Honorary Street Sign for the Late J. Kavin Ross Unveiled at East 11th Street, South Peoria Avenue

8/18/2023

Mayor G.T. Bynum and family members of the late James Kavin Ross unveiled an honorary street sign renaming East 11^th Street and South Peoria Avenue as “J Kavin Ross Drive.” The sign is on the northwest corner of the intersection, near Oaklawn Cemetery.  

Mayor Bynum, Bobby Eaton, and Kavin Ross’s brother, Edward Ross, spoke at a short program across the street at Tracy Park before the unveiling of the sign. Until his death in May of this year, Kavin Ross served as the chairman of the Public Oversight Committee for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Graves Investigation. The sign honors Kavin Ross’s commitment to finding victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.  

“As we continue our search for the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, this J. Kavin Ross Drive street sign will remind us of Kavin’s dedication to this historical and groundbreaking work and encourage us to follow it through,” Mayor Bynum said.  

Kavin Ross was a 1980 graduate of Booker T. Washington High School who went on to study at Texas Southern University in Houston on a marching band scholarship. At Texas Southern, he focused on radio, TV, and film. After living in Houston for 15 years, Kavin returned to Tulsa and joined in the efforts of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, co-founded by his father, Don Ross, who served as an Oklahoma State Representative from 1983 to 2003.  

In his work with Tulsa Race Riot Commission member and historian Eddie Faye Gates, Kavin recorded video interviews with survivors of the Race Massacre. Kavin’s dedication to honor both survivors and those who did not survive the Tulsa Race Massacre led him to chairing the Public Oversight Committee for the 1921 Graves Investigation. 

Kavin Ross also was inspired by renowned historian and fellow Booker T. Washington graduate John Hope Franklin, who was interviewed in the 1993 PBS documentary, “Goin’ Back to T-Town.” John Hope Franklin’s father Buck Franklin was an attorney who defended Black survivors of the Race Massacre. Through meeting and talking with John Hope Franklin, Kavin learned that Franklin and his father were acquaintances. 

Kavin’s family connection to the Tulsa Race Massacre goes back to his great-grandfather, who owned Isaac Evitt’s Zulu Lounge at 501 E. Cameron St., which was destroyed in the massacre. His great-grandfather moved away from Oklahoma after an unsuccessful attempt to rebuild. Kavin had moved back from Houston to Tulsa to help preserve and uncover history from a century ago.