28 Days of Soul Food: The Weekend Edition

Chicago-based concierge Erin Toole Williams joins me to chat about the legacy of her great-great grandfather, J.B. Stradford, a prominent hotelier 100 years ago during Tulsa's Black Wall Street era.

When prominent businessman J.B. Stradford opened his showpiece, namesake hotel in 1918, he had no idea it would be burned to the ground three years later with literally hundreds of other Black-owned businesses and residences in what’s now known as the Tulsa Race Massacre of Black Wall Street.

His great-great granddaughter, Erin Toole Williams, describes The Stradford Hotel as “a really nice place where Black people could go to lay their heads. … and to be seen” during its brief heyday.

“Anything you could imagine today’s hotels would have, he had it at The Stradford Hotel,” she said during our recent half-hour conversation on the LIVE! Culinary Series. “It was as amazing, if not more, as some of the other hotel properties that carry the names that we know well [today]. It was built with the finest tools, and he made sure that he included a lot of Black men in building the hotel — even if they did not have the experience of building something so large. He tried to use Black men for every aspect of the project.”

Williams has continued Stradford’s legacy by working in the hospitality industry her entire career. She’s worked as a concierge at some of Chicago’s most prominent hotels; currently she is a private concierge, vintage curator and reseller.

Earlier this month, she launched the @thestradfordhotel Instagram handle, which will post updates on her new concierge-based business. In addition to offering hospitality services, she aims to educate the public on the legacy of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and J.B. Stradford’s role in it.

“My main goal is to keep my grandfather’s legacy alive, so that people don’t forget about him, so that they don’t forget about Black Wall Street, and so that they don’t forget about all of those men and women who worked so hard to build that community,” Williams added.

I’m looking forward to seeing how her family commemorates the centennial anniversary of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street on May 31, the day the race riots started.