A map of Tulsa’s Greenwood area, with a variety of landmarks highlighted. Other projects will be in the media push, including one that Sean Thomas has been working on since June 2020. Thomas, a geography doctoral student, is creating an extensive map spanning from 1920 to the mid-1950s that focuses on the Greenwood District and some of the surrounding area. “My current interests are cultural and historical geography, especially the geography of memory and social justice issues and Black geographies,” Thomas said. “Geography of memory is statues, memorials and museums that shape discourse to define collective identities.” Through this project, Thomas is able to show the transformation of Greenwood. “I’ll not just be looking at the 1921 massacre, but also at Greenwood overall,” Thomas said. “Greenwood rising, or the rebuilding after the massacre, will allow me to critically look at the geography of memory and how the space is turning into a healing process rather than the finding of an identity for a collective.” The map will also help visual learners understand the area affected by the massacre. “I’m really trying to recreate a 1920 map of historic Greenwood based on the old land plots and use records to assign ownership,” Thomas said. “From there, I can plot the main points of 1921.” According to his research, the massacre took place in key areas around Tulsa: the Drexel building; the Tulsa County Courthouse, where Rowland was held for safety and where the shooting began; and the Dreamland Theater, where many members of the Black community gathered and organized during the chaos. The theater was burned down during the massacre. At another location now known as the Tulsa Theater (previously the Brady Theater), white vigilantes assisted by the National Guard detained Black citizens from Greenwood during the massacre. All of these areas help to paint a full picture of the events. The mapping is crucial to comprehending the aftermath of the Tulsa Race Massacre, according to Freeman. “After 1921, you saw Black families going back into that neighborhood and what really killed Greenwood was not the race massacre but the highway,” Freeman said. “You see racism again coming back with people saying, ‘Let’s put this highway (Interstate 244) directly through the Black neighborhood.’ That was strategic.” Education about the massacre extends to the OSU classroom as well. Lansana is teaching Black Wall Street: Greenwood’s Evolution and Reawakenings, 1850-Present for the second time this fall. The course discusses how Black Oklahomans came to live in the area, Oklahoma statehood, World War I, the increased number of lynchings after the war and then covers Jim Crow before touching on the massacre. “I emphasize all of those elements and aspects of what was happening in the country and then what was happening in Oklahoma to provide a richer context for the remarkable construction of the Greenwood district and then to its profound destruction,” Lansana said. Beyond the destruction, Lansana wants part of the focus to be on the reawakening of Greenwood, the overcoming of those obstacles and Black excellence before and after the Tulsa Race Massacre. Part of what was once Black Wall Street is now Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. OSU-Tulsa has been working to bring attention to this history, which wouldn’t be possible without the support of the university leadership, Freeman said. “[OSU-Tulsa President] Dr. Pam Fry has been really understanding about the things that we need to do to make the Tulsa campus a place for Tulsa and the state to recognize this significant 14 CONNECT 2020
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