Mary E. Jones Parrish

Early Life

Mary Elizabeth Jones Parrish was born in Mississippi; Trinity University Press gives her birth as 1892 in Yazoo City, though other records suggest 1890 or 1895. She married Simon Parrish of Quincy, Illinois, and their daughter, Florence Mary, would be with her during the most dangerous hours of her life. She studied shorthand at the Rochester Business Institute in New York.

Contributions to Greenwood

Parrish moved to Tulsa around 1919 and taught typing and shorthand at a YMCA branch. The Tulsa Historical Society identifies her school — the Mary Jones Parrish School — at 103½ North Greenwood Avenue. Her teaching gave young Black Tulsans skills for office and professional work.

The 1921 Massacre

During the massacre, Parrish escaped with her young daughter as Greenwood burned. Rather than leave the experience to memory alone, she recorded her own account and set out to collect the testimony of other survivors.

Writing the Record

The result was Events of the Tulsa Disaster, which she published privately — in 1922, according to Trinity University Press and the Tulsa Historical Society catalog. The book combined her eyewitness narrative with survivors' accounts, photographs and lists of losses, creating one of the earliest and most important records of the massacre written from inside Greenwood.

Mary E. Jones Parrish died in 1972.

What the Record Shows

The Black Wall Street card roster dates her book to 1923, while the university press and museum catalog give 1922; the date will be confirmed against surviving editions. Her exact birth date, the place and date of her death, and the chronology of her studies in Rochester also merit confirmation in primary records.