TALK OF GREENWOOD
Dr. Jerry Goodwin
Nate Burleson, a CBS news and game host personality after his former professional and collegiate football career, will receive the 2025 Legacy Award from the Greenwood Cultural Center on April 17. Photo Provided
The Greenwood Cultural Center announces its annual Legacy Award dinner for April 17 at the center, 322 N. Greenwood Ave.
A reception will begin at 6:30 p.m., with the dinner starting at 7 p.m.
The center’s board of directors will recognize Nate Burleson, co-host of “CBS Mornings,” “The NFL Today,” and “Hollywood Squares.” He is a former wide receiver with the Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, and Detroit Lions, playing an 11-year career.
He recently developed a news story on the legacy of the Greenwood district on the CBS network. His wife, Atoya, a native of Oklahoma City, has family ties to the district. Her family owned three businesses before the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: Lafayette Hotel, H. T. Wilson Real Estate, and the Wilson Barbershop.
The program organizers said the event “salutes Nathaniel Eugene Burleson, whose connections to Tulsa historic Greenwood district through his wife, Atoya, and whose unmistakable appreciation for Black Wall Street history, as illustrated in his work at CBS, merit recognition. Burleson represents Black excellence in all its splendor.”
Burleson met the former Atoya Shaw at the University of Nevada, where she was a track and field athlete who graduated with three school records and was recognized three times in the top five of the Nevada all-time lists. Together, they have three children: Nathaniel, Nehemiah, and Mia.
The event supports the center’s historical, cultural, and educational work in the Tulsa community.
The board of directors comprises of Michelle Brown-Burdex, Hannibal Johnson, Frances Jordan-Rakestraw, and Rebecca Williams. Wes Mitchell is the chair.
The Greenwood Cultural Center is a 501C(c)(3) organization whose mission is to preserve and promote the proud history and future of the African American community and the historic Greenwood district.
For more information, call (918) 596-1025 or visit www.greenwoodculturalcenter.org.
