On his way to meet with local media, Jesse Jackson called the mayor and asked him to come along.
"He wanted to sit down in front of everybody and ask me questions," Dewey Bartlett explains. "He wanted to discuss Tulsa's long history of racial tensions."
But the mayor was already headed toward a funeral home, where he was going to pay respects to one of the victims of the "Good Friday shootings."
Three people were dead and two others in the hospital last Easter, after two white suspects reportedly drove through north Tulsa hunting for black people as targets.
The shooting spree attracted national - even international - attention, with the famous civil rights leader in town to speak at a "Rally for Hope and Healing."
The media can wait, Bartlett told Jackson. "Why don't you meet me at the funeral home instead?"
Before going inside to pray together over the victim's body, they stood in the parking lot, Bartlett remembers.
"He brought up the Race Riot of 1921, and some of our other history," Bartlett says.
Then the Rev. Anthony Scott, pastor of First Baptist Church North Tulsa, spoke up, according to Bartlett's account.
"We're not like that anymore," he told Jackson. "This city is coming together over this."
Jackson's demeanor changed immediately, Bartlett says.
"A lot of people were looking at Tulsa at that moment and expecting to see a city divided," the mayor says.
"What they saw was something very different."
'One city'
After taking office in 2009, Bartlett and his wife made a point of attending a different church each Sunday.
"It helped us establish a friendly relationship with pastors from all over the city," he says, "but especially from north Tulsa."
Over time, it led to an informal group that he called "the reverends," who served as kind of unofficial advisers to the mayor's office.
"If that relationship hadn't been established already," before the Good Friday shootings, Bartlett says, "I think the community's reaction would've been very different."
Over the long Easter weekend, while many black residents were afraid to leave their homes, "the reverends" from both north and south Tulsa rallied their congregations to emphasize racial unity.
Easter morning at All-Souls Unitarian Church in midtown, the Rev. Marlin Lavanhar asked for volunteers to escort children to school that Monday in north Tulsa - to serve, basically, as human shields.
"People were ready to do it," Lavanhar says. "I was moved by the courage and love of white people from midtown and south Tulsa who were willing, in the face of racial violence, to put themselves at risk."
At the time, Lavanhar didn't realize that police had already taken two suspects into custody early that morning.
The volunteers weren't needed after all.
"But they would've done it," he says. "And that says a lot about the kind of city Tulsa is."
Later on Easter Sunday, Lavanhar went to a service at North Peoria Church of Christ, where national networks were broadcasting live coverage.
White Tulsans mingled with the mostly black congregation, Lavanhar remembers.
"I'll never forget it," he says. "There was a real sense of unity, a real sense that Tulsa was one city."
And "the reverends" vowed to keep it that way.
'Long way to go'
The mayor and his wife, Victoria Bartlett, were already planning a "Bridges of Faith" campaign, encouraging churches from north and south Tulsa to team up in support of summer youth activities.
But the Good Friday shootings drew more attention to the effort.
"There were people who had never really been to north Tulsa before, who weren't really aware of the needs in the community before," says the Rev. Scott at First Baptist Church North Tulsa.
"Their eyes were opened and they wanted to do something."
More than 70 congregations, from both north and south Tulsa, pitched in to support Bible studies, summer camps, food drives and sports leagues.
And the effort will grow even bigger this summer, Scott says. "It's a tangible way that we're working together," he says. "And it's one of the positive things to come out of this tragedy."
Several of "the reverends," including Scott and Lavanhar, will attend a remembrance service Saturday.
"But it's not a pat on the back," says Warren Blakney, minister with North Peoria Church of Christ, who organized the service. "We still have a long way to go."
Despite progress, Tulsa shouldn't ignore the inequalities that still complicate the relationship between the north and south parts of the city, Blakney says.
"It's the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about," he says. "But it's a conversation that needs to begin."
Meanwhile, Tulsa will be bracing for the trial of two suspects.
Jacob Carl England, 20, and Alvin Lee Watts, 33, are each charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of shooting with intent to kill.
Bobby Clark, 54, Dannaer Fields, 49, and William Allen, 31, were killed in the shootings.
David Hall and Deon Tucker were wounded.
No trial date has been set, but prosecutors said in January that they would seek the death penalty.
"We have to watch and see that justice is done," Blakney says. "This was a terrible, brutal act of violence against the whole community."
Jacob "Jake" England
Age: 20
Charges: Three counts of first-degree murder. Two counts of shooting with intent to kill. Five counts of malicious intimidation or harassment (hate crime). He is being held without bail.
Court case: Defense attorneys have argued that his statements to police shouldn't be used as evidence against him, because he was led to believe that it would be kept confidential, in violation of his Miranda rights. Prosecutors believe the shooting spree may have been in "revenge" for the death of England's father, who was killed two years earlier by a black gunman. Officials ruled that incident self-defense. The next court hearing scheduled in England's case is April 23.
Alvin Watts
Age: 33
Charges: Three counts of first-degree murder. Two counts of shooting with intent to kill. Five counts of malicious intimidation or harassment (hate crime). He is being held without bail. He has asked for a separate trial, arguing that his defense might depend on convincing the jury of his co-defendant's guilt. The next court hearing in the case is April 23.
Shooting scene: Dannaer Fields
1:03 a.m. April 6: Dannaer Fields, 49, is found in a yard in the 1000 block of East 51st Place North. She later dies at a hospital.
Shooting scene: Tucker, Hall survive
1:06 a.m. April 6: Deon Tucker, 44, and David Hall, 46, are shot in the 1300 block of East 51st Place North. Both are recovering.
Shooting scene: Bobby Clark
1:50 a.m. April 6: A memorial for Bobby Clark, 54, is at the site where he was fatally shot in the 300 block of West 63rd Street North.
Shooting scene: William Allen
8:30 a.m. April 6: The body of William Allen, 31, is found in front of Jack's Memory Chapel at 801 E. 36th St. North.
Suspects arrested
1:47 a.m. April 8: Jake England (left) and Alvin Watts are arrested. Both have been charged with first-degree murder and hate crimes.
Police respond
3 p.m. April 8: Maj. Walter Evans, the Detective Division commander for the Tulsa Police Department, discusses the arrests.
Victims
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Dannaer Fields, 49
Known as Donna, or Little Donna, she was shot on the way home from playing dominoes with friends. Fields was found lying wounded in a yard in the 1000 block of East 51st Place North.
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Bobby Clark, 54
He played guitar and bass for a gospel band. Clark was found in the street with a gunshot wound in the 300 block of West 63rd Street North
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William Allen, 31
He moved to Tulsa from Hattiesburg, Miss., four years ago. Allen was found lying in the yard of Jack's Memory Chapel funeral home.
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Service of Remembrance
3:45 to 6 p.m. Saturday
Greater Union Baptist Church, 955 E. 36th St. North
Michael Overall 918-581-8383
michael.overall@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Remembering lives lost
CONTACT THE REPORTER
918-581-8383
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