Multimedia
Videos, Interviews & Investigations
Videos of Steve Presenting Tulsa History from his Hidden History of Tulsa Book
During a presentation at a Tulsa library several years ago, the Oklahoma Educational Television station (OETA) filmed Steve’s presentation. The videographer, Tony D’Astoli, offered his services to film Steve, speaking without script about several of his favorite chapters in Hidden History of Tulsa. The result is three videos of Steve chatting informally with the camera lens about J.B. Stradford - the wealthiest man in Greenwood who lost the most in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Dick Roland - the teenage African-American bootblack who became the scapegoat of the Massacre, wrongly identified as the spark that set the black community of Greenwood ablaze, and Spade Cooley - a murderous Oklahoman who battled Texan Bob Wills for the title of King of Western Swing.
First Charge, Last Freed
“John the Baptist moved to Tulsa in 1899. The Stradford family called him J.B. He was a former Kentucky slave who was not afraid to preach the gospel of equal treatment and racial solidarity for black Americans. Stradford received his law degree from Indiana University and yearned to influence black equality. Tulsa became his destiny. Leaders of the Tulsa community yearned for his demise.”
Diamond in the Rough
“Secreted out the alley door of the Tulsa County Jail into an awaiting car provided by Sheriff McCollough, Diamond Dick Roland took in the smoldering midday air, while 30 square blocks of Tulsa’s Greenwood District burned to the ground. It was June 1, 1921, and Roland was bound for a suspect destination in Kansas City intended to keep him safe from a vigilante lynch mob. He hid in the backseat. Then, the sixteen-year-old disappeared forever.”
The Murderous Maestro of Western Swing
“On a furlough from a California state prison, convicted wife killer Spade Cooley walked off the stage of Oakland’s Paramount Theatre, basking in the thunderous applause of 2,800 Western swing aficionados who’d come to see the former fiddle star turned inmate. Anchoring the first half of the show with his three-song set, a beaming Spade raised his violin above his head, saluting the cheering crowd. Their jubilation continued as he disappeared behind the curtain, made a comment to waiting friends and suddenly slumped to the dressing room floor. Then he died, to a standing ovation.”
Electronic Media
Through Gerkin’s writing, The Frontier (electronic journalism) showed the Tulsa Klan’s connection to the Tulsa University Law School’s namesake.
Gerkin’s essay showed John Rogers was one of five men who incorporated the Ku Klux Klan six months after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacr; the Regents removed his name from the Law building.
Tulsa podcast host, Jason Ferguson of From A Basement in Tulsa, interviewed Gerkin for an hour about his first book, Hidden History of Tulsa.
Radio and Television
The day before Gerkin’s first presentation for his initial book Hidden History of Tulsa, he sat behind a microphone for an interview with NPR -Tulsa University host Rich Fisher.
Veteran news reporter Rick Wells of the Tulsa CBS affiliate spent an hour with Steve in his home, chatting about his retirement from dentistry and his success in the writing world.
During a Rudisill Regional Library bookclub, the Oklahoma Public Educational Television station video-taped Gerkin’s presentation about principal African-American victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.