STORY LONNA FRESHLEY | PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE COMMISSION Expanding Understanding As the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre approaches, students in Oklahoma State University’s College of Arts and Sciences are preparing ways to commemorate the Black Tulsans who were affected while also educating others about the event. The massacre was triggered on May 31, 1921, when 19-year-old Black shoe-shiner Dick Rowland accidentally fell into white elevator operator Sarah Page. Rowland was taking the Drexel Building’s elevator to the top floor to use the Black restroom. Page screamed and alleged she was assaulted by Rowland, later recanting her claim. Out of fear, Rowland fled. Over the next 17 hours, Tulsa erupted into violence and was set aflame, devastating the area known as Black Wall Street. “Greenwood was a booming community for Black-owned businesses,” said Quraysh Ali Lansana, interim director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation; writer in residence for the Center for Poets and Writers; and adjunct faculty member in the Department of English and Center for Africana Studies. “They were literally going from rags to riches. In Greenwood, Black citizens owned everything because they came to that land largely via land allotments from post-Civil War treaties that were granted to the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee tribes. It’s important to emphasize how the district came to be in order to get a real understanding.” OSU STUDENTS PREPARE TO COMMEMORATE THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE WITH UNIQUE STORYTELLING OPPORTUNITIES Tulsa’s Greenwood District was one of America’s most prominent and successful concentrations of Black-owned businesses in the early 20th century. It became known as “Black Wall Street” before it was devastated during the Tulsa Race Massacre on May 31 and June 1, 1921. 12 CONNECT 2020
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