Judy Woodruff returned to Tulsa, where she was born in 1946, for an episode in her America at the Crossroads series for PBS NewsHour. Her focus is on the city’s efforts to come to terms with the legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, when the thriving black neighborhood known as Greenwood was burned to the ground and hundreds of its residents killed. Woodruff talks about her own experience and has converations with four Tulsans that reflect differing views about the massacre, how far Tulsa has come, and what remains to be done: Kristi Williams, a community activist and descendent of a woman who lived through the massacre as a teen; Williams’ friend City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper, the only black member of the city council; Tulsa’s mayor, Republican G. T. Bynum; and Janice Danforth, founder and chapter chair of Tulsa Moms for Liberty. These conversations reflect broad and deep divides that beset the country. Their themes run beyond a single terrible event in the city once known as the “Oil Capital of the World,” now home to the Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan centers.
Tulsa and a Good Faith Effort to Grapple with History and Divisions That Plague the Country
Another good and thoughtful piece, David.