Rev. Otis Clark
Otis Grandville Clark was born February 13, 1903, the son of a former slave. He grew up on the black side of segregated Tulsa where he went to school and worked as a drugstore delivery boy. In 1921, Otis narrowly escaped harm in the infamous Tulsa race riots. “I got shot at. They killed my step-father; we never found his body. They killed my dog and burned our home down.” The Red Cross estimates that close to 300 were killed and over 10,000 left homeless by the riots. Shortly after, Otis hopped a train for California where he found work as a movie extra and served as a butler to Hollywood celebrities such as Clark Gable, Charley Chaplain and Joan Crawford. While serving a jail sentence in Los Angeles for bootlegging whiskey, Otis converted to Christianity which began a 90 year career in ministry. He served at the well known Azusa Street Mission and became officially ordained as a minister in 1946. “I
was about 21 when I married my first wife, Martha. I was married four
times... 35 years in all. They all died. I had just one daughter; she
died a while back. I never had no grandchildren”
What it was like
growing up in a time of so much racial tension.
See we had in our little
Tulsa town, we had trouble there, what you might call a little race
riot. The whites just run the colored folk out of Tulsa. That was
about 1921. I was about 18 and I was living with my grandparents. My
father was in Kansas City, Missouri. I remember I went to visit my
friend, Jackson, and I was standing behind him when he got shot. I
had to run off and leave him; I was just trying to save my own life.
They killed my step-father; we never found his body. They killed my
dog and burned our home down. I tried to leave after that, but the
white folks stopped me on the way out of town and made me get out of
the car. They didn't shoot me; they just took my gun. I went to stay
with my aunt, and later we heard that the Salvation Army and the Army
folks came in and stopped the killing.
I don't know how to ask
this, but how did you live in a world where people hated you just
because of the color of your skin?
Tulsa was more or less an
oil city...really the oil capital of the world at one time..and a lot
of colored folks worked for them 'oil' folks and we got along nicely
on our side of town, which was the north side, and the whites was on
the south side. And to be perfectly honest with you, we got along
nicely, up until the Klu Klux Klan and some others got jealous of us
coloreds getting along as well as we was. That's when they started
the race riots, and they burnt up our part of the city. Lot's of
folk were killed.
How did you deal with
that? Weren't you angry?
No, see we was young and
didn't have sense enough to be angry (laughing).
We didn't have that kind of sense. We couldn't do nothing 'bout it
anyways. Things was different back then. We just had to run and get
out of the way and keep from getting killed.
Looking back, how can
you forgive those folks for what they did?
I don't think we should look back. All we can do is
just forgive one another and try to straighten up whatever wrongs we
have. I ain't perfect; I've messed up too, you know, and folks have
forgiven me. That's what we've got to do, learn to forgive one
another.
So
what did you do after that?
My
grandmother got a letter from my father that said he done gone to
California. So me and my friend hopped on a train to Los Angeles and
found my father was working for the movie folks. And that's how I got
started with the movie folks. I started working for Joan Crawford and
got acquainted with all the movie folks. I worked as a butler for
Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin too. They was
what I called the sportin' folks. They was big time into dancin' and
having fun, and I was pretty popular with 'em 'cause I was a whiskey
maker....a moonshiner you see. That was back during Prohibition and
I'd supply 'em with whiskey for all their parties. Some of them
parties was $7000; they was big timers. Joan Crawford was what you
might call one of the leading stars back then and she had a theater
behind her home, and Clark Gable and Charlie Chaplin would come to
her home for movies and parties and such. So I was working for the
folks that had something, and so I got along nicely. The movie folks
treated me real good. I worked there until I finally got converted.
What do you mean by
“converted”?
I got arrested and put in
jail for makin' moonshine whiskey. That was a dangerous deal. Back
in the prohibition days, they'd give folks five and six years for a
makin' a little whiskey, but the judge had mercy on me and gave me
only 20 days in jail. On Saturdays the Salvation Army folks would
come out and some of these white preachers would preach and sing to
us prisoners. The first Saturday I didn't pay no mind cause I was
looking for my
gang, but my gang didn't show up! The next Saturday, the Salvation
Army folks came out, and they preached and they sang, and I made up
my mind that I'd get on God's side. I got converted in jail in Los
Angeles. I was in my twenties..that was my first opportunity of
actually hearing folks talk about God. I found out He's the boss of
this whole thing.
So how do you get on
God's side?
