Northeast OKC art gallery will highlight Black Seminole art
Northeast OKC art gallery will highlight Black Seminole art
Jeff Elkins, The OklahomanThu, May 7, 2026 at 10:16 AM UTC
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Houses in Sandtown, Oklahoma’s first Black settlement, were built from whatever could be found, whether that was scrap wood, rusty sheets of tin or tar paper. Survival was an improvisation effort for families who lived in the area near the North Canadian River in south Oklahoma City during the 1940s and 1950s.
Those ramshackle structures served as inspiration behind an art medium for Melvin Smith, who spent the first 12 years of his life there.
“My mission is to exemplify where I came from,” Smith said. “I come from poverty, and I’ve got to show that.”
A 1,780-square-foot property in a historic area of northeast Oklahoma City is being renovated to become an art gallery. Inside the gallery at 1715 N Lottie Avenue will be a large front room and three smaller gallery spaces.
While his wife Rose, also an accomplished artist, buys canvases for her paintings, Melvin Smith uses everything from old car body panels, discarded wood, rusted metal and other objects that many might call junk.
Many of his works are masks that represent the Black Seminoles, descendants of his ancestors who fought for freedom alongside Seminole Indians and were forced to make the trek to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.
Those who have been to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma might have seen one of his masks. Or maybe they've seen some of his works through a Betty Price exhibition featuring state art. Some are also part of the Minnesota State Art Collection.
Smith said he doesn’t want his works to be “pretty and dressy,” because that’s not where he came from.
“Everything that we’re doing, my wife and I, is followed by descendants, and we’re doing that for them,” Smith said. “That’s what the Black Seminole thing is, to let them know we tried to do something about our situation. We didn’t just accept it.”
Black Seminole history as warriors and refugees
The origin of the Black Seminoles dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when enslaved Africans, many of them Gullahs from the rice plantations of coastal South Carolina and Georgia, escaped into the Spanish Florida wilderness. It was there where they found refuge among the Seminole tribe, establishing what historians describe as a multi-ethnic and biracial alliance. Those who escaped fought alongside the Seminoles during the Seminole Wars of the early 19th century.
When the U.S government discovered gold in the southeastern part of the country and began forcing Native Americans west, the Black Seminoles were a part of that migration, following the Trail of Tears into Indian Territory, which would become Oklahoma.
Among them was Smith’s family. His mom’s birth certificate lists Wewoka, Oklahoma, the settlement founded by the Black Seminole leader John Horse in 1849, now the capital of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.
“Where the Seminole Nation is today, it used to be the Black Seminole’s home,” Smith said. “They wanted to take the guns away from the Seminole, so they took off and went to Texas, Mexico and the Bahamas, really because they didn’t want to give up their guns because they were warriors.”
Those who stayed became known as Seminole Freedmen, settling in communities like Wewoka and Holdenville. Smith’s family moved to Sandtown.
That warrior spirit was hostile at times. Smith said his grandfather got into a dispute with his cousin and shot and killed him. His childhood friend, Herman Henry Featherstone, was ambushed and shot to death in Sandtown.
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Smith said the police were afraid to come to Sandtown because everyone had guns.
The legacy of fighting against oppression and for survival shaped Smith’s upbringing and his art style.
“I think they should take pride in their existence as Black Seminoles,” Smith said. “They refused to accept slavery and tried to fight against it, joined by Native Americans to help them stay free from slavery. It wasn’t about anything other than trying to be free.”
Elements of that history still create struggle today. Smith said the Seminole Nation, anticipating federal funding, expelled Black Seminoles from the tribe. The federal government then halted the funding “because the Black Seminoles weren’t included,” Smith said.
Some of his works inspired by the Black Seminole plight will have a new home soon.
A 1,780-square-foot property in a historic area of northeast Oklahoma City is being renovated to become an art gallery. Inside the gallery at 1715 N Lottie Avenue will be a large front room and three smaller gallery spaces.Art gallery on Lottie Avenue
Lenardo Smith, Melvin’s nephew, has spent months transforming a small house at 1715 N Lottie Avenue. It’s a 1,780-square-foot property in northeast Oklahoma City’s historically Black community.
The renovation includes new plumbing, eclectic, professional lighting systems and more.
Those who have driven by it in recent weeks likely notice it already stands out. When it opens in the next three to six months, Lenardo said it will be unlike anything else on Lottie Avenue.
Lenardo said the neighborhood is dominated by liquor stores and daycares. He said an art gallery might feel radical in this area, but that’s what makes it all seem like such a special opportunity.
“I thought the idea of doing an art gallery was a great idea, because one of my passions is development, and the other passion is art,” Lenardo said.
Outside the gallery will be a sculpture Melvin created that was commissioned by the Love Family called "Black Soldier." The inside has a large front room and three smaller gallery spaces, one of which will become a permanent showcase for Melvin’s masks and other works. Lenardo said the other spaces could have rotating exhibitions with opportunities for artists to rent entire rooms or wall spaces.
“It will give Black artists a voice,” Lenardo said. “One of the things I think you find: it’s one thing for a (fitness trainer) to get $50 an hour or something like that, but that’s not going to happen to an African American trainer. It’s the same way with artists. There are a few Black artists that sell pieces for thousands of dollars, but there’s so many artists that don’t, and that’s because of education and exposure. Hopefully this will be instrumental in doing both of those.”
The gallery has yet to open, but Lenardo is already thinking beyond exhibitions, including the potential for workshops and other programming. He said it could be a hub for artistic education and opportunity on the east side.
“I’m an advocate for northeast Oklahoma City, and it’s a good excuse to have someone come through the neighborhood,” Leonardo said. “It’s going to be really exciting because it will give space to a lot of artists that ordinarily wouldn’t have a voice.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New Oklahoma City art gallery Black Seminole legacy
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