News Archive

IU McKinney’s Nicole Burts, ’17, assistant director of student recruitment in the Office of Enrollment Management, has seen her article on J.B. Stradford published in Tulsa Law Review.

“The Journey of J.B. Stradford: A Life of Leadership, Loss, and Lasting Legacy,” was published in the review’s Tulsa Race Massacre Symposium Issue. The issue contains submissions from lawyers, scholars, poets, and journalists from across the country. “I’m honored to have my submission included in this special issue,” Burts said, “and incredibly proud of the work we’ve done at IU McKinney to recognize our distinguished alumnus, J.B. Stradford.”

Stradford graduated from Indianapolis College of Law, one of IU McKinney’s predecessor schools. He practiced law in Indiana before moving to Oklahoma and becoming a successful entrepreneur and human rights proponent. He was a prominent business leader in Tulsa’s thriving Black community at the time of the 1921 race massacre in that city.

Burts joined the effort by Judge David Shaheed, ’84, and Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Patricia Kinney, ’02, to gather information for an event to honor Stradford’s legacy. That event took place on September 10, 2021, which was Stradford’s birthday. A portrait of Stradford, commissioned from Indianapolis artist Jay Parnell, hangs in a place of pride at IU McKinney.

During law school, Burts was a member of the Black Law Students Association, executive board member of the Indianapolis Bar Association Law Student Division, served as an admissions ambassador, and took part in IU McKinney’s pro bono program. She also served as a research assistant, was a judicial extern to Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, interned at the Indiana Court of Appeals as a Carr L. Darden Fellow and worked as a certified legal intern at the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. She is a 2014 Indiana Conference for Legal Education Fellow through the Indiana Supreme Court.

In the photo, Burts is holding a copy of Tulsa Law Review and wearing a shirt created by J.B. Stradford’s great-great-granddaughter, Erin Toole Williams. Williams created social media content to educate people about Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and J.B. Stradford’s role in it.