Hidden History: An Evening with Jon Boorstin
Award-winning novelist and filmmaker Jon Boorstin explores his family’s remarkable connections to Tulsa, Jewish history, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and the life and legacy of his father, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel J. Boorstin.
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Jon Boorstin is an award-winning novelist, filmmaker, and producer whose latest book, The American: The Hidden History of Daniel J. Boorstin and His Twentieth Century, explores the extraordinary history of his family and its connections to Tulsa, Jewish life, race, and the American experience.
During this special program, Boorstin will discuss his grandfather, Samuel Aaron Boorstin, a Jewish immigrant from Grodno, Poland, who became a prominent attorney and later moved his family to Tulsa following the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank. In Tulsa, Samuel became an important member of the Jewish community and worked alongside Black attorney Buck Colbert “B.C.” Franklin in representing victims and survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Boorstin will also share the story of his father, Daniel J. Boorstin, who grew up in Tulsa before becoming one of the nation’s most celebrated historians and public intellectuals. Daniel graduated from Tulsa Central High School at age 15, later attended Harvard and Yale, became a Rhodes Scholar, wrote more than 20 books, won the Pulitzer Prize for The Americans: The Democratic Experience, and served as the 12th Librarian of Congress.
The program will also explore Daniel Boorstin’s enduring friendship with fellow Tulsan and acclaimed historian John Hope Franklin and the ways their very different experiences shaped their understanding of America.
Part biography, part family history, and part Tulsa history, the evening offers a compelling look at Jewish immigration, race, identity, memory, and the forces that have shaped American life.
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