OETA Announces Production of Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later
Oklahoma’s PBS Station to Produce One-Hour Documentary Covering the History and Future of Greenwood
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – The Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) announces its production, Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later. The one-hour documentary is set to premiere Monday, May 31, at 7 p.m. and with an encore at 10 p.m.
Home to the successful and historic Black Wall Street, the Greenwood District lost over 300 citizens to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The tragedy was kept a secret for 75 years. Greenwood continues to suffer from redlining policies and the construction of a highway which perpetuated the destruction of the community. Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later blends historical accounts of the massacre and the art of local creatives to paint a full picture of Greenwood—from the past, present and aspirations of a thriving future.
“OETA is in the business of telling stories of importance for all Oklahomans. And, for too long, the story of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has been concealed,” says Polly Anderson, executive director of OETA. “As Oklahoma’s storyteller, we are driven by our mission—and consider it a great privilege—to make this story known.”
The program is hosted by author, poet and historian, Quraysh Ali Lansana. Lansana is the author of twenty books in poetry, nonfiction and children’s literature. He is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow and serves as Acting Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, where he is also Writer in Residence for the Center for Poets & Writers and Adjunct Professor in Africana Studies and English. Lansana is creator and executive producer of KOSU/NPR’s Focus: Black Oklahoma monthly radio program. A former faculty member of both the Writing Program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, Lansana served as Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University from 2002-2012, and was Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing there until 2014.
More information about the program and associated community engagement opportunities can be found at OETA.tv/TulsaRaceMassacre as information is available.