'How The Word Is Passed' Teaches The Importance Of Reckoning With History
One hundred years ago, from May 31 through June 1, 1921, a group of white police officers organized white citizens in an attack on the Black residents of Tulsa, Okla., with both aircraft and ground forces. As many as 300 Black Americans were killed, many more were injured, and 35 blocks of the city were destroyed, with damages amounting to what would be more than $20 million today.
Tulsa was not the only site of white violence against Black communities in the early 20th century. But this history is generally not taught in schools.
Today, as writers, scholars, and activists push back against this erasure of Black history, conservative white Americans in power have responded with a push to make learning about this "critical race history" illegal — along with sweeping anti-voting rights legislation. This all points to a desire to present a white-centered view of American history — to erase the oppression of Black Americans and the history of white supremacy and white violence.
In his first major, poet, scholar and staff writer Clint Smith seeks out this troubling history to understand the stories America tells itself about who we are through what is remembered. The aegis of the book is this: Smith traveled "to eight places in the United States as well as one abroad to understand how each reckons with its relationship to the history of American slavery."
