Use of John Johnson’s Life Story in Conjunction with Other Black Entrepreneurs as Role Models for Potential Black Businessmen
Carol L. Cook
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Appendix G
(Left) Jake Jr.’s mother, Rose Simmons, with her youngest child. Arvada, approximately 1910. Raised on the ranch of her grandfather. Cow Torr, the Creek tribe’s only black chief. Rose was a tough, sharp-eyed frontier woman. “Training” children for thrift and discipline was her greatest joy. (
Simmons Family Collection
)
(figure available in print form)
(Right) Jake Sr. and Rose Simmons with granddaughter Ophelia, whom they raised after her mother was sent to prison for killing her husband’s mistress, photo taken approximately 1920. (
Simmons Family Collection
)
(figure available in print form)
Muskogee, “Queen City of the Southwest,” at the turn of the century. (
Tulsa University, Special Collections Library
)
(figure available in print form)
The Simmons family, about 1940: (left to right) J. J. III, Donald, Eva, Kenneth, and Jake Jr. The east Texas oil boom provided the family with a comfortable living, but taking the school board to the Supreme Court in an equal education lawsuit made Simmons the most controversial African-American in the state. (
Simmons Family Collection
)
(figure available in print form)
