Getting schooled on OKC schools
When I’m not writing for The Oklahoman, as some readers know, I delve into local history and write books.
That experience, which included learning from the state’s top historian, Bob Blackburn and others, has taught me valuable lessons over the years about never assuming all accounts of our past are correct. Sometimes it takes a hunch that something might not be right, or the discovery of conflicting accounts.
Such was the lesson coauthor Jack Money and I learned when writing our book “Skirvin.” The Sooners’ first black football player, Prentice Gautt, once told a writer with
The Oklahoman he was not allowed to stay at the Skirvin. But during an interview for the book, George James, who owned the hotel with his father Dan during those turbulent years, recalled in vivid detail how Gautt did stay at the hotel with the team.
Understand, this was an important part of the hotel’s history. The team routinely spent the night at the Skirvin before each home game. I contacted Clara Luper, and she confirmed Gautt’s claim — but
was also clearly fuzzy about the details of the whole matter as this was later in her life.
Then I delved into an autobiography of Gautt’s coach, the legendary Bud Wilkerson. And he confirmed the details given by George James. The team did stay at the hotel — once. And then the local black community, eager to be unshackled by the legacy of Jim Crow, began calling the hotel to book parties and events.
Gautt was not allowed to return. So Gautt was
correct, but details were missing.
On Tuesday night, I will join Oklahoma City Public Schools historian Barbara Stueve and Larry Johnson, head archivist and historian with the Metropolitan Library System, to report our findings on two schools that were listed as being named after historic figures in the Confederacy.
I questioned the assumed origins of two of those school names, Wheeler Elementary and Lee Elementary. The report Tuesday will show Wheeler is named after early civic leader James Wheeler, and not Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, while Lee
Elementary was indeed named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
The Oklahoma City school board, along with leaders across the country, are debating whether to eliminate such tributes and honors following the Nazi and white supremacist marches and violence that hit Charlottesville, Virginia, last month as they protested removal of a Confederate statue.
Two of the school names are clearly named after Confederate army legends — Stonewall Jackson and Stand Watie. But less certain were Wheeler and Lee elementary schools with which we only have the last names.
Right away I had suspicions about Wheeler Elementary, which the school system noted was named after Confederate general Joseph Wheeler. I reported on my OKC Central blog that the school system had no citations or documents to back that claim and I meanwhile could prove that early day civic leader James Wheeler had donated the nearby park and developed a neighborhood served by Wheeler Elementary.
On Tuesday night, the public will receive our full report showing the school is indeed named after James Wheeler, whose reputation has stood the
test of time.
The quest to discover the origins on the naming of Lee Elementary, meanwhile, took an entirely different track and that information also will be presented to the school board, which will be streamed live online by the Oklahoma City Public School system.
Ultimately, decisions about the names of all four schools will rest with the Oklahoma City school board.
Superintendent Aurora Lora has indicated she wwill gauge public input before deciding whether to recommend renaming the schools named after Confederate leaders. The
board, which meets at 5:30 p.m., will consider whether Lora should begin engaging each affected school community.
The debate over the school names is resulting in an important and valuable history lesson, one that will include surprises over the city’s relationship with black residents during those early years and a hint at the thinking of our city fathers and mothers. And maybe, just maybe in this age where nuance is becoming a forgotten concept, those listening may discover our history isn’t always simply black and white.