Uncrowned Community Builders

Andrew Jackson Smitherman, publisher of the Tulsa Star at the time of the Tulsa "Race Riot" of 1921, epitomized Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s definition of a principled man. King wrote, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." On more than one occasion, Smitherman experienced times of "challenge and controversy" that threatened his reputation, his freedom and his life. He met each of these times with courage, integrity and an abiding faith in the Supreme Being.

During the carnage of May 31 and June 1, 1921 that destroyed Tulsa's "Black Wall Street" and resulted in the deaths of countless hundreds, Smitherman and his family were forced to flee Oklahoma. They lost property and belongings worth more than $40,000. Further, Smitherman was charged with inciting the riot and threatened with extradition to Oklahoma. For a short time, he remained in hiding, but true to the character of this courageous man, within a year he emerged to decry the atrocities of this horrific incident in an epic poem, entitled "Tulsa Riot and Massacre" and in other writings.

While history records Smitherman's Oklahoma community building and the event that changed his life forever, the record is fairly silent on his post-Tulsa years. Andrew J. Smitherman emerged from the devastation, loss and peril of Tulsa, to publish another newspaper and to take his place as a community builder in Buffalo, New York. This brief biography offers a thumbnail sketch of Andrew Jackson Smitherman as a prelude to a more extensive treatment of the life of this Uncrowned King: African American Community Builder.

Born in Childersburg, Alabama on December 27, 1883, Smitherman was the second of eleven children. He moved to Oklahoma Indian Territory, with his parents James and Elizabeth Phillips Smitherman and siblings, when he was a child. He completed secondary school in Centerville, Iowa, before attending Kansas and Northwestern Universities. Smitherman earned a law degree from LaSalle University Extension School in Chicago and Boston. Upon his return to Oklahoma, he found an opportunity to combine his law expertise with an interest in journalism.

In addition to law clerking for Attorney W.H. Twine, owner of the Muskogee Cimiter, Smitherman convinced Twine to let him take over the management of this fledging newspaper. In a three year period, from 1908 to 1911, he positioned the paper in the national media market as a recognized and respected publication. In the process, he also secured his own niche in the newspaper field. In 1909, he accepted a leadership role in the Western Negro Press Association, later the Associated Negro Press, as Vice-President. The following year, he assumed the presidency of this organization, a position he held for eleven years.

During this period in Muskogee, Smitherman also experienced major changes in his personal life. He married Ollie B. Murphy, a native of Arkansas, on June 29, 1910. The Smitherman's had two children while in Muskogee, Toussaint and Carolyn. Three other children were added to the family in succeeding years.

Smitherman's decision to leave the Cimiter and establish his own newspaper, in 1911, was prompted by his strong conviction that African-Americans were not leveraging their political clout. In an era when most Blacks were staunch Republicans, Smitherman took the independent position of becoming a Democrat. In his opinion, the Republican Party had taken Black's allegiance for granted and the only way to change this behavior was for African Americans to diversify their vote. He intended to use his paper to advocate this position. Initially, he founded the Muskogee Star. But in 1913, he decided to move to Tulsa, where he established that city's first African American daily newspaper. The Tulsa Star was located in the city's Greenwood District. Over a period of eight years, in addition to being the publisher and editor, Smitherman's willingness to be a "crusading reporter", often put him at odds with the establishment and on several occasions put him in harm's way.

Through his editorials and reports, he exposed corruption, challenged complicit officials and demanded equal treatment of Blacks. He personally intervened in at least two threatened lynchings, at great physical danger to himself. As a result of his activities, he earned the respect of whites as well as blacks as an individual of great moral integrity and a community leader. In 1919, he was invited to join the Governor's Committee to greet and welcome President Woodrow Wilson to Oklahoma. Smitherman was the only African American given an opportunity to speak during the president's visit. The evidence of Smitherman's community building in Tulsa is voluminous. The facts, however, regarding his direct or indirect involvement in activities that ignited the race riot are less clear.

In the aftermath of the Tulsa Riot and Massacre, Smitherman's life and that of his family, was changed immeasurably. After living in Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts for a few years, Smitherman moved his family to Buffalo, New York in 1925. While the record states that Smitherman earned some money writing for other publications and lecturing, he and his family must have encountered some difficult times. Yet, by 1932, Smitherman returned to the newspaper business with the establishment of the Buffalo Star. With a one hundred dollar loan and the support of his wife, who worked as a composer and pressman, he opened a small office next door to a funeral parlor.

Even at the height of the Great Depression, Smitherman was able to put out a newspaper that earned critical support for its quality and high standards. On the occasion of the 2nd Anniversary of the Star, Smitherman printed a number of testimonials from several leading citizens from across the nation; including his old boss, William H. Twine; his friend, Monroe Trotter, Editor and Publisher of the Boston Guardian and an original founder of the Niagara Movement; Roscoe Dungee, Editor and Publisher of the Oklahoma Black Dispatch, I.W. Young, President of Langston University, along with several local leaders.

Dungee stated, "I wish to say here and now, of the Buffalo Star, [it] measures up to the high standards of the Tulsa Star, which you for many years so ably and courageously published. The citizens of New York State will have an indefatigable fighter for right and justice." C.A. Barrett, Director of the Associated Negro Press wrote, "A publication of the type which we feel certain you will provide for this community should be a source of pride to all of Western New York and its contiguous territory."

The Buffalo Star's motto, ""Freedom, Justice and Equality for All, Love of God and Our Fellow Man; Doing All the Good We Can for Our Community" proclaimed Smitherman's manifest and long-held personal philosophy, which grounded his life's work as an activist-journalist, community leader, a fearless advocate for his people, and a faithful believer in God and in his fellow man. It was, no doubt the same personal philosophy that propelled his work in Oklahoma as the publisher/editor of the Tulsa Star.

Smitherman published the Buffalo Star, later renamed the Empire Star, for nearly 30 years. His Buffalo years reflected the same community leadership, civic contributions and personal accomplishments of his life in Oklahoma. His dedication to his newspaper is punctuated by the fact that he died at his desk while writing his autobiography in 1961.

Barbara A. Seals Nevergold