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TULSA, Oklahoma - The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission made several big announcements Tuesday, September 12 - including new efforts to bring race riot lessons to Oklahoma classrooms.
It also announced efforts to place Tulsa's Greenwood District on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The commission said it plans to, "leverage the rich history surrounding the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot by facilitating actions, activities, and events that commemorate and educate all citizens."

The commission also has immediate and short-term plans in place for the recognition of the 100th anniversary of the riot in 2021. State Senator Kevin Matthews told us that the state superintendent is backing the initiative and now they're talking with educators to figure out how to best roll it out into the classroom.

"Not every teacher understands the history or how to teach it, so we're looking at ways that we can teach teachers.

The commission said Rudisill Library has materials available for teachers wanting to teach about the riot.

Commission Project Manager Jamaal Dyer said it's especially important for young Tulsans to know about this dark part of the city's history.

"It makes no sense for you to live in Tulsa, be from Tulsa, go to the Tulsa Public School system or through Tulsa schools period and not have any knowledge of these events," said the Rev. Jamaal Dyer.

A new banner was unveiled listing Greenwood's original businesses, and the commission also announced plans for an arch at the corner of Greenwood and Archer welcoming you to the district.

According to the commission, the projects of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission will educate Oklahomans and Americans about the Race Riot and its impact on the state and Nation; remember its victims and survivors; and create an environment conducive to fostering sustainable entrepreneurship and heritage tourism within the Greenwood District specifically, and North Tulsa generally.

They hope to introduce some elements of the curriculum by February - Black History Month.

Film at 11....

Will they have a class on ,white and we are ashamed of being white? Maybe reverend Al, or reverend Jesse, or Louis will be guest speakers.
Teach it as a foot note in history class. That is what it is. BTW, Mrs. O'leary's cow was white.

Drafter you do know the history and background surrounding the denial and suppression of information regarding this right?

They are teaching lessons about the town history that were forbidden to be taught and all information suppressed and denied for decades (literally generations) by the very people who support the statues you seem to cherish. This is a shameful part of Tulsa's history that needs sunlight so as not to repeat it.

I view this as a never forget type thing along the lines of OKC, 911, or the holocaust. It's really not similar to a Robert E. Lee statue.

One says never forget and never allow oppression. The other celebrates those that fought for oppression.

*shrug*. Things would have been much easier if we had simply treated the losers like losers in the first place. It's quite strange that we allowed the war leaders of a losing side that fought to preserve slavery to be celebrated. And at the same time we erected many of those statues we suppressed all information about this particular subject. It literally was not allowed to be taught or discussed in a public way. You figure it out.

I'm all for teaching the history as long as it's accurate. I think the hardest part about teaching history is to get kids to realize that the beliefs and overall mentality of people in the past varied greatly depending on the time period.

So I would encourage kids to try and look at the events from all parties involved back then, then encourage them to understand the progress that's been made since.

Drafter is clearly on team keep this thing quiet LOL

Seems like I heard this argument applied somewhere else...

I don't know who they are.... I guess i'd have to hear the reason why they want the statues down..

they're re-naming the Brady District because of that... there was some outrage a couple years ago but the movement got it's second wind with all the other stuff going on across the country...

at this point it doesn't... just stating the facts... people looked around for stuff to be outraged about and our previous politically correct President fueled the flames...

I'm not mad... I find it funny that they're choosing which memories they want suppressed and which memories they want taught in public schools...



well, I couldn't think of anything else to blame Obama for today..

Dude the civil war can be taught in schools with or without statues. This literally was forbidden to be taught in schools until very recently....intentionally..... by the folks erecting or wanting confederate statues.... and you are planting your flag on which side?.

Are you really suggesting that if they are going to take down a robert e lee statue they shouldn't teach about the burning down of an affluent black neighborhood, lynchings and 75 years of pretending it didn't happen?

.... provide any evidence the "civil war is slowly being erased"

That's just ... dumb...

well, that's what I heard...

