Black Wall Street Legacy Festival Commemorates 102nd Anniversary Of Tulsa Race Massacre

May 31 marks 102 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre, and people are coming together to commemorate that day.

They held a collected soil from the scene, and they had a display of quilts to honor those who died.

Joyce G. Smith-Williams is a quilter who has made several quilts honoring Greenwood and Black Wall Street.

She said thousands of quilts were lost in the massacre, and she thinks it's important to remember the history that was destroyed.

"Bringing back an art form that many of us in this get-here-in-five-minute, instant-microwave society have lost,” said Smith-Williams. “So it's important for us to retrieve the information that we've had."

The people who were killed were also honored with a special burial ceremony, where soil was collected from the places they may have died.

"We've been commemorating, celebrating all week, but on this day, we wanted to just simply pause, and honor the legacy of our ancestors and honor the hundreds of lives that were lost," said Dr. Tiffany Crutcher with the Terence Crutcher Foundation, one of the organizers of the festival.

The goal is to recognize the people who might not have received a proper burial.

Organizers also want these ceremonies and exhibits to show the way Greenwood and Tulsa have come together in the years since the massacre.

"But not just commemorate the tragedy, we want to honor and celebrate the resilience of this beautiful community of Greenwood," said Crutcher.

Smith-Williams hopes people will never forget what happened, and what makes the community of Greenwood so special.

"Everybody pulled together, to create something out of nothing,” said Smith-Williams. “We've always created something out of nothing. And if we can just get back to that spirit of living, we'll be in good shape."

The Black Wall Street Legacy Fest will wrap up Thursday evening, June 1.

If you are interested in looking at the quilts, you can do that at the North Pointe Business Center through the end of June.