Thread by @SonjaCherryPaul

1/20 - Ida B. Wells-Barnett said, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” How are you teaching students about the Tulsa Race Massacre and the work of remembering?

2/20 - 100-years ago a White mob destroyed the town of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma and killed as many as 300 Black residents.

3/20 - Police officers and officials participated in the destruction and killings.

4/20 - Firefighters refused to put out the flames that burned Greenwood to the ground.

5/20 - Black bodies were dumped into mass graves. Black people were not allowed to claim their loved ones and provide proper burials.

6/20 - Tulsa newspapers worked to conceal the massacre, intentionally deciding not to report and write about what happened.

7/20 - Insurance companies refused to make good on the insurance policies of Black residents of Greenwood who’d lost their land; payments that would make it possible for them to rebuild.

8/20 - Tulsa politicians got busy working to take over the land in the city of Greenwood in order to prevent Black residents from returning and rebuilding.

9/20 - 100-years later no White person has been convicted for destroying Greenwood and killing hundreds of Black people. The survivors and descendants of Greenwood have not received reparations for the destruction and death that set them back generations.

10/20 - The United States suffers from historical amnesia when it comes to racism. All of the systems and structures of this nation are implicated in this intentional forgetting.

11/20 - To not know about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 contributes to not understanding how systemic racism functions today.

12/20 - Simply telling students that the Tulsa Race Massacre has been erased and forgotten is not the work of remembering.

13/20 - Teach the Tulsa Race Massacre so that students learn that remembering is active, critical, conscious work.

14/20 - Remembering involves confronting the past and how it impacts us today. Remembering requires us to be conscious of practices, policies, laws, structures, and systems that drive racism forward.

15/20 - Remembering propels us to work on behalf of the collective to ensure that freedom and justice is experienced fully by all of us.

16/ 20 - Read Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weather and download the free Educator’s Guide I developed. lernerbooks.com/shop/show/20776

17/20 - Read Opal's Greenwood Oasis by Najah-Amatullah Hylton and Qurayash Ali Lansana
thecalliopegroup.com/product/opal/

18/20 - Invite students to explore this 3-D model of what Black Wall Street was like before the massacre. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

19/20 - Watch Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre | HISTORY Channel
history.com/specials/tulsa…

20/20 - During her testimony Viola Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre told lawmakers, "Our country may forget this history, but I cannot, I will not, and other survivors do not, and our descendants do not.” Teach the truth. Teach students to remember.