This Land

Despite its significance as the worst so-called race riot in American history, even some Tulsans remain oblivious to the tragic events of late May 1921. Still more claim only a superficial familiarity with it.

We need to teach and learn about the Riot. We need to know what happened and why. We need to…

The words “law” and “justice” fit together like handmaidens. Historically and strategically, African-Americans have been true believers in the marriage of these concepts. From abolition to civil rights, African-American liberation movements viewed changes in the law as the primary means by which to achieve our ultimate end, justice. Over time,…

Prominently in Kansas, and then principally in Oklahoma, towns founded by black trailblazers swelled in the post-Reconstruction era. Black Southern migrants, “Exodusters,” formed their own rural, frontier communities. They sought economic opportunity, full citizenship rights, and self-governance: socioeconomic uplift, sprinkled with a generous measure of hope.

In addition to…