#TulsaSyllabus Has Arrived
In Celebration of Juneteenth I decided to do something different this year to help my friends, family, and colleagues get some additional tools as we continue to fight for justice…
About 4 years ago for Juneteenth, historians in Charleston shared the #CharlestonSyllabus in response to the shooting deaths of 9 parishioners at Emanuel AME Church.
https://www.aaihs.org/resources/charlestonsyllabus/
This year for Juneteenth, Tulsa based scholars came together to launch the #TulsaSyllabus, accompanied by an online resource guide for anyone who wants to get an understanding of the history of race relations in Tulsa, OK and where you should go if you want to learn about Black heritage in Oklahoma pre-statehood, race/enslavement in Indian Territory, the rise/destruction/rebuilding of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, All-Black Towns in Oklahoma, and Greenwood’s reconciliation efforts on the road to the Centennial of the Massacre – Starting TODAY June 19, 2020 you can tap into this online bibliography of sources for free.
https://tulsasyllabus.web.unc.edu/
Why do we need the Tulsa Syllabus?
In recent months, the world has heard more about black people in Tulsa than perhaps ever before. As protesters fill the streets in response to the seemingly endless stream of murders of Black men and women at the hands of law enforcement and the ongoing lack of justice for the victims, all eyes are on Tulsa as a city with its own complicated history of racial violence and mob rule juxtaposed next to images of Black wealth and prosperity. The upcoming centennial of the historic Tulsa Race Massacre on May 31, 2021, the murder of a unarmed Black male –Terence Crutcher– by Tulsa police in 2016, the retraumatizing event of a targeted shooting of Greenwood residents by two White gunmen in 2012, the City’s renewed search for mass graves from the massacre restarted in 2019, and the current president’s plans to launch a right wing rally in Tulsa on the Juneteenth holiday weekend are some of the events related to black Tulsans and racial violence that have caused social tensions in the city to flare and the world to take note. It is therefore important to take a step back and try to understand the roots of racism and racial violence that have plagued this city for over 100 years.