Repent. You have to repent
for the wrongs you've done and be converted. That's what we call it
in the Baptist Church. Repent and be converted and change from wrong
to right. Quit your wrongs; quit your sins and get on God's side, and
live right. But we Baptist folks allowed you to drink a little, we
didn't make it too serious for you. You could do a little wrong and
repent and it would be alright and so a lot of us followed that
line.... that you were on God's side if you just belonged to a
church. But I found out later that ain't right. See, the Devil comes
along some how or another and makes us feel like it's alright to do
wrong and a little wrong won't hurt us. And to tell the truth about
it, we follow that line of the Devil more than the line of God. And I
did that myself a long time; I followed the folks that thought it was
alright to do a little wrong. But see, God's Bible tells us to
repent and believe...
“He that believes and is baptized shall be
saved.” But you got to believe.
See,
we was baptized, but didn't believe. In other words, we did as we
pleased in the Baptist church. But God has a written word which is
the Bible and you got
to go by it. See, we had the Bible and didn't go by it in the Baptist
church. They would think you was crazy if you talked about being
saved and sanctified. I learned that you got to believe and repent
and follow God's word. We would talk it, but we didn't live it.
Nobody really talked about living no sanctified life. But you got to
really do it to be saved. I found that out after God really baptized
me for real when I was in jail. That changed my life. It stopped me
from doing the things I used to do. I tried to come back and tell the
folks in the Baptist church about it and they thought I was crazy.
So how did you go about
becoming a preacher?
I got with the leadin'
folks of the Azusa Street Church down there in Los Angeles. They
talked about baptism in the Holy Ghost, and I made up my mind that
was the right way to go, and the Lord called me to go and tell other
people. See, the Devil puts it in folks to cuss, tell lies, cheat and
steal. He tells us it's alright to have a little of that and have a
little bit of God. The whole world practices that. But God is
pleading with us all
the time to come to him. “Come to me the
heavy laden and I will give you rest.” But
in the world you can do as you please and you can say your holy and
sanctified but you're really not. You have to love God more than you
love the world. But the Devil has a lot of power in this world.
Do you think God
directs our way through life?
In a way He does, but in
another way He lets us have our own way. He tries to tell us what's
right, but He leaves us to do whatever we want to do. We can follow
right if we want to, or we can follow wrong, but He encourages us to
do right. I did that myself a long time. I followed the folks that
thought it was alright to do a little wrong. See the Devil comes
along and makes us feel that a little wrong won't hurt us. But those
20 days in jail changed my whole life when them little Salvation Army
folks came and told me about gettin' on the right side of God. See,
God can even take the bad things in your life and turn 'em around
into good.
Tell me how you've
managed to live such a long, healthy and productive life.
That just slips up on ya!
(laughing) I don't
know why I'm living so long. I think it's because God wants me to
tell the younger folk about being on His side. God is the one able to
make you healthy and wealthy but the Devil tries to steal it from you
and makes it hard for you. You gotta learn to stand firm. Wealth in
God's way of thinking is more than money, it's good health, the
ability to do what you want to do, to be physically wealthy.....and
mentally wealthy..... able to think right and do right. Think right.
God wants you to think on the good things.
You've got over 100
years of life experience. (Yeah).
How can I make the most out of my life?
Live Holy. Holiness is
righteousness in the heart, not just in the head. It's right to do
right. “And none but the righteous shall see
God.” If the Lord gets in your heart,
you gonna do right because God is right. You can't help it; it
becomes a part of you. Love others. Love is a great attribute. God
wants us to love one another. You are God's child and He wants you to
have what He has for you. Love is a mystery that the Devil hides even
from the church. The Devil has cheated us out of the real love. The
real love of God would make you treat one another right at any time,
in any kind of condition. God is
love, and we're supposed to show the love of God to others. Think
right, live right and do right.......and love.
Otis Clark certainly
made the most out of his life. As he sat in my living room during
this interview, he filled our home and lives, no only with incredible
stories and wisdom, but with love and life. This man was full of
life, and he was contagious, spreading it into every life he touched.
At ages 103 and 104, Otis traveled twice on mission trips to
Zimbabwe, Africa. After this interview, Otis was leaving
immediately, traveling to San Antonio to preach.....at 105 years old.
At age 107 he traveled to the West Indies to change lives and at age
109 he went to Canada to continue spreading the Word. And, at the
time of his death on May 21, 2013, at the age of 109, Otis Clark was
planning a trip to preach the gospel in the country of Nigeria. Now
that is optimism.
Otis' life has been the
subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles and TV
interviews. He even has his own Wikipedia page. Below are a some
links to a couple of these interviews. They are well worth viewing.
Of all the interviews I
have done, no one has been more full of life and love than Otis
Clark. I am humbled to have sat at his feet and learned.
Otis Clark, 108
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