I’ll be honest. This one’s personal.
When I interviewed Oklahoma Republican Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell in May about the new Oklahoma Civil Rights Trail, he said something that stuck with me:
“It’s not just Black Wall Street. But that’s a big reason why we’re such a pilgrimage for African Americans around the world.”
He’s right. But too often, the stories outside of Tulsa never make it to the light.
That’s why I’m launching a documentary series that will travel town to town — from the Osage Reign of Terror in Fairfax to the Black rodeo legacy in Boley, to the Native American civil rights fight at Standing Bear Park, and back down to the youth voices rising from Langston and OKC.
For my first stop in the series, I traveled to Boley, Oklahoma during the Boley Rodeo, the oldest running historically Black rodeo in the nation. I caught up with Savion Strain, a bull rider whose rodeo riding runs through his veins.
This isn’t some polished, third-party history lesson. This is lived history driven by community interviews, archival footage, and on-the-ground storytelling. It’s a road trip across the places Oklahoma still hasn’t reckoned with.
We’re filming this in phases. I’ve mapped out over a dozen historically Black and Indigenous towns, Civil War battlefields, and civil rights landmarks across the state. It’s slow, intentional work. And it costs money — travel, gear, crew, archival access. This can’t happen without grassroots support.
Your support helps me keep doing the kind of storytelling that uplifts the people still living in its shadow.
Oklahoma’s Civil Rights Trail deserves more than a marker on the highway. It deserves the truth. Let’s tell it together.
In Solidarity,
Deon
In Depth With Deon
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