Tullahassee residents come together for reopening of community center

TULLAHASSEE, Okla. — On Friday, the Tullahassee community came together to witness a reveal that they called historic for the town.

The town of Tullahassee was one of the first Black towns in the state of Oklahoma.

It has abandoned buildings and even a torn-down school due to the lack of resources like jobs and grocery stores.

On Friday, the mayor of Tullahassee, Keisha Currin, unveiled the first finished project to restore the town.

"My family derives from here is more than a legacy. My parents and my great-grandparents fought for this town. They fought for their rights, they fought for us to survive here. So it's important to me that we save our heritage, that we save our culture because we have a lot of that here in our community," Currin said.

They opened the John Ford Community Center, which closed 34 years ago.

Ford is an alumnus from Tullahassee Public Schools who was the superintendent.

FOX23 spoke with Ford's daughter, Bonita Ford Criddle.

She told FOX23 what he'd done for the town and the school.

"He loved the people of Tullahassee, he loved the students. He just made sure that everybody was doing what we were supposed to be doing. We all rode together to school every day. My whole family was in the car because my mother was also a teacher here, but my father loved Tullahassee,” Criddle said.

Many alumni came to witness the big reveal and one person said it brought back good memories.

"It always brings back old memories. Some of the games they had here and one thing I noticed, they added a row of bleachers from the time that we were here, it was only two rows. Things were pretty crowded on the floor, but that was a good time, " said Earl Jones, Tullahassee alumnus.

Not only did the reopening mean everything to the Ford family, but also the push to restore the town.

"It means everything. It means everything that these young people want to improve the town, improve the school grounds and just improve Tullahassee as a whole. It's just wonderful," Criddle said.

"We're resilient. Our ancestors paved the way for us to continue to fight for what we believe in. What we want Tullahassee to be is the utopia for Black people. We want Tullahassee to be a safe place where you can come home, where kids can walk the streets and where your kids can go to any neighbor's house. Tullahassee is full of love,” Currin said.

Currin said that this reopening is just the beginning for the first Black town in Oklahoma.

The Town of Tullahassee is having its homecoming parade on Saturday at 11 a.m. in celebration of the reveal.