By: Justice B. Hill
NABJ Black News & View
https://blacknewsandviews.com/
David Lutterman, a white writer and book editor who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has walked into an unfamiliar world last year. He had heard and read about the 1921 massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma more than 100 years ago.
However, he didn’t know the scope of the massacre until Leiterman went to Greenwood Rising, an interactive museum that kept the story fresh.
“I am a well-read student of history,” he said. “It’s not simply a subject that many Americans know.”
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Raymond Doswell aims to change that.
Doswell, who gave Leiterman a tour of Greenwood Rising last year, celebrated his second anniversary as the museum’s executive director.
To do that, Doswell knows he has to do one thing: think big.
He is.
“Our main goal and vision is to try and help end racial violence and create wealth for generations,” says public historian Doswell. “The way we do as a history center is through programming. We can discuss it. These are things.”
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He has a lot to discuss too. Racial killings in Tulsa wiped out an entire thriving black community. The White Lynch mob destroyed Greenwood restaurants, pool halls, churches and theatres, burned 1,250 homes and killed an estimated 30-300 people.
Related: Curator of a museum focused on the Tulsa Race Massacre in Greenwood
The details of what leads to the massacre are as follows, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
On May 30, 1921, Dick Roland went to work as a shoe shine in an office building in downtown Tulsa. The separation law prevented Dick Roland from using the toilet in the building, and was forced to use the toilet on the top floor of a nearby building. Elevators in the 1920s needed operators, and women often filled these jobs. On this day, Sara Page, a white woman, was operating the elevator when Roland came to the building to use the toilet on the second floor. When the elevator arrived on the first floor, the clerk heard the screams from the page and Roland escaped the building. The clerk reported the incident to the police. Police apparently had not considered investigating the incident or Roland’s arrest after speaking to Page. They waited until the next day to arrest Roland.
The Tulsa World News Boys in the afternoon sparked violence when they sold newspapers with a cry of “Black people attack white girls!”
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Greenwood Rising tells this story and provides visitors with a piece of American history. This is history woven into stories that often show America in the worst case scenario, said Doswell, who holds a PhD in history.
People may forgive what happened in the 35 blocks of Greenwood district a century ago, he said. But they can’t afford to forget what happened.
The Black Wall Street story is more than just a Tulsa story. It’s not just an American story. It is a global story of human inhumanity towards humans unfolding in other countries like South Africa, Rwanda and Armenia.
“We are a national and international company,” Doswell said of Greenwood Rising.
He spent his first two years at the museum stabilizing its activities, adding staff, making people a major role and complementing what he is trying to do as its executive director. It’s done. Those men and women helped Doswell expand his outreach beyond Tulsa and Oklahoma.
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Doswell said the museum, which worked together to plan, has developed a partnership with local organizations, which costs nearly $20 million to build. Greenwood Rising has attracted over 250,000 visitors since its opening, but has attracted people from every corner of Eastern Europe, Africa and America to interactive displays that are essential to the story of Blackwall Street. Ta.
“Certain people realize that stories are important,” he said. “The story may be local, but there is a bigger outreach. It has a long tentacle in terms of understanding America and world history.”
Doswell faces a challenge as he pushes the story across city borders. It is to grow thoughtfully while maintaining the agency’s core mission. When the city calls home, its past and representing its future, Greenwood Rising stands as both a monument of history and a catalyst for change. But it has a terrible past that it has to contest.
The massacre has destroyed the lives of hundreds of black families, and only two remain of those who survived the massacre. Viola Fletcher, 110.
Do Randle, Fletcher and the heirs of Blackwall Street victims owe anything for what they have lost?
Certainly, they owes the dignity to keep their stories engraved in American history, but Doswell says that if they are seeking compensation (or compensation), the opinions are mixed together. I did. The state Supreme Court has denies compensation, but the fight for justice continues – in the legal world and the court of public opinion.
“We’re not Day, but we are,” Doswell said. “Maybe it’s either on the corporate or charity level, how it suits what we’re doing and what they’re seeing, how it can contribute to what they need to do. That’s how we look at us.”
In a year, Greenwood Rising celebrates his fifth birthday, with Doswell and his staff moving to make it unforgettable.
His plans include a series of speakers and authors at the museum, he said. He intends to work with universities and various groups around the city and state to raise his profile. He also takes an active approach to expanding membership to the museum, especially among locals. As Doswell said, he wants to amplify the debate about the massacre.
He wants locals to know that Greenwood Rising is their story.
“The museum is clearly the highlight, but I hope that the series I’ve spoken to reach thought leaders outside of Tulsa,” he said. “All of these things didn’t exist two years ago, so it’s important.”
But most importantly, he said, Greenwood Rising has become an integral part of Tulsa since his arrival. Its reach is nationwide, but Doswell knows that Tarsan needs to visit frequently.
“On some levels, we are still a rather small museum. We are not a museum that can support our research, but we have the opportunity to really enhance our profile of teaching Greenwood’s stories.”
What should you do? He was asked.
“Think big,” replied Doswell.
Latorman hopes he does.
“Before I visited Greenwood Rising, I knew little about the Tulsa massacre,” he said. “It was a profound, sad, infuriating, and ultimately a significant visit. Everyone should know about that tragic event in American history.”
