A new law has sparked controversy in Oklahoma over teaching students about the race massacre in Tulsa’s Black district of Greenwood
TULSA, Okla.—For decades, Oklahoma students weren’t required to learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre in school, in what the city’s school superintendent called a “conspiracy of silence.”
Educators have been more focused on race and racial inequities after a year of civil unrest following police killings of Black people. In April, the U.S. Department of Education outlined its proposed priorities for grants for American history and civics education, with applicants asked in part to indicate how they would take into account “systemic marginalization, biases, inequities, and discriminatory policy and practice in American history.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt was ousted from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission after he signed a bill that critics say will discourage lessons on the history of the tragedy.Some educators said that teaching about the massacre in Oklahoma schools has gotten better in recent years.
Some teacher groups are concerned that the law puts their members in a difficult position. “Our teachers are mostly worried about what will happen to them legally with their job, or legally with themselves, in a civil lawsuit if they teach anything related to diversity or race,” said Torie Shoecraft, president of the Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers, which has about 1,500 members.
“Are we going to run from the truth or be willing to teach it openly in the classroom?” said Mr. Gragg. “The reality is there is structural racism. We can’t deny that it exists.”