Historic Big 10 Ballroom

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I have to tell you, this past weekend, I stood with the Williams' family and Shaw family, with hundreds of other folks, and I listened to live music in the Historic Big 10 Ballroom.

Now, that may not mean a lot to a lot of folks in this room, but it is a really big deal in my State, in Oklahoma, to hear live music in the Big 10 Ballroom.

Let me set the scene for you: Lonnie Williams was one of the first African-American police officers in Tulsa, OK. Now, I have spoken many times to this body about Greenwood and about the race massacre that happened May 31 and June 1 of 1921.

We have talked at length about what happened during that time for what is, in all likelihood, the worst race massacre in American history. It was in 1921. So for Lonnie Williams to be one of the first Black police officers in Tulsa was really a big deal.

He served in the police department, and he opened up several other businesses as his side hustle, and then, eventually, opened up what he called the Big 10 Ballroom in 1948.

It was a venue for Black artists to be able to come in because in 1948, a lot of Black artists couldn't play in a lot of auditoriums in America, including in my State. So they would invite these great musicians to be able to come through, that they would tour, and there was this kind of behind-the-scenes group of venues that was scattered through the country where Black artists could perform, and the one that we had in Oklahoma was the Big 10.

Now, it was no simple thing for them to be able to travel because at the time when those Black artists were traveling, they couldn't be in a lot of hotels; they couldn't eat in a lot of restaurants. But when they came to Greenwood, there were still families who would welcome them in.

The Williams' family, who owned the Big 10, their family, in fact, would host folks. They still tell stories about getting up in the morning and stepping over the Temptations sleeping in their living room. And when I talk about artists playing in the Big 10, I am not talking about just any artists in American history; I am talking about Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, B.B. King, Fats Domino, Little Richard, and I have already mentioned the Temptations.

Interestingly enough, the last place that Otis Redding played before he died in a plane crash was the Big 10 Ballroom in Tulsa, OK.

Now you know why we call it the Historic Big 10 Ballroom. That Ballroom was the place to be able to get music in North Tulsa for decades, and then it closed down in the 1960s. A lot of urban renewal was happening in that area, and a lot of things were shifting. The building was used for a while as a beauty supply warehouse, quite frankly. The roof caved in eventually as they abandoned it, and it sat idle for more than two decades. Quite frankly, an eyesore in the neighborhood, but to the Williams family and to lots of other folks in North Tulsa, when they drove up and down Apache, they would still see the glory of the Big 10 and what she could be in the days ahead.

But no one took the risk because all that was going to get the Big 10 back alive was hope and a whole bunch of money, until Dr. Lester Shaw stood in the parking lot of the Big 10 and saw it not for what it was-- quite frankly, a place where more pigeons lived than anything else--but for what she could be again.

In 2007, Dr. Shaw bought that building. Quite frankly, his wife was pretty nervous about it, thinking what in the world. But Brenda Shaw knows her husband Lester well, and when he got an idea, she knew it must be from God and it was going to turn out OK because he was going to be tenacious enough to get it done.

You see, Dr. Shaw and Brenda Shaw--by the way, both doctors now, so it is Dr. and Dr. Shaw--the two of them have for the last 23 years committed every second of their spare time to thousands of kids in Greenwood. They run a ministry after school called A Pocket Full of Hope, and a Pocket Full of Hope teaches arts, music, photography, videography.

They invest in the lives of students in that area, and for the last 23 years as they have mentored kids after school--brace yourself--they have helped 100 percent of those kids graduate from high school, not a single one of them hasn't finished high school.

They traveled all over the country, including right here to Washington, DC, to be able to perform music, but they never really had a place to perform. They really never had a place that was their own. In this location, where they have about 350 people a year who come through to be able to be mentored by Pocket players--those who have gone through Pocket Full of Hope in the past and those who are helping--and for Lester Shaw and his leadership, those folks have made a remarkable difference in the community.

Dr. Shaw, in 2007, saw the Big 10 for what she could be again and, last weekend, what she is again.

There is live music again at the Big 10. I was listening to it last weekend as it came alive, and you couldn't imagine how beautiful the inside of that building is, as the community and different groups have all invested dollars and lots of sweat and blood and tears to be able to bring it back again. And when you drive down Apache now, you see the Big 10. You see, Black history is not all ancient history. Black history in America and Black history in my State is still going on right now because people like Lonnie Williams, who set a path for my State and my community decades ago--that baton is being picked up by folks like Dr. Lester Shaw, and they are doing remarkable work to help thousands of students.

So, for me, I was honored to sit and listen to live music in the Big 10. And if anybody is traveling through Tulsa, I would encourage you to swing down Apache and hear live music in the same place where B.B. King and James Brown and Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Count Basie, and Fats Domino sang, the place intended to be able to hear history come alive.

By the way, Big 10 is not called the Big 10 anymore. Now they call it the Historic Big 10.

We are living out history right now, and I am grateful for the Williams family and the legacy they have left and what Dr. Shaw has picked up. God bless them in the work, and we are grateful for what they have done in the past.

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