Research
INTERVIEW / DR. OLIVIA HOOKER
Because this story is based on history, it is imperative that we get it right. We are researching the early 1920’s and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by reading books, watching documentaries, and we will visit Tulsa, Oklahoma in November. Fortunately, I have been able to meet and film one of the last surviving members of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, Dr. Olivia Hooker. She is one- hundred-and-one-years old. She remembers the event and details about 1920’s Tulsa. She also happened to study at Tuskegee, at the behest of Booker T. Washington, with whom her father knew before his passing, and she is the first African-American women to join the US Coast Guard. She was honored by President Obama last year. Dr. Hooker has provided me with the first-hand account of what Tulsa, OK was like in the 1920s. This is valuable for me to create a realistic VR environment. I have almost two hours of recorded footage from my interview with Dr. Hooker.