OKPOLICY.ORG
The national spotlight will shine on our state in the coming days as we gather to commemorate the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre and its aftermath.
Soon, however, this attention will fade and many long-standing issues will remain for Oklahomans to address. In addition to wrestling with the question of reparations, we need to address Oklahoma’s immense racial inequalities. We need to face head-on the wide disparity that Black Oklahomans experience in economic security, income inequality, employment rates, health outcomes, insurance coverage, life expectancy, educational attainment, contact with law enforcement and the justice system, incarceration rates, and so much more.
America prides itself as being a nation of laws, but we should recognize that our laws — whether by negligence or malice — are too often wielded to disadvantage and endanger people of color. We must acknowledge the racism entrenched within our economic, political, and legal systems. And at long last, we must heed our Black community as they seek to claim the space, power, and resources to lead our way forward in the creation of anti-racist policies and laws.
This is the path forward towards healing, reconciliation, and justice.
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Events & Exhibits
- Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission
- Black Wall Street Legacy Festival
- Justice for Greenwood
- Greenwood Art Project
- Tulsa City-County Library Remembers: Commemorating Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre With Education, Empathy and Healing
- Exhibit at Rudisill Library | Video Archive of TCCL Events
- The Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection
- Gilcrease Museum | Inaugural Eddie Faye Gates Lecture, June 1
- Roundup of Community Events and Resources Recognizing the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial [Tulsa Kids]
- Live Music & Theater | Art Exhibitions | Lectures | Community Resources | More
Multimedia
- Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Testimony to Congress, May 19, 2021 [CSPAN] | [CBS News]
- The Trail of Atrocity [Center For Public Secrets]
- Goin’ Back To T-Town [PBS American Experience]
- Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten [PBS Documentary, Premiers May 31]
- ‘Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later’ [OETA, Premiers May 31]
- Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street [CNN Documentary, Premiers May 31]
- Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres in American history [60 Minutes, CBS News]
- Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre [History Channel, Premiers May 30] | [Preview]
- Soul of a Nation: Tulsa’s Buried Truth [ABC News] | [ABC News Documentary via Hulu] (subscription required) | [ABC Podcast]
- Fire in Little Africa
- A multimedia hip-hop project commemorating the 1921 massacre of Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood
- Greenwood: Here and Now (Film) [O’Colly Media Group, Premiers May 30] | [Trailer] | Greenwood: Here and Now (Interviews)
- Oklahoma State University School of Media & Strategic Communications
- The Massacre of Tulsa’s ‘Black Wall Street’ [Vox]
- Historian says 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was “actively covered up” by white community [CBS News]
- The History And Legacy Of Tulsa Race Massacre (NPR interview with Oklahoma Eagle Publisher Jim Goodwin) [NPR]
- A Century After The Race Massacre, Tulsa Confronts Its Bloody Past [NPR]
- Tulsa Race Massacre (7-episode podcast) [American History Tellers Podcast | Wondery]
Reading
- What the Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed: An Interactive Feature [New York Times]
- Tulsa Race Massacre: Tulsa World Library [Tulsa World]
- ‘A conspiracy of silence’: Tulsa Race Massacre was absent from schools for generations [The Oklahoman]
- ‘Dodging bullets’ and coming home to ‘nothing left’: An illustrated history of the Tulsa Race Massacre [The Oklahoman]
- American Terror: A century ago in Tulsa, a murderous mob attacked the most prosperous black community in the nation [Smithsonian Magazine]
- The Promise of Oklahoma: How the push for statehood led a beacon of racial progress to oppression and violence [Smithsonian Magazine]
- “The foundation of the wealth:” Why Black Wall Street boomed [AP News]
- Daily Roundup of News Coverage from OK Policy’s In the Know Newsletter:
Symposia & Conferences
- The John Hope Franklin Center’s 12th Annual Reconciliation in America National Symposium, “The Future of Tulsa’s Past: The Centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre and Beyond”
- May 26-29
- Tuskegee to Tulsa: Memorial Weekend Conference (Online)
- World Conference of Mayors/Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance
- May 28-June 2
- Tulsa Law Review: 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Symposium [Overview] [YouTube]
- The University of Tulsa College of Law
- The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: Looking Back, Looking Ahead [Overview] | [YouTube]
- Harvard University Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and the African American Intellectual History Society
