The 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre offers a unique opportunity for us as a nation to honor those who suffered in one of the most unforgettable crimes of domestic terrorism and racial violence in US history. On May 31 and June 1, 1921, white mobs in Tulsa, Oklahoma attacked the city’s Black residents and businesses. They murdered hundreds of people and destroyed 35 square blocks in the city’s Greenwood District, also called “Black Wall Street,” which had been the wealthiest Black community in the United States. In this virtual program commemorating Juneteenth and paying tribute to victims, survivors, and descendants of the Tulsa Massacre, Dr. David Gray, professor of American Studies at Oklahoma State University and recipient of the 2017 OSU-Tulsa President’s Outstanding Faculty Award for teaching, lead a powerful and thoughtful-provoking discussion with Phil Armstrong, Project Director for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, and Carlos Moreno, author of “The Victory of Greenwood,” a groundbreaking book that shares perspectives of Greenwood’s most prominent figures and dispels some of Tulsa’s persistent myths and inaccuracies about the events leading up to the Massacre of 1921.
