What African Americans experienced in the 1920s, and focus on the violence against them in Tulsa, and the social and artistic movement of the Harlem Renaissance.

Discussion #4
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For Discussion #4, we are going to look at what African Americans experienced in the 1920s, and focus on the violence against them in Tulsa, and the social and artistic movement of the Harlem Renaissance.
For the first part of this discussion, please explore the Tulsa Historical Society’s online exhibit “1921 Race Massacre” This event has recently gained more awareness through the Watchmen HBO show.

1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

(Links to an external site.)
1) Read the full front page as it gives an overview of what happened.
2) If you choose to view the photos, be aware that they are graphic and show the dead along with the destroyed property.
3) Look at the newspaper articles from the time. https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/documents/
(Links to an external site.)
(click the “Newspaper Clippings link) Pick one or more, and report to the class what was reported. Did the article show a specific point of view or bias?
4) Does it matter if the even was called a “riot” or a “massacre?”
5) Connect this event to what we read with Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. Was it just about the supposed crime that triggered the violence? Why was the broader African American community targeted? Why was their property?
For the second part of the discussion on the Harlem Renaissance , please look at the following book The New Negro published in 1925 by Alain Locke. In the book, read the following:
https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse/mode/2up
(Links to an external site.)
1) The Forward (p. ix-xi). What did Locke argue was the purpose of the book and why was it important?
2) Read the poems “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “I Too” (p. 141 and 145) by Langston Hughes, the folk story “B’rer Rabbit Fools Buzzard,” and the poem “Heritage” by Countee Cullen.
2a) What do these African American poets feel is their relationship to Africa? Is it a simple and straight forward one? Why is it important to them to look to Africa?
2b) Why include the folk story? The B’rer Rabbit stories are the same ones that Disney re-packaged and presented in “Song of the South,” which has been pulled from circulation for its racist framing. Why would Locke include one of the original stories?
2c) What are these writers and poets saying about their relationship to America?
3) How do we understand American in the 1920s when it contains both the Harlem Renaissance and the Tulsa Massacre? Can they be connected? Should they be?

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