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Inaugural Event Commemorating the Tulsa Race Massacre to Include Panel Discussion, Library Exhibit

Inaugural Event Commemorating the Tulsa Race Massacre to Include Panel Discussion, Library Exhibit

Men being led into Convention Hall located at 101 West Brady Street for internment during the Tulsa Race Massacre on June 1, 1921. Image Credit: Tulsa Historical Society and Museum

Men being led into Convention Hall located at 101 West Brady Street for internment during the Tulsa Race Massacre on June 1, 1921. Image Credit: Tulsa Historical Society and Museum

An upcoming panel discussion and library exhibit will begin a series of events at OU to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

The event will lead off with a livestreamed gallery talk at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, presented by curators Mechelle Brown and Dr. Karlos K. Hill, who will shed light on an upcoming exhibit on the massacre at Bizzell Memorial Library. A panel discussion will follow at 4 p.m. in Bizzell Memorial Library’s Great Reading Room, with a livestream option available to accommodate COVID-19 capacity limitations and safety protocols. Details on where to view the livestream are forthcoming.

Designed to educate and to provide the community an opportunity to reflect on the upcoming centennial, the discussion will feature distinguished speakers representing the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, including Oklahoma State Senator and Commission Chair Kevin Matthews, Project Manager Phil Armstrong, and Greenwood Rising Founding Director Hannibal B. Johnson. OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. and OU Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Dr. Belinda Higgs Hyppolite also will speak during the event.

OU community members are also invited to check out Bizzell Memorial Library’s upcoming exhibit From Tragedy to Triumph: Race Massacre Survivor Stories, which will officially open following the panel discussion. The exhibition will tell the story of the massacre through a combination of compelling photographs and vivid eyewitness accounts from survivors.

Hosted by the Office of the President, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Coordinating Committee, the event has been organized to help the OU community understand the significance of the centennial.

The event is the first of many that will be held throughout the year to commemorate the Tulsa Race Massacre, including a symposium, presentation by Oklahoma Archeological Survey researchers and a presidential dream course focusing on the literary, media and historical response to the massacre. For more information about upcoming events, visit ou.edu/tulsa1921.

For more information about the Sept. 24 panel discussion, contact specialevents@ou.edu.

By Mackenzie Scheer

Article Published:  Wednesday, September 9, 2020