Former Oklahoma state Rep. Don Ross, a champion of civil rights during a decades-long career in public service, has died at the age of 85.
Ross, who was born in Tulsa, spent 20 years in the state House. He was instrumental in pushing Oklahoma to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds in 1989.
“When I was sworn in … my son Edward was with me. He asked why we flew that flag. I had no answer for him. I had never noticed it,” Ross said in a 2022 Gilcrease Museum article.
He spent a decade as the chairman of the Appropriations and Budget Sub-Committee on Health and Social Services and helped bring more than $45 million to his district, according to Uncrowned Community Builders.
Ross is also credited as the principal fundraiser for the Greenwood Cultural Center located in north Tulsa. He helped get $32 million to build the Gilcrease Expressway, with a 2.2-mile stretch — between Lewis Avenue and L.L. Tisdale Parkway — later being named after him, according to Public Radio Tulsa.
In August 2021, police issued a silver warning when the 80-year-old Ross went missing after he was discharged from the hospital. He was later found under a tree and treated for heat exhaustion.
Ross was a Booker T. Washington graduate and Air Force veteran. He worked for The Oklahoma Eagle in the 1960s, where he wrote a weekly column and later served as a vice president. He received his journalism degree from The University of Central Oklahoma.
