Andrew J. SmithermanA. J. Smitherman was born in Alabama, 1883. His family moved to the territory in Oklahoma in the 1890s, looking for a better home. He start writing newspapers at Muskogee Scimitar. In 1911, he started his own newspaper company in Muskogee, called the Muskogee Star. In 1913, he moved to Tulsa and launched the Daily Tulsa Star. He wrote freely about African American rights, right until the riot. He fled Tulsa, going to Massachusetts, never to return.
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"A. J. Smitherman, best known as a heroic advocate of self-defense for African Americans in a time of intense racist violence, "A.J." Smitherman was a leading black political figure in the American West." |