The Tulsa Race Massacre: Teaching and Learning Resources

The Tulsa Race Massacre (May 31 - June 1, 1921) involved two days of horrific armed and incendiary attacks by white people on African Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, most of whom lived in the vibrant and prosperous Greenwood section of the city. These attacks ended the lives of as many as 300 African American residents and nearly 20 white residents and destroyed 35 square blocks of homes and businesses, commonly referred to as Black Wall Street, reducing the area to rubble. Some 6,000 African American men, women, and children were either hospitalized, imprisoned, or displaced by the violence; about 10,000 total were rendered homeless.

The History Department has partnered with the Center for Public Secrets in Tulsa, with co-sponsorship from the Black Studies Department, to bring forward a series of events and resources to mark the centennial year of the atrocity.

Banner Image: Running the Negro Out of Tulsa^© Unidentified Photographer, Gift of Brian Wallis

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Historic Greenwood and the Tulsa Race Massacre

Chief Egunwale Amusan, Bryan Bruckman, and Patricia A. Schechter

This interactive map illustrates some of the key locations of the historic Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as "Black Wall Street," and features important African American businesses, cultural institutions, ...Read More
The Burning of Greenwood: Voices from Tulsa, Then and Now

Chief Egunwale Amusan, Randy Hopkins, and Patricia A. Schechter

Chief Amusan speaks about his dynamic history walking tour of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Randy Hopkins’s discusses his eye-opening research into the media coverup of the Tulsa Race Massacre. ...Read More
Mask of Atonement: Mark of the Hun

Randy Hopkins

This video reviews the post-massacre press coverage of a short-lived attempt by white authorities in Tulsa to offer “reparations” – their word – to African American property owners who lost ...Read More
Media and Massacre: The Tulsa Daily World's Incitements to Murder

Randy Hopkins

This video examines the “Daily World,” Tulsa, Oklahoma’s largest circulating newspaper for its treatment of racial violence in 1917. That year witnessed a spike in 100% Americanism and xenophobia as ...Read More
Books for Young Readers: The Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

Patricia A. Schechter

This list gathers picture books, novels, and testimony published with readers up to middle school grades.
Colonialism and Statehood in Oklahoma (Bibliography)

Patricia A. Schechter

The assault in Tulsa was one in a series of attacks by whites on black people and communities in this period, like the Arkansas Race Riot of 1917 and the ...Read More
History of the Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921 (Bibliography)

Patricia A. Schechter

This bibliography gathers the most significant and important scholarship on the Tulsa Race Massacre. It includes books and articles by historians, journalists, lawyers, and political commentators, like President Joseph Biden.
...Read More
Videos, News, and Historical Documentaries: The Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

Patricia A. Schechter

To mark the centennial year since the Tulsa Race Massacre, a number of news outlets and public broadcasting stations, including the History Channel, put together one-hour specials. Included on this ...Read More
Primary Sources Related to the Greenwood neighborhood, Tulsa Oklahoma, 1900-1921 (Bibliography)

Patricia A. Schechter, Rebecca Hayes, and Corry Hinckley

Items in this bibliography were selected for their illustrative power and are intended to serve as an introduction to some of the source material available digitally to those interested in ...Read More
"The Battling Ground": Memory, Violence, and Resistance in Greenwood, North Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1907-1980

Greta Katherine Smith

Tulsa, Oklahoma's historically African American neighborhood of Greenwood in North Tulsa has long been contested terrain. Built by black settlers beginning in the late nineteenth-century, the neighborhood evolved into a ...Read More