TULSA, Okla. - On Tuesday, May 31, 2022, at 7 pm CT, Nikole Hannah-Jones will close the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, an event hosted by survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, at the historic Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The 2nd Annual Black Wall Street Legacy Festival comes on the heels of a historic court decision that allows the three known survivors of the massacre – 107-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher, 107-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, and 101-year-old Hughes Van Ellis – and massacre descendants an opportunity to put the City of Tulsa on trial. The commemoration will be held 101 years after the massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in US history, left hundreds of Black people dead, and thousands of black-owned homes and businesses burned to the ground in Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood.
The free event is presented by Black Wall Street Legacy Fest and various community partners, including Fulton Street Books and Coffee, Magic City Books, PEN America, and The Black Wall Street Times.
To attend, guests must register in advance at Eventbrite for tickets.
Proof of COVID vaccination or proof of a negative COVID test is required, and masks are highly encouraged.
For those who can't make the in-person event, a Livestream will be made available on The Black Wall Street Times' platform.
Copies of the Nikole Hanna-Jones' THE 1619 PROJECT are available at the Black-owned and managed Fulton Street Books and Coffee as well as Magic City Books.
Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and is the creator of the landmark 1619 Project.
"I see my work as forcing us to confront our hypocrisy, forcing us to confront the truth that we would rather ignore," Nikole Hannah-Jones said.
By examining slavery's modern legacy and redefining how we think about this history and the contributions of black Americans to the country, the 1619 Project by the New York Times marks the 400th anniversary of slavery in what would become the United States.
Nikole received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for her essay "Our Democracy's founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true."
In addition to writing extensively about resegregation in schools, she also chronicled how the federal government failed to enforce a landmark 1968 Fair-Housing Act law.
Per her website, Nikole Hannah-Jones founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting in 2016, a training and mentorship organization dedicated to increasing the ranks of investigative reporters of color.
The Black Wall Street Legacy Festival exists because the story of Tulsa's Black community and history, pointedly the 1921 Race Massacre, is severely undertold.
Moreover, mistruths and erasure of this history continues to rob Tulsa’s Black and Greenwood community of respectful remembrance. Thus, the festival serves as a platform and incubator for Greenwood and Tulsa's Black community, focusing on generational excellence.
Legacy Fest elevates the community’s legacy into the future, empowering future generations to learn and ground themselves in the story of who they are and where they come from.
Media Contact
Paige Clark
Paige@terencecrutcherfoundation.org
(918) 629-3937
Gerry Johnson
(609) 923-1816
Add your event or program to our event calendar by submitting details to info@blackwallstreetlegacyfestival.com or by submitting a form here.