This past summer, one of my good friends introduced me to a new HBO series called Watchmen. All I had to do was watch one episode and I was instantly hooked on it. This show had everything: action, suspense, light romance, an intricate plot, and most importantly historical context. This is probably why it had 26 nominations and won 11 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding writing for a limited series. The series focuses on events surrounding racist violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2019 where a white supremacist group called the Seventh Calvary has taken up arms against the Tulsa Police Department because of perceived racial injustices.

However, the show has received widespread critical acclaim for highlighting the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, which has been called the single worst act of racial violence in American history. Although, not many people had even heard about this event before this show aired, including myself. When I first saw it, I thought it was fiction, until I did research and discovered that this was a true event that happened in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I couldn’t believe that I was never taught this in school. It made me ask myself “How could an event that large and one that is considered to be the worst act of racial violence in this country’s history not be taught in public schools?” 

Russell Westbrook

Washington Wizards superstar Russell Westbrook is helping bring a documentary on the Tulsa Race Massacre to the History Channel. The A&E television network announced this week that the project has gotten the green light to air this spring, with this year being the 100th anniversary of this horrific event.

“The Tulsa Massacre was something I was not taught about in school or in any history books,” Westbrook said. “It was only after spending 11 years in Oklahoma that I learned of this deeply troubling and heartbreaking event. This is one of many overlooked stories of African Americans in this country that deserves to be told. These are the stories we must honor and amplify so we can learn from the past and create a better future.”

Westbrook will be serving as executive producer of this documentary and we should all be tuning in. If there is anything we have learned over this past year, it’s that it is so important to know our history. Our real history. Because when we aren’t educated we let others control the narrative and feed lies to our youth, which has the potential to negatively impact their futures. George Santayana wrote “Those who do not know their past are condemned to repeat it.”