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Former NBA star Kevin Johnson said the reason for opening his third Fixins Soul Kitchen restaurant in Tulsa was to "shine a light." "I wanted this restaurant to be here because, Tulsa, you deserve it," Johnson said prior to the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday afternoon to open the restaurant at 222 N. Detroit Ave. That the opening took place on the 102nd anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, and in the place that had been destroyed by violence and fire during the conflagration, also were intentional.
George Hill had one mission as the trade deadline neared this season. Take the nearly two-hour drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to visit the site of the Tulsa Race Massacre before being dealt by the Oklahoma City Thunder. On Feb. 28, just weeks before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, Hill made the trip that he’ll never forget. “I just kept telling myself I wasn’t going to leave Oklahoma City until I went to go visit the Black Wall Street,” Hill, 35, told The Undefeated. “And then as I get to Black Wall Street and seeing what is left of it really was mind-boggling to me.”
“I was a little distraught when I first learned about it,” Hill said. “You hear about everything else that happened. The first thing you think about is, ‘Why don’t they tell us about this? Why isn’t this part of history when everything else is?’ And I don’t take away the history of 9/11 or anything like that, but this is one of the first major massacres in [American] history. And for it to not be anywhere in any history book is just a slap to the culture’s face, but also a slap to history.” Hill was first educated about the Tulsa Race Riots by a mentor in his hometown of Indianapolis last year named Amp Harris. So when the Thunder acquired Hill in a three-team trade from the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 23, 2020, he realized he would be close enough to Tulsa to make a trip.
The project is also working in collaboration with the Chicago Bulls and the Oklahoma City Thunder through their Black History Classroom Exchange program, which reflects on the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. According to a press release from the two teams, the virtual program gives high school students at South Shore International College Prep HS in Chicago and Booker T. Washington HS in Tulsa, OK "a chance to learn about two tragic events in U.S. history often left out of school curriculum."
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In addition to the Tulsa Race Massacre documentary, Westbrook talked about his Why Not? Foundation, an organization designed to inspire children and teach them to never give up. “A lot of people, you can write a check, you can do anything, but if you’re a kid from the inner-city and you don’t actually feel that impact or that inspiration, it doesn’t really change your life,” Westbrook said. “I know that personally because I lived it. I want to make sure I can be the voice, I can be the person that those kids, our youth can look to and say, ‘Hey came back to our community, he helped us, he gave us access, he gave us the ability to be able to change our lives and change the world we live in.”
Oklahoma Hall of Famer and former Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Russell Westbrook's documentary about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has found a television home. The History Channel announces today the greenlight of the two-hour documentary “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre” (working title) from Westbrook; Peabody and Emmy-Award winner Stanley Nelson; Peabody and duPont-Award winner Marco Williams; Donnell Beverly, president of Russell Westbrook Enterprises; Blackfin, an eOne company; and Firelight Films.
“The Tulsa Race Massacre was not something I was taught about in school or in any of my history books," said Westbrook in a statement released today. “It was only after spending 11 years in Oklahoma that I learned of this deeply troubling and heartbreaking event. This is one of many overlooked stories of African Americans in this country that deserves to be told. These are the stories we must honor and amplify so we can learn from the past and create a better future.”
NBA: “Generational trauma has reverberated through my family’s history.” Descended from survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Dr. @TiffanyCrutcher draws the connection between Tulsa’s history and the 2016 murder of her brother Terence. #BHM Virtual Teach-in - 12pm/et on @NBA
“Generational trauma has reverberated through my family’s history.”
— NBA (@NBA) February 12, 2021
Descended from survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Dr. @TiffanyCrutcher draws the connection between Tulsa’s history and the 2016 murder of her brother Terence.#BHM Virtual Teach-in - 12pm/et on @NBA pic.twitter.com/cJi2eWMyx5
LeBron James and his production company are teaming up with CNN Films to produce an upcoming documentary on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Directed by Salima Koroma, "Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street" will depict the true, heartbreaking story of one of America's worst race riots. "With the lack of historic journalism around 'Black Wall Street' and the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, we are honored to be partnered with CNN, which has a long-standing record of credible and groundbreaking journalism," said Jamal Henderson, the chief operating officer of SpringHill. James, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, will serve as an executive producer for the project.
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The Thunder Fellows Program will be located in Tulsa's Greenwood District, the site of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921 when white mobs killed hundreds of Black people and destroyed homes and businesses in what was known as Black Wall Street. "Our organization is deeply committed to social justice and the actions that are necessary to create better opportunities for the Black community, now and in the future," Thunder chairman Clay Bennett said in release. "We will work tirelessly to make this a program that will create change for generations to come."
Houston Rockets star Russell Westbrook plans to executive produce a television series about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Westbrook has partnered with Blackfin, the unscripted TV producer behind Investigation Discovery's "I Am Homicide" and History Channel's "Brothers in Arms," on a documentary series titled "Terror in Tulsa: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street."
As protests continue all over the United States against racial violence against black people, LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter announced a new project about one of the biggest incidents of racial violence in the history of the nation, one that you very likely didn’t hear about in history class. Writer Salima Koroma is developing a documentary for LeBron’s SpringHill Entertainment about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 in the Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood, colloquially known as the “Black Wall Street,” for the neighborhood’s affluence and financial success. However, those markers of success and the town’s growth became threats to their white neighbors, at a time of segregation, and it led to one of the worst racial massacres in American history and the decimation of the community.
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