100-year journey home: Tulsa hosts Hopkins-Strain family reunion

More than 150 members of the Hopkins-Strain family returned to Tulsa this weekend to honor their ancestors, nearly a century after their migration to Oklahoma.

A Century-Old Family

It is the 19th family reunion for the Hopkins-Strain family, a tradition that has been going on since 1986.

“We just look at life together, traveling wherever there is family,” said Doris Marshall. “I have 16 family members that flew in with me."

The Hopkins-Strain History in Oklahoma

The family has reunions every two years, each one hosted in a different city. But Marshall says this one is special. Members came from California, Texas, Minnesota and beyond, not just for a reunion, but for a journey home. Ancestors of the Hopkins-Strain family relocated from Texas to Oklahoma in 1924, settling and planting roots.

“They were coming, looking for a place where they could live without all of the racism, and they had black cities here,” said Marshall.

A Mark on Tulsa

Marshall says the family has left a mark on Tulsa’s Black History, and even had a poultry business on Greenwood. And though they now live all over the country, Daryl Hopkins, Doris' cousin, says they continue to write their story in Tulsa. 

“We have to get together, because our mothers and our fathers and our aunts and uncles, they were so close, and so we’re trying to continue that legacy," she said.