Greenwood District field trip unlocks new perspectives for OSU students

Greenwood District field trip unlocks new perspectives for OSU students

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Media Contact: Aaron Ross Campbell | OSU-Tulsa Communications Coordinator | 918-594-8046 | [email protected]

Reading about history is one thing - walking on the ground where it happened, seeing what remains and what is lost is another experience entirely.

A group of Oklahoma State University Honors College students recently got a chance to experience history this way during a trip to Tulsa's historic Greenwood District to discover more about the legacy of Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Dr. Brandy Thomas Wells, an associate professor of history in the OSU College of Arts and Sciences, organized the field trip for Honors College students in her Black Wall Street: Honors History course.

"This course is critical to aiding OSU students in understanding the world around them," Wells said. "Having students think deeply about the past - and how the past is often present - is one of the chief aims of the course."

This is the third class on the history of Black Wall Street that Wells has taught for the OSU Honors College. According to Wells, the course provides knowledge and context for one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history that, despite its significance, most students haven't been exposed to.

"Many of the students are from Oklahoma and are only a little familiar with the history of the district or the 1921 tragedy. Others are from Texas, Kansas or states farther away and had not encountered this history," Wells said. "The class allows students to learn more about the part of the world where they are spending the next part of their lives and discovering and pursuing their passions."

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in as many as 300 deaths, over 800 injuries and burned down more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood. The residents of Greenwood rebuilt, but the district was divided and partially demolished again in the early 1970s during the construction of Interstate Highway 244. In 1986, the city's redevelopment arm opened part of the Greenwood District to create a higher education campus, University Center at Tulsa, which later became the OSU-Tulsa campus.

Students from left to right: Charles Brydon, Nathan Womack, Kierra Peters and Carter Wilson.

"I had been to Tulsa quite a few times in my life and I didn't realize I was actually standing in those spots," Kierra Peters said. "The most I ever learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre was probably a 20-minute lecture back in high school."

Students visited a whirlwind of historical sites, murals, monuments and museums on the trip, including the Greenwood Cultural Center, Mabel B. Little Heritage House, John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, Archer Street, Standpipe Hill and Vernon AME Church - each of which are walking distance of the OSU-Tulsa campus.

On campus, the students heard from OSU-Tulsa Library director Lynn Wallace and visited the Black Settlers in Tulsa: The Search for the Promised Land exhibit in the OSU-Tulsa Conference Center. Their lunch was catered by alumna Glory Walker Wells and Wanda J's, once a long-time Greenwood establishment. Just down the street, students visited the Greenwood Rising Black Wall St. History Center, where their docent was Tiffany Bruner, an OSU-Tulsa undergraduate history major.

In their post-trip reflections, students expressed genuine passion for the history they read about in the class, and for the opportunity to see the historical sites firsthand. Remembering her time in the basement of the Vernon AME Church, where Greenwood residents sheltered during the 1921 attack, Cara Jackson wrote, "I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what people felt down there, uncertain of their safety. I got chills down my spine and part of me felt more connected to the people I've only ever read about."

In a discussion following the field trip, several students expressed surprise at how underdeveloped parts of Greenwood are to this day.

"The parking lots are empty, no one is walking around," Charles Brydon said. "I've been in Greenwood without realizing it before. But when you go there and you know where you are, and you know what happened - it's absolutely shocking."

"It's sacred ground," Nathan Womack said. "What they went through was so terrifying and gruesome, that it demands honoring and recognition."

To learn more about the history of Greenwood District and OSU-Tulsa, visit OSU-Tulsa's community webpage.

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