Archaeology as a Path to Reconciliation in Tulsa’s Historic Black Wall Street

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Slow Archaeology + Fast Capitalism: Hard Lessons and Future Strategies from Urban Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeology has been a powerful tool for social justice bearing witness to some of history’s most heinous acts of prejudice and domestic terrorism. However, archaeology can only be an effective tool in the fight for justice when the field itself is equitable, diverse, self-critical, slow to excavate, and community centered. Next year, 2021, will mark 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre nearly destroyed Black Wall Street, one of the wealthiest Black communities in the early twentieth century. As Tulsa-born archaeologists prepare to reanalyze historical evidence from 1921, create pathways to democratize knowledge, and launch new archaeological investigations, utilizing a slow community-based approach is essential. A collaborative project to map historical trauma in Tulsa from 1921-2021 along with a new initiative from the city to search for mass graves, will provide pathways toward reconciliation by slowly working alongside the community to find answers to questions still lingering after 100 years.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Slow Archaeology + Fast Capitalism: Hard Lessons and Future Strategies from Urban Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 155