John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park: An Artistic Testament to the Life of a Community by Barbara Eikner
John Hope Franklin moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma from Rentiesville, Oklahoma when he was about ten years old. A valedictorian of the 1931 Class of Booker T. Washington High School, he moved into the world of academia and became a well-respected and highly regarded historian of African American history and race in America. A few of his honors include the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1978, Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, NAACP Spingarn Medal in 1995, over 130 honorary doctorate degrees, appointment to chair of the Advisory Board of President Clinton on Initiative on Race in 1997 and the list goes on. This man was an Oklahoman. In his honor on October 27, 2010, the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park was dedicated by the citizens of this state. The entire park can be considered public art. There are large and expansive areas with greenery, benches, waterfalls and trees. There are statues of heroes and soldiers along with abstract sculptures of massive design. There are animals, birds and fishes made of brass and steel running, flying, leaping and swimming on riverbanks, near lakes and on sidewalks. This park is not only in Franklin’s honor but to recognize and pay homage to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, the single worst incident of racial violence in American history. More than 1,286 homes and businesses covering more than 30 blocks were burned to the ground. Over 300 lives were believed taken. The Tower of Reconciliation, Hostility, Hope, Humiliation and Story Boards Artist Ed Dwight was amazed and drawn to the historic perspective of the 1921 Race Riot in Tulsa as he researched, viewed old photographs, accountings, books, stories and oral interviews of survivors to aid in the creation for the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. This was especially interesting for a sculptor who did not know any Black History until he was 45 years old. The design changed a number of times as the funding and discussions moved in many directions. What was initially to be a tower inside an atrium of a museum with glass walls, ended up being a tower of reconciliation outdoors. The design was created in the Ed Dwight Studios in Denver, Colorado. There were 12 members of the design, process and final installation team. It took approximately 7 years to complete this project with over 2 years of delay due to political discussions and debates. The artist used the ceramic shell process to design and create the Tower of Reconciliation. The studio is 18 feet high so the Tower, which is 27 feet tall, had to be completed in three 9 foot sections and then welded together. The three entry sculptures Hostility, Hope and Humiliation stand as you enter the north side of the park. Hostility is an image of a young white boy with a rifle and pistol ready to kill. Hope is Maurice Willis, then head of the Red Cross, holding a black baby of murdered parents and Humiliation is a black man with hands raised being led to jail. All of these are on a platform in front of a water wall. The water wall is calm
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Detail of Hostility, a sculpture by Ed Dwight created as a part of the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park.
and peaceful, recalling a tragic yet historic moment in time. The sculptor chose the tower as the central focus to tell the story of the riot from the beginning. The beginning is Africa. The bottom of the tower starts with Africa: drums, music, women carrying children on their backs, domestic food preparation and warriors. The next rung is the slave trade to America, up to the rung of the Trail of Tears, then Subsistence Farming, the Run of 1889, the Battle of Honey Springs, Statehood, African American Emergence, Greenwood, the Riot and then the Reconciliation. The final climb to civility, which we must all do together, is Reconciliation. Reconciliation, the final imagery atop the Tower, depicts Oklahomans reaching for the heavens, standing on each other’s shoulders, lifting each other up, pushing each other up to a place and space not defined by human eyes but by a spiritual force. The ten storyboards surrounding the Tower, give a clear view of the African presence in this country before Oklahoma was a state and the contribution of these early pioneers. The stories then move to the