The studied community
North Tulsa's perimeter is not clearly defined. For the sake of simplifying document searches and unit conditions, I focus on one area code—the part of it that is in Tulsa County, anyway—but some documents cover a wider area, still within what most anyone would informally consider deep North Tulsa. With pockets of exceptions, many of the houses are mid-century wood frame houses, varying only in their faded colors. Boarded up houses are not uncommon but trees are, relatively. The streets are generally quiet during the day. My students say they won't walk near their homes because it is not safe most hours, but they are miles from a grocery store and easy public transportation. The pool halls, dance halls, night clubs and "moving picture houses" of the fifties that provided entertainment for the residents are alive now only in memories and historical documents.
As I drove north and south along Peoria in my regular routine and considered documents as I accumulated them, it became clear that having a point of contrast would better illustrate through data, maps, and photographs what it means to live in Tulsa that far north. Two of my documents do this. Two and three miles south of Admiral are large, architecturally unique, well-maintained homes, many built by Tulsa's oil barons. People are out on the streets for exercise or with their dogs. They stop to talk to each other under large old trees. Nearby are an exclusive shopping area, public parks and rose gardens, and large art museums.
No place is without beauty, however, and certainly not North Tulsa although it is not prevalent in the landscape. Surprisingly large Lake Yahola is an unexpected, broad, shimmering water feature. Deer cross Peoria into a green belt on foggy mornings, in spite of the urban nature of the place. A car wash at 36 th Street North is always alive with music, flirting adults, and very fancy cars that do tricks. To reference a Tupac poem with which we will begin the unit, there are roses in the concrete, here and everywhere.
There are two exceptions in my descriptions of North Tulsa, one in a middle class housing development with a diverse population. The other is an unusually high hill around which flat North Tulsa spreads. This hill that covers about one third of a square mile is covered with large, unique, and well-maintained houses that share the best view of downtown. Its inhabitants tend to be white and upper middle class.
My own investigation into North Tulsa on paper was both rewarding and discouraging—and full of surprises. I spent a week at my public library with two librarians who began to share my enthusiasm for my unit and my emotional responses to some of my findings. I discovered new databases and map sources. I discovered heartbreaking stories and statistics. The older articles in the vertical files all had "Negroes" penciled across their tops. In a subsequent, more politically correct reorganization of the files, a library employee marked thickly through the word and wrote "African Americans" beneath. The change suggests the transitory nature of language in spite of the static nature of the problems within the files.
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