The Tulsa Local News Initiative combines old and new to shore up the city’s information ecosystem

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When Gary Lee was 12 years old, he read about a scholarship program that would change his life. A Better Chance enabled him to attend the prestigious Phillips Academy, and helped propel him to a career in journalism for national publications like The Washington Post and Time Magazine.

Lee first read about the scholarship program in The Oklahoma Eagle, which was founded in 1922, a year after the Tulsa Race Massacre, making it one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country. “As the first newspaper that I read from cover to cover and was loyal to, it is The Oklahoma Eagle that initially made me want to become a journalist,” Lee told me. Decades later, the newspaper would pull him back home. In 2021, the 100th anniversary of the massacre, Lee returned to his hometown to serve as the Eagle’s managing editor.

Just as the Eagle transformed Lee’s life, now, Lee will play a key role in transforming the historic publication. In December, a coalition of local Tulsa philanthropy and media organizations and the American Journalism Project (AJP) announced the Eagle would expand and transition to a nonprofit by becoming part of a new Tulsa Local News Initiative.

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