Wrestling with history: One city’s 100-year struggle to heal

In the summer of 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a young Black man named Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a white elevator operator. As the story spread, angry white residents came together to take matters into their own hands. On May 31, these residents attacked the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood, looting, burning, and killing.

The event is now known as the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, and

AUDIO TRANSCRIPTScott Ellsworth: ...published this front page article about how Roland had stalked this young elevator operator and clearly tried to rape her. There’s lynch talk within a half an hour.Scott: … when the state troops from Oklahoma City finally arrived to restore order, Greenwood’s been destroyed. It’s been burnt to the ground. Greenwood is gone.Robert Turner: Their blood still speaks. Their blood is still crying out. G.T. Bynum: ‘Surely we would have heard about it if there were mass graves.’Tiffany Crutcher: They ask, ‘What would money do?’ It’s just not about money. Jerica Wortham: For that Greenwood aveThat Redman landThat Brilliance build by black man hand, legacies...Turner: We need to digest on what we did to a group of people solely because they were Black. I’m all for moving forward, working together. But let’s understand where we come from.