Scott Ellsworth, Author and Historian

On May 31, 1921, tensions over the arrest of a young Black man for his interactions with a white woman led to an armed mob of white men marching on the predominantly African American Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Over the next day, the neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street” was burned to the ground and hundreds of African Americans were killed. Historian Scott Ellsworth discussed the impact of the massacre and the people seeking justice for the victims and their families. He is the author of The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice. This talk was part of a national symposium held by the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation. close