|
Listen to this article here
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Journalist Cameron Fields addressing Harvard Students | Photo courtesy of the Harvard Gazette
Published 05/29/19
TULSA, Okla. — OKPOP, a project of the Oklahoma Historical Society, is planning a special event to mark Juneteenth on Monday, June 17, from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Rudisill Regional Library, located at 1520 N. Hartford Ave. in Tulsa.
The event will include an interview with award-winning journalist Carmen Fields by former Senator Judy Eason McIntyre, followed by a question-and-answer portion with the audience.
The program will focus on Fields’s experience growing up in segregated Tulsa and her prominent journalism career, including the PBS documentary she wrote and produced, “Goin’ Back to T-Town,” about race relations in the city.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted to support the Shirley Ballard Nero Endowment Fund.
Fields, who resides in Massachusetts, is an alumna of Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School and earned her bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University. She went on to study at Boston University and Harvard University.
She was part of the Boston Globe team that won a Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for coverage of Boston’s school desegregation efforts. Fields has been nominated for six regional Emmy awards and has won two. Additionally, she received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Salem State University in Massachusetts.
She is currently both producer and host of a monthly public affairs program on Boston’s Channel 7 called “Higher Ground” in addition to running her own media and public relations consulting firm. Fields is the daughter of famous big band leader Ernie Fields and the sister of musician Ernie Fields Jr.
Juneteenth is the Texas and Oklahoma regional celebration of the emancipation from slavery following the US Civil War. US General Gordon Granger proclaimed the end of slavery in Texas at Galveston on June 19, 1865. This news and celebration spread to Indian Territory slaves that summer.
The Shirley Ballard Nero Endowment provides funds to conduct research, programming, exhibitions and events related to the historic All-Black towns of Oklahoma. You can donate to this fund at the Oklahoma History Center or by contacting Angela Spindle at 405-522-0317 or aspindle@okhistory.org.
OKPOP is dedicated to telling the story of the creativity of Oklahoma’s people and their influence on popular culture around the world. Its staff is actively collecting artifacts, photographs, archival materials, film, video and audio recordings that represent Oklahoma’s creative history.
OKPOP will be a new visitor experience that explores the incredible history and creativity of Oklahoma’s contributions to popular culture in the areas of music, movies, television, radio, theater, pop art, literature, comics, humor and Route 66. OKPOP will break ground across from historic Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2019.
OKPOP is a division of the Oklahoma Historical Society. The mission of the Oklahoma Historical Society is to collect, preserve and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people. Founded in 1893 by members of the Territorial Press Association, the OHS maintains museums, historic sites and affiliates across the state.
Through its research archives, exhibits, educational programs and publications the OHS chronicles the rich history of Oklahoma. For more information about the OHS, please visit www.okhistory.org.