#Remembering the Tulsa massacre with one of its oldest survivors

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst race riots in US history, which destroyed much of a Tulsa neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street.” Olivia Hooker was 6 years old on that day, and hid under a table as a torch-carrying mob destroyed her home. Hooker died in 2018 at 103 years old — she was one of the oldest survivors of the massacre. A year before her death, The Post spoke to her about her memories of the devastating night — and the efforts to move forward as a country. “I lived a long time, but I didn’t live long enough to see justice,” she said at the time. Here’s a look back on that conversation.

At 102 years old, Olivia Hooker remembers nearly everything from her life — names of old friends, important dates from her upbringing, the personal histories of her parents and grandparents.

The White Plains, NY resident and retired psychology professor remembers the date she entered the US Coast Guard on March 8, 1945 — the first African-American woman to do so — and the days she graduated from Ohio State University, got her master’s at Columbia University, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. She can recall her retirement from Fordham University when she was 87 years old.

But what she remembers most vividly was the day the Ku Klux Klan came to her Tulsa, Oklahoma, house in 1921, when she was just 6 years old. The mob trashed the breakfast her mother had prepared for Hooker and her four siblings, took a hatchet to her family’s piano and destroyed their phonograph and records.

“People say, ‘How do you remember all that?’ But that kind of experience is in your mind for the rest of your life,” she said.

The Tulsa race riots are believed to be the worst incident of racial violence in American history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 300 African-Americans. The massacre still angers her, but the advice of her parents has helped her keep her head high since.

“Our parents taught us: ‘Don’t waste your time hating,’” she said. “Try to think of something good to make it less likely that this could happen again.”

She said she’s not sure why she’s lived as long as she has, though she does credit not drinking or smoking for her good health.

Hooker is quick to smile as she looks across her living room wall, which serves as a museum of photos of her with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, proclamations from cities and awards for volunteerism.

“Yes,” she said, “I do have a lot of joy in my life.”