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The CfPS Library
The library houses community journalism that explores the hidden, neglected, and misunderstood histories of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and beyond.
Explore feature stories, videos, and short essays from CfPS founder, Lee Roy Chapman.
Read longform stories about Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Learn about Tulsa's unique position at the nexus of the Mvskoke, Cherokee, and Osage nations.
Explore stories about the hidden, neglected and misunderstood history of Tulsa, Oklahoma.


Public Secrets: Joe Brainard (Video)
In this episode, historian Lee Roy Chapman lets us ride shotgun on a whirlwind tour through painter-poet Joe Brainard's Tulsa
Lee Roy Chapman
May 121 min read


Public Secrets: Calvary Cemetery (Video)
In this episode of Public Secrets, historians Lee Roy Chapman and J. Kavin Ross uncover a forgotten Creek Freedmen cemetery in South Tulsa.
Lee Roy Chapman
May 121 min read


Public Secrets: Sex Pistols (Video)
In this episode of Public Secrets, historian Lee Roy Chapman delves into the infamous Sex Pistols show at Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom in 1978.
Lee Roy Chapman
May 121 min read


Public Secrets: The White Dove Review (Video)
In this episode, we explore The White Dove Review–a short-lived but highly influential poetry magazine published in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from 1959 to 1960 by three high school students: Ron Padgett, Joe Brainard, and Dick Gallup.
Lee Roy Chapman
May 121 min read


Public Secrets: Tate Brady (Video)
VIDEO: Lee Roy Chapman delves into the checkered past of Tulsa Founding Father Tate Brady.
Lee Roy Chapman
May 81 min read


Public Secrets: Northside House from Larry Clark's "Tulsa"
by Lee Roy Chapman Photo by the Author. A similar exterior shot of this house is featured in Larry Clark's 1971 photobook Tulsa . Located...
Lee Roy Chapman
May 81 min read


Public Secrets: Tulsa's First Klan Burial
By all accounts, fallen Tulsa Police Commissioner Secretary Harry Harrison Aurandt's burial at Rose Hill Cemetery was quite a spectacle. An unannounced group of 12 Klansmen in full ceremonial regalia approached the funeral tent from the south carrying a large flaming cross of red roses to pay tribute to Aurandt.
Lee Roy Chapman
May 81 min read


Flim-Flammery and the Devil: An Early History of the Tulsa World
Dr. S.G. Kennedy was furious. He had put his trust and money in a young man, who seemed to be making a name for himself in Tulsa, a former Wichita newspaper reporter who had once served as a private secretary to Congressman Bird McGuire of Oklahoma. Myron Boyle was the editor of the Indian Republican, one of Tulsa’s earliest weekly newspapers, which had been founded in 1891.
Lee Roy Chapman
May 84 min read


Anarchy in the OK
No one took credit for the bomb threat that January night. Though no device was found in the women’s restroom of Cain’s Ballroom, a bomb of a different sort was about to drop in Tulsa.
Lee Roy Chapman
May 83 min read


Doves All The Way Down: Remembering Joe Brainard
When I first read Joe Brainard, I was 14 and had just started writing poetry. I did not know what made Tulsa special (yet)...
portlyn houghton-harjo
Feb 283 min read


Episode 3: Take Me Back To Coweta Town
Atkins belonged to Coweta Town, an ancient tribal town that was relocated to Indian Territory when he was a young child.
Russell Cobb
Aug 9, 20244 min read


Ep. 2: The Heiress & Her Mythical Oil Fortune
In January 1881, a new student named Minnie Atkins arrived at Pennsylvania's Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Russell Cobb
Jul 19, 20244 min read


Ep. 1: Stumbling Upon A Forgotten Crime in the Oil Capital of the World
I was not expecting to find lost treasure as I shifted through a pile of paperwork. But there was one thing that caught my eye: a series of
Russell Cobb
Jul 2, 20246 min read


High School Football 1921: Return of the Hornets
By Randy Hopkins Courtesy of Tulsa Booker T. Washington High School. In the fall of 1921, students began returning to Tulsa, Oklahoma's...
Randy Hopkins
Feb 2, 20248 min read


"All Crooks at Tulsa" The Myth of Tommy Atkins & The Enduring Legacy Of An Oil Capital Fraud
Tommy was a Muscogee boy whose land was worth many millions of dollars in 1914. The only problem was that he may have never existed.
Russell Cobb
Sep 1, 202317 min read


The Strange Love of Dr. Billy James Hargis
The FBI had cause to be concerned. Hargis’ tirades mirrored those from any number of early 20th century Ku Klux Klan pamphlets.
Lee Roy Chapman
Aug 23, 202322 min read


The Nightmare of Dreamland: Tate Brady and The Tulsa Outrage
The seventeen men were terrified, and with good reason. They stood shivering in the November midnight air...
Lee Roy Chapman
Aug 23, 202319 min read


Monumental Malice
In September of 1921, a group of influential Tulsans formed the Tulsa Association of Pioneers to commemorate the founders of their city.
Fraser Kastner
Aug 23, 202318 min read


An Open Letter to the Tulsa City Council
Once the Centennial was over and a single body with bullet holes was discovered in Oaklawn in late June 2021, things changed.
Randy Hopkins
Aug 23, 202315 min read


Racing to the Precipice: Tulsa's Last Lynching
Pandemonium was loosed when the body finally dropped. The guards relaxed their grip and a mad dash ensued.
Randy Hopkins
Aug 23, 202355 min read
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