Resources on the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

Photograph of North Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1916-1921, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Families of Anita Williams Christopher and David Owen Williams, licensed under CC0.

On occasion of the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre that destroyed the center of African American wealth and proliferation, we have collected resources to study and teach the historical events and their tremendous repercussion within US culture and race relations.

The Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, tasked with the coordinating the commemoroation of the 1921 events is a great entry point to familarize yourself with the discourses around the massacre itself, Greenwood, as the place where it happened, and the continued debates about whose history is being communicated.

Databases and Archives

National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)

The NMAAHC has compiled its resources relating to the massacre in Greenwood in their "Tulsa Objects in the NMAAHC Collection"
Try search filters such as "Tulsa Race Massacre," "Tulsa," or "Greenwood"

African American Newspapers (Series 1 & 2)

Research contemporary news coverage of the 1920s related to the events in Tulsa through the African American Newspapers database which was licensed by the FID AAC
Learn more about the database here

Oklahoma State University

Browse the digitized materials of "Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921" - Collection

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution presents in its collection cluster "Tulsa 100" different facets of their collections to engage with the Tulsa Race Massacre from different perspectives.
The episode "Confronting the Past" of the Smithsonian's podacst Sidedoor provides an overall understanding of the events and their devastating impact.

Library of Congress

Find search strategies and selected articles on the topic: https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-tulsa-race-riots/introduction

Teaching the Tulsa Race Massacre

#TulsaSyllabus

#TulsaSyllabus is source curated by Dr. Alicia Odewale (University of Tulsa) and Dr. Karla Slocum (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) that offers reading lists and syllabi about different aspects of the Tulsa Greenwood District.

Tulsa Historical Society and Museum

The THSM has curated a great online exhibit "The Attack on Greenwood" that offers engaging materials.
The society has made available many audio recordings of interviews with survivors and contemporaries of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Find legal documents of course cases and reports of the Red Cross that document immediate reactions to the massacre.

Oklahoma Historical Society

The Oklahoma Historical Society provides the offical report "Tulsa Race Riot" (2001) by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa race Riot of 1921
Find a historical overview of the events, their socio-political contexts, their immediate aftermath, and their long-term effects: https://www.okhistory.org/learn/trm

Tulsa and Greenwood in Literature, Art, and Culture

The Greenwood Art Project commissioned several artists to install public artworks arouond Tulsa on occasion of the Centennial. (Find a report on the project's opening on Artnet.)

Works of the artist Crystal Z. Campbell that reflect on the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Fire in Beulah (2001), a novel by Rilla Askew

Dreamland Burning (2017), a novel by Jennifer Latham

"The Case for Reparations" (2017), a story by Ta-Nehisi Coates

"The Massacre of Black Wallstreet" (2019), a webcomic by Natalie Chang

"Watchmen" (2019), TV-series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons