Reuben Charles Gant was born in 1952 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a family rooted in the city’s Black community. His mother, Amelia Marie Gant, was born in Gans, Oklahoma, and moved to Tulsa in the 1920s, shortly after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre devastated Greenwood, the district known as Black Wall Street.
Growing up in north Tulsa, Gant developed discipline and resilience through the support of coaches, family friends, and mentors who encouraged both athletic and academic achievement.
At Booker T. Washington High School, he became a standout in football, basketball, and track. His athletic success earned him Parade Magazine High School Football All-American honors in 1969 and later recognition in the Tulsa Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame and the Booker T. Washington High School Ring of Honor.
Gant attended Oklahoma State University on a dual-sport scholarship, competing in football and basketball from 1970 to 1973 while studying communications and organizational leadership. In 1974, the Buffalo Bills selected him in the first round of the NFL Draft.
After seven seasons with the Bills, Gant retired from the NFL in 1980 and entered the cable television industry. From 1981 to 1997, he held national sales and marketing leadership roles and was later honored by the National Association of Minorities in Cable for his contributions to minority leadership and industry growth.
Gant has described himself as a “community servant,” dedicating much of his post-NFL career to revitalizing Tulsa’s Greenwood district and preserving the history of the massacre. As executive director of the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce from 1998 to 2013, he broadened its work to include entrepreneurship, cultural preservation, and economic development.
He also helped establish the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation and has led Reconciliation Park’s efforts to educate the public about the massacre and promote interracial understanding. Since becoming executive director in 2017, he has supported efforts to secure national recognition for Greenwood, including bipartisan legislation to designate the area as a national monument.
Through these efforts, Gant has connected historical awareness with community action, helping strengthen Greenwood’s legacy and future.
He is also a citizen of the Cherokee Nation through his grandmother’s Freedmen ancestry.
