Introduction
There is no way to slice Tulsa’s history today without hitting the Race Riot of 1921 or its causes or effects. It was, after all, the largest racially motivated uprising in our country in the 20th century. However, the event managed to remain untouched and un-talked about for decades. When I began my teaching career neither my students nor I knew anything about it. The historical event at the heart of this unit has been most often called the Tulsa Race Riot. Riot really isn’t the correct word, and its use in the context of today’s highly publicized racial conflicts—Trayvon Martin in Florida, Michael Brown in Florida, Eric Harris in our own hometown, and Sandra Bland in Texas, among others—will invite us to explore the use of the word and its alternatives.
Recent violence against black Americans by law enforcement and civilians, as well as the barrage of writings and opinions about the current state of race in America will provide a counterpoint to our study of the Tulsa 1921 incident. They cannot be avoided; the past and present become lenses with which to look from both ends of our timeline to the opposite ones. Remarkably, many of my students know little to nothing about the 1921 event. But they certainly are aware, through social media especially, about the racial events of the last two or three years. Unfortunately, many of them confuse memes with facts, and doubt reason and research to favor sensationalism. The use of primary and secondary historical resources, in addition to fiction, image, and poetry, will guide my students through sensitive issues in our city’s history and help them see the present with the wisdom of historians.
Jessica Brantley created her seminar Literature and Information to explore the challenge—often misunderstood—of incorporating non-fiction not only in Common Core classrooms, but also in others where the Common Core emphasis on informational texts has caught on. Nonfiction is often over-emphasized or poorly chosen. Particular problems in selection of non-fiction might include poor writing quality, lack of literary style and elements, forced and/or unusual connections to the content or other literature. In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Kate Taylor gives examples such as pairing the issue of teenage unemployment with Tom Sawyer and excerpts from The Odyssey to the challenges faced by modern veterans returned home (1). With easy internet access and a lack of canon like one might consult for fiction or poetry, it is far too easy to settle on a text which may align in some way but be less than ideal or even absurd. We searched out and studied quality pairings of fiction and poetry with literary non-fiction.
The seminar readings were organized in four themes: Feminism and Gender; the African-American Experience; Imagining Perfect (and Imperfect) Worlds; and Speeches, Real and Imagined. My unit clearly falls into the category of the African-American Experience. One reading from that selection was James Baldwin’s essay “A Report from Occupied Territory.” In it he pleads for the recognition of “our common humanity.” Written in the mid-1960s, it bridges the two time periods in my unit. Tulsa Race Riot survivors issued the same plea in 1921, and African-American communities across the country including Tulsa are issuing it again today. My students sometimes feel as though they live in occupied territory. They are on the front lines of this conflict. They tend to look or at least dress like Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Sagging pants and hoodies are de rigueur. They avoid social situations and geographic areas that put them at risk of being singled out and don’t think they should have to change to fit in or be safe.
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