Russell Perry

Born in 1939, Russell M. Perry is a newspaper publisher, business man, and Oklahoma City leader. Finding success on the football field as a young man at Douglass High School, Perry was the quarterback of the Trojans when they played in the state’s first integrated football game in 1955 against Capitol Hill High School. At the end of a hard fought, close game, Capitol Hill won 13 - 6 after scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 27 seconds left on the clock, ending the Trojans’ 46 game winning streak. Perry would go on to lead the Trojans to a state championship the following year, becoming the first African American quarterback to do so.

Perry served as the general manager and editor of the Black Dispatch for 12 years before he founded the Black Chronicle in 1979, publishing the first issue on April 12 of that year. His publishing company later branched out into broadcasting as he purchased several radio stations beginning in 1993.

In addition to running a publishing and broadcasting company, Russell Perry was the Oklahoma State Secretary of Commerce under Governor Frank Keating. He has also served the community as a member of numerous boards, while overseeing his publishing and broadcasting empire.

Perry is a member of the Oklahoma African American Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. He is the namesake of both Russell M. Perry Avenue, and the Russell M. Perry Equal Opportunity Award of Excellence.