A Tale of Two Cities- Tulsa, Oklahoma
Rev. Dr. Robert R.A. Turner, Pastor Vernon AME Church, Tulsa, OK
photo credit: Sis. Kristyn Paschal, Vernon AME Church, Tulsa
Memorial Day Weekend 2021:
South Tulsa- Southern Hills Country Club was host to the Senior PGA Championship. This storied course has hosted seven major golf championships, including three US Opens. Next year’s PGA Championship will be there as well. I was there as a volunteer with NBC Sports, driving TV golf personality Mark Rolfing around the course as he covered the leaders. Super fun!
North Tulsa- Greenwood District. Once prominent as a black entrepreneurial center where African Americans created a vibrant, self-contained economy that would become known as Black Wall Street…the ‘talk of the nation’ and notably in the wake of the 1918 pandemic. One hundred years ago, that prosperity came to a horrifying end in our nation’s single worst incident of racial violence. With the movie “Black Wall Street Burning” and the HBO series “Watchmen”, Greenwood has once again become the ‘talk of the nation’, but for a vastly different reason. Just a few blocks north of downtown, a community and nation commemorated the Centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre over Memorial Day weekend. On Monday I attended a worship service at Vernon African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church as part of the commemoration activities. Afterward, Vernon’s Prayer Wall of Racial Healing was dedicated. National civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber joined multiple local faith leaders offering prayers and remarks outside the church that was under construction and largely destroyed in 1921. That wall survived and parishioners continued to meet in the basement until the building was reconstructed. Rev. Robert Turner, Vernon’s pastor, said the prayer wall was inspired by the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, a wall that also survived the destruction and became a site of prayer. Joining the clergy were numerous elected officials including a delegation from Congress. Congresswoman Barbara Lee said, “Prayer leads to healing… we have reasons to be hopeful today because, in that healing, prayer leads to transformation.”
Back to Southern Hills. Although being a part of NBC’s broadcast was memorable and fun, the enduring impact of that week was Monday’s trip to Vernon AME and the time I spent with Mark Rolfing. Mark has been a TV golf personality for 35 years, but that is only a piece of his life. Mark and his wife Debi have a charitable foundation that has served to better the lives of children in need since 1999. In addition to supporting numerous other children’s charities, the Rolfings are licensed foster parents in Hawaii and Montana to provide “cradle care”. They have provided care for twenty-eight “Angel Babies”, some medically and critically fragile, from their birth to adoption placement. Debi calls them their “angel babies” and describes this as a ‘calling’ and ‘God’s purpose for her life’. Mark is Founder and President of the non-profit Chicago Parks Golf Alliance. He sees the South Shore development as a grass-roots initiative that can change an entire community. Listening to Mark talk passionately about his charitable work it seemed apparent that helping others and making the world a better place for everyone brought him the greatest joy!
My trip to Tulsa was special. I pastored churches in Oklahoma over twenty years ago and have fond memories of those years. Added to those memories will be the split image of Memorial Day weekend…experiencing golf history and people committed to prayer and healing and life transformation!