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Updated June 6th, 2021 at 06:19 IST

Tom Hanks urges schools to educate students about Tulsa race massacre

Tom Hanks urged Americans to learn about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and asked schools to stop efforts to “whitewash” American history.

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
Tom Hanks
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks urged Americans to learn about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and asked schools to stop efforts to “whitewash” American history. In a guest essay for The New York Times published on June 4, Hanks reflected on the education he received about American history in schools, which often neglected the events of Tulsa and similar events across the country. He said that the schools should teach the truth about Tulsa and they should stop the “battle to whitewash” curriculums to avoid discomfort for students.  

Hank’s essay comes as this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, when the Black neighbourhood of Greenwood, which was well-known as “Black Wall Street,” was burned down and looted by a white mob. Nearly 300 people are believed to have died as a result of the riots. Around 10,000 people were also displaced as a result. 

Reflecting on the riots, the Hollywood actor wrote that Tulsa was never more than a city on the prairie when he was in school. Hanks noted that there were similar events he never learned about the school that occurred between the end of Reconstruction and the civil rights movement, such as the 1910 Slocum Massacre in Texas. He said that the truth about Tulsa, and the repeated violence by some white Americans against Black Americans, was systematically ignored, perhaps because it was regarded as too honest, too painful a lesson for our young white ears. 

He continued that it seems “white educators” and school administrators “omitted the volatile subject for the sake of the status quo, placing white feelings over Black experience — literally Black lives in this case”. Further, he wrote that the omission of Tulsa from history was “tragic, an opportunity missed, a teachable moment squandered”. 

Biden honours victims of Tulsa Massacre 

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden also visited Tulsa on Tuesday, delivering an emotional speech to a crowd including three survivors. Biden helped commemorate the deaths of hundreds of Black people killed by a white mob a century ago. He is the first president to participate in remembrances of the destruction of what was known as "Black Wall Street". 

The massacre, Biden said, had long been “seen in the mirror dimly”. “But no longer. Now your story will be known in full view,” he added. 

(Image: AP)

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Published June 6th, 2021 at 06:19 IST

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