Tulsa Race Riots topic of SUNY New Paltz Black History Month event

NEW PALTZ — The State University of New York at New Paltz Black Studies department will host a Black History Month keynote event titled “Black Wall Street: The 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, Race Riots” on Monday, Feb. 11.

“The Oklahoma race riots were a part of the period of the 1920s when the political and economic aspirations for black Americans were being challenged by other citizens around the country,” said Margaret Wade-Lewis, professor of Black Studies. “A large number of businesses and personal residences were destroyed, persons were murdered and other lives were shattered forever.”

The seminar will feature three keynote presenters with extensive knowledge of the Tulsa riots:

Vivian Clark-Adams is the associate dean of the Liberal Arts Division at Tulsa Community College. She was a member of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission and chair of the Oklahoma State Human Rights Commission. Currently, she is treasurer of the North Tulsa Historical Society. She will speak about “Black Wall Street and the History of the 1921 Race Riots.”

Rita Duncan is an assistant professor of sociology at Tulsa Community College. She has spoken extensively about the Tulsa riots and is a member of the Tulsa Community Action Agency and North Tulsa Community Task Force. She has also participated in the Project on Asia at Columbia University. She will speak about the “Impact of the Riots on Tulsa Today.”

Eddie Faye Gates is a community activist in Tulsa and a retired high school history teacher. She was a member of the Oklahoma Commission for the Study of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921 and chaired the commission’s survivors committee. She interviewed more than 500 eyewitnesses to the riot and had speaking parts in a documentary “The Tulsa Lynching of 1921- A Hidden Story.” She will speak about the “Survivors of the Riot.”

“The significance today is that Greenwood (a section of Tulsa) is being regenerated,” said Wade-Lewis. “There are new businesses, museums, tours of the area and public awareness that Americans of all races must share economics and political power, if the America we idealize is to survive.”

The event begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. It will be held in Lecture Center 102. For further information, contact the Black Studies Department at 257-2760.