The last known survivor of the Tulsa Race riot which occurred in 1921, Dr. Olivia Hooker died on Wednesday at the age of 103. Olivia Hooker was the first African-American woman recorded to have joined the United States Coast Guard during the Second World War. FOX23 reported in July that Hooker had put together her story in a five-part film titled “Greenwood Avenue.”
Funeral services were organized to pay last respects to the Coast Guard veteran at the historic Vernon AME Church at Greenwood Avenue, Tulsa. The funeral service was held at 1pm on Friday, November 23. Hooker was born in 1915, at Muskogee, Oklahoma. At the age of 6 she had to hide with her siblings as their home was being ransacked by rioters during the Tulsa Race riots. It was during the same riots that her father’s clothing store was burned to the ground by the Klu Klux Klan.
Before joining the US Coast Guard SPARS in 1945, Hooker had earned a bachelor’s degree in Education. She served with the SPARS until the unit was disbanded in mid-1946. She went on to get a Master’s degree and Ph.D in Psychology and then become a Professor and a member at the Kennedy Child Study Center in Bronx. She retired at the age of 87 in 2002.
All through her life, Hooker was a leader working with educational, civic and cultural organizations. She was interviewed in July for a five-part series titled “Greenwood Avenue” in a project sponsored by Google. People are remembering her and several have sent in their condolence messages.
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