I know wiki isn't the best but:

No prosecution took place of any whites for actions committed during the riot. The city settled into an uneasy peace, and decades of virtual silence about the events were held. It was not recognized in the Tulsa Tribune feature of "Fifteen Years Ago Today" or "Twenty-five Years Ago Today". A number of people tried to document the events, gather photographs, and record the name of the dead and injured. Mary E. Jones Parrish, a young black teacher and journalist from Rochester, New York, was hired by the Inter-racial Commission to write an account of the riot. She was herself a survivor, and wrote about her experiences, as well as collecting other accounts, gathering photographs, and compiling "a partial roster of property losses in the African American community". She published this in Events of the Tulsa Disaster (1922; reprinted 1992 and 1998). It was the first book to be published about the riot. [36]

The first academic account was a master's thesis written in 1946 by Loren L. Gill, a veteran of World War II. But it did not then receive circulation beyond the University of Tulsa.[36]

In 1971 a small group of survivors gathered for a memorial service at Mount Zion Baptist Church, both blacks and whites. That year the chamber of commerce decided to commemorate the riot, but when they read the account and saw photos gathered by Ed Wheeler, host of a radio history program, they refused to publish it. He took it to both major newspapers, which refused to handle it. His article was finally published in Impact Magazine, a new publication aimed at a black audience, but most of white Tulsa never knew about it.[36]

In the early 1970s, "[a]long with Henry C. Whitlow, Jr., a history teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, [Mozella Franklin] Jones had not only helped to desegregate the Tulsa Historical Society, but had mounted the first-ever major exhibition on the history of African Americans in Tulsa. Moreover, she had also created, at the Tulsa Historical Society, the first collection of riot photographs available to the public."[36] She worked informally with a white woman, Ruth Sigler Avery, who also was trying to get accounts of the riot told to the public. They encountered pressure, particularly in the white community, to keep silent.[36]

You left out the lynchings, and the fact the city of Tulsa actively participated in the riot through the use of its police, not to mention the state through the national guard. They reportedly used planes to start fires.

Then there were the attempts to prevent them from rebuilding and to take their land (ultimately struck down in court) etc.


But most of that isn't odd. The effective silencing is what makes this one stand out.

Drafter. If you think a statue is "teaching " then you've never learned a complex thought.

To equate teaching a topic in history with venerating someone with a statue is and always will be dumb. Stop using that dumb argument. Only idiots think it has any validity.

I get it.... removing robert e lee is a disservice to the blacks because it teaches about blacks being abused and oppressed...and if "they" are going to do that than this one should be too. Its either, or neither


As for age, find out. I'm sure it's not a secret. if you disagree with the age have outrage....

I don't think it is glorifying it or celebrating the people that did it....

I think if there were statues erected in the town square of the instigators there would probably be a movement to remove them.


As I said I'm not for taking confederate statues down. I think they shouldn't be glorified and should be in context. I also think a statue of General Sherman and Grant should also be erected in every confederate county seat.

If every confederate statue had a plaque on it saying "this guy was an azzhole who wanted to keep slavery in the USA and we have this statue here to remember how much of an azzhole he is" I'm sure everyone opposed to the statues would switch sides and support your desire to keep history drafter.

And a separate plaque saying "this statue was erected in 19xx by azzhole who wanted to glorify the south in an attempt to intimidate us citizens of a different race. This particular statue was erected with donations from the following azzholes: xXxX, xXxX, xXxX "

Drafter if you start a go fund me for my General Sherman idea I'll donate ten dollah

There is a historical site here where Bonnie and Clyde got in to a shootout with the police. The site commemorates the police who lost their lives rather than bonnie and clyde but still bathes in the history of Bonnie and Clyde. Turns out Police association s are not big fans of anything glorifying criminals sort of like some are not big fans of glorifying the confederacy.

Maybe the statues should discuss the treasonous efforts, fighting to keep slavery (among other things) and the mercy of the north for forgiving their treason and taking the high road for brokering peace. And General sherman should be standing next to them with a bobble head type finger waveing in front of them and audio saying oh no you did ennnt.

this would be much easier to talk about over a few beers face to face... I've erased more than I've posted..

lol agreed.


laser beam eyes... sherman should have laser beam eyes