OU Kicks Off Three-Day Symposium About 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre khits.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from khits.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
7 min to read
âI don t want my grandchildren who may grow up in Oklahoma schools to wait years and years to hear the truth about what happened.â
â Polly Base, English and language arts curriculum specialist
Oklahomaâs landscape sustains deep historical roots, including the tallgrass prairies in the north, 39 tribes occupying land from border to border and petroleum-filled veins fueling its beating heart within its central cities.Â
Where history is rich, Oklahomans have experienced inadequate instruction surrounding one of its most historic events â the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The city covered up the truth of its Greenwood District, forcing Black residents to regroup and rebuild.Â
7 min to read Our theme is âthe church that faith built,â and because of faith, weâre still there.â
 â Sharlene Johnson, chair of Mount Zion Baptist Church joint board
Once a gathering place for the cityâs Black community, Mount Zion Baptist Church stands empty with smoke billowing from it, shortly before being burned to the ground, in an image from the Tulsa Race Massacre.Â
Today, it continues to act as a place of community for its members, who meet in a large building similar to the one in the image. But its members havenât forgotten its history.Â
Sharlene Johnson, chair of Mount Zionâs joint board, said when the church started in 1909, it was held in a one-room frame building. Construction began on a larger building, on the same land the church is on now, in 1916. The first services were held in the new building in April 1921 â two months before white Tulsans would burn the building to rubble.
Library of Congress accepts OU task force petition to update subject heading to Tulsa Race Massacre oudaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oudaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It was 100 years ago this June that one of the most prosperous Black communities in the nation was devastated by an outright massacre -right here in Oklahoma. The Greenwood District in Tulsa was dubbed “Black Wall Street,” a place where Black business owners could go for capital and Black families thrived. Keeping the memory of that community and its destruction alive is vital for a full understanding of the history of the state.
So we’re asking you, our listeners, to join us in better educating ourselves about it through the new KGOU Readers Club. We’ve selected four books by authors with Oklahoma ties, intended to enlighten us about what happened a century ago. We’ve included one meant for a younger audience to foster discussion among families, too.