Chelsea Strutton

Writer

Almost a century after the event, the Oklahoma Department of Education has announced that the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, also known as the Tulsa Race Riot, will now be part of the required curriculum in all Oklahoma schools beginning the 2020-21 school year.

Announced Feb. 19, 2020, elementary through high school teachers will be required to talk about the subject in order to ensure that a similar incident never reoccurs.

Taking place over the span of eighteen hours between Tuesday, May 31 and Wednesday, June 1, the riot resulted in thirty-six confirmed deaths, despite historians now believing the death toll was closer to 300, 800 treated injuries, 1,256 houses burned and countless other African American establishments destroyed.

However, the Tulsa Race Riot is not the only race riot that has ever taken place in Oklahoma.

More recently in 1979 another race riot took place in Idabel, Oklahoma and left three people dead and approximately $100,000 in property damage.

Across Oklahoma, school districts have slowly made progress to speak about the riots on their own, but with the Oklahoma Department of Education taking action and ingraining the subject matter into the required curriculum, students will be more exposed to the topic.

MHS American History teacher James Brown spoke about the positive aspects of teaching Oklahoma tragedies that are often swept under the rug.

“Most people don’t realize that we had a thriving African American community,” said Brown. “I think it’s very important to show how we destroyed that and how the government was involved in trying to separate the two races by using weaponry that we hadn’t used before on our own citizens.”

Continuing with the impact teaching the riots can make on the student body, Brown voiced the many lessons students can learn from Oklahoma’s history.

“All across America we face tragedy all the time, but we always find a way to support each other and come out stronger on the other side,” said Brown. “Students can transition into the future and make it a better place.”

With plans of teaching the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre this upcoming school year, Marlow High School will continue to project the idea that students can positively influence Oklahoma’s future in both big and small ways.