Wyatt Tate Brady

Wyatt Tate Brady (January 20, 1870 – August 29, 1925) was an American merchant, politician, former Ku Klux Klan member, and a founder of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Early life Wyatt Tate Brady was born in Forrest City, Missouri on January 20, 1870. In 1890, he moved to Tulsa as a shoe salesman and opened the town's first mercantile store. On April 10, 1895, Brady married Rachel Davis, a member of a prominent Cherokee family. After the marriage, Brady became a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and became a strong advocate for their claims against the United States.

Founding Tulsa In 1896, Brady and other prominent businessmen signed the charter to officially incorporate Tulsa in Indian Territory. Following the 1901 discovery of the Red Fork oil field, Brady began construction on the Brady Hotel in 1902. The hotel opened in 1903, taking advantage of the oil boom by providing a hotel for oil executives.

Tulsa race massacre of 1921

Brady served as a night watchman during the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. He reportedly witnessed "five dead negroes" with one being dragged behind an automobile, with a rope about his neck, throughout the business district. After the massacre, Brady was appointed to the Tulsa Real Estate Exchange Commission which was tasked with assessing the property damage from the massacre. The commission planned to expand railroads in the area to segregate white and black parts of town writing "We further believe that the two races being divided by an industrial section will draw more distinctive lines between them and thereby eliminate the intermingling of the lower elements of the two races." The commission's plans were halted by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

Death and legacy Brady died by suicide on August 29, 1925, by shooting himself in the temple. He was said to be despondent over the death of his son, John Davis Brady, who was killed in a car accident in the spring of 1925 while studying law at the University of Virginia.

After journalist Lee Roy Chapman revealed Brady's Ku Klux Klan membership in the early 2010s, the Tulsa City Council voted 7–1 to change Brady Street to MB Brady Street to honor Mathew Brady, a famed Civil War photographer who had no ties to Tulsa or Oklahoma. They also voted to add honorary signs that read "Reconciliation Way" around the Inner Dispersal Loop.

Brady built a mansion known as "Arlington" that was patterned after the ancestral home of the Lee family in Virginia. It later became known as Brady Mansion.

In September 2017, the Brady Arts District Business Association voted to change the name of the district, north of downtown, to the Tulsa Arts District in order to completely sever ties with the street's original namesake.

In 2018, the Tulsa City Council voted to rename "Mathew Brady Street" to "Reconciliation Way".

In September 2021, Brady Heights voted to rename itself "The Heights."

Monuments Tate Brady formerly had a star bearing his name outside the Cain's Ballroom (Brady had the original building built as a garage) until 2020 when the owners had the star removed.