operators, restaurant owners, and so on.  I saw an ad about another aunt, Mabel Little, offering hair growing services. It just seemed that there was such a blooming community, and there was so much success. 

Another thing that stuck out to me was the communal encouragement. I don’t know if that’s the best way to say that, but here’s an example. There was a laundromat that opened, and there was a blurb about it in the newspaper. It obviously talked about this black-owned laundromat, but one of the things it said was,” we patronize this laundromat so that it can hire two or three more workers to work there.” That community recognized that it had a responsibility to make the business successful and to create jobs.  I have never seen anything like that in history. 

WHAT MADE SUSIE BELL SO SUCCESSFUL IN HER BUSINESS DEALINGS?

I think the driving philosophy of her life was that you rise above your circumstances. She is the type of person; if she was going to set the table and maybe the linen didn’t match, or the china didn’t match, she would still set a full table for you. She passed that along to my grandmother, who was named after Susie Bell. When she worked, my grandmother was a janitor. She cleaned office buildings overnight. She showed up to work with a girdle and all kinds of jewelry on though no one would see her there cleaning out trashcans. But she believed in having pride, dignity, grit, and not letting your circumstances define you. 

YOUR FAMILY RECREATED YOUR AUNT’S FAMOUS SMOTHERED CHICKEN. HOW DID THAT GO?  

We received a lot of interest in the smothered chicken recipe. We wanted to recreate it, and I also wanted to do it as historically accurate as possible. It was a super fun process, and we really had to do some family research. We looked at how my grandmother cooked to get an idea of the process.  We got really granular as we tried to figure out what type of pan, seasonings, and oil was needed. The basis of the dish is a roux. If you talk to anyone from New Orleans, you know a roux is this delicate, long process to make. If you can’t get that right, you just are not going to have a good dish.

I must also say that one of the biggest lessons that we learned is that it was that Susie Bell’s skill that really made the dish. I don’t think her famous chicken will ever taste as good as it did when Susie Bell made it in her restaurant.

To try the recipe, check out Taste of Greenwood.

AS WE REFLECT ON THE EXPERIENCES OF YOUR AUNT AND OTHER BLACK WOMAN BUSINESS OWNERS IN GREENWOOD, BUT WE ALSO THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE. WHAT DO YOU THINK GREENWOOD SHOULD LOOK LIKE?

First of all, I’m so happy that we’re even talking about Greenwood. Many people do not know about the community or the Massacre.  I’m delighted that we’re kind of moving into featuring the actual people that were there, putting names to faces. I think that personalizes the event a lot more than just a group of people that the Massacre just happened to.  Once we start seeing faces and names and learning their stories, we will learn best practices. We can begin to see what they did to be so prosperous. It was more than just the Gurleys renting land to Black people. There was so much happening in Greenwood that contributed to its success.  I don’t think that we will appreciate this until we really look at the people lives who were there. I hope that as part of this, we will start to feature more women. Through the inspiration we gather through their stories, maybe we can rebuild Greenwood. Maybe we can rebuild Black Wall Street. But we won’t do that by just looking at what happened on May 31^st. 

---

The interview was edited for length and clarity. Transcriptions by LaJenna Thomas.

To cite this interview, use the following citation: Brandy Thomas Wells, Interview with Jennifer King, May 2021, Brandy Thomas Wells, ed., Women of Black Wall Street, https://blackwallstreetwomen.com/jennifer-king-descendant-of-several-historic-greenwood-business-owners/