Oklahoma schools should teach Tulsa Race Massacre as a 'racist' event, state superintendent says

Oklahoma’s schools chief said the Tulsa Race Massacre was a “terrible, evil, racist event in our history” and should be taught in schools as such, clarifying comments he made Thursday that had some questioning whether he believed race was a factor in the 1921 attack.

State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters said the massacre, like other chapters of American history, deserves a “deep, honest dive” for students to understand its context and motivations.

A white mob destroyed Tulsa’s affluent Black neighborhood of Greenwood in 1921, causing widespread property damage and killing between 100 and 300 people, according to historical estimates.

“The individuals that perpetrated that, our kids should read the history and understand that those were people that acted in an evil manner and were racist,” Walters told The Oklahoman on Friday. “They should know that it was those individuals that made the decision to act that way. We should absolutely judge them according to their actions and their beliefs.”

In 2019, Walters was part of an academic standards committee at the Oklahoma State Department of Education that successfully proposed the Tulsa Race Massacre be a mandatory subject taught in social studies classes. He was a history and government teacher at McAlester High School at the time.

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Ryan Walters questioned about Tulsa Race Massacre, critical race theory in Norman

Frustrations arose on social media when Walters spoke Thursday at a local Republican Party event at a Norman library, where he was questioned about his views on critical race theory and the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Walters, who is known for a far right-wing brand of politics, arrived at the event to protestors outside the library and pointed questions from the audience.

One attendee asked, “How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of (critical race theory)?” Critical race theory is a college-level academic concept that examines race as interwoven in societal structures, but lately conservatives, including Walters, have labeled it a method of “indoctrination.”

Republican leaders in Oklahoma and other states have sought to regulate discussions of race in school classrooms, leading many to question how teachers can address racism in American history without risking punishment. Two Oklahoma school districts had their accreditation downgraded for touching on topics of race and privilege, and educators risk having their teaching license revoked.

Walters answered the audience member’s question by saying he opposes the concept that a person is inherently racist because of the color of their skin.

“Let’s not tie it to the skin color and say that the skin color determined that,” he said.

His comment prompted some to assume Walters expects schools to teach about the Tulsa Race Massacre without mentioning race as a motivating factor.

Walters rejected that notion while speaking with The Oklahoman on Friday. He said schools should reveal “the good, the bad and the ugly” within U.S. history, including Jim Crow laws and the Tulsa massacre.

“It’s unfortunate that some of the news media took a clip to try to turn it into something I didn’t say,” Walters said. “Because here’s the reality — we want our teachers to go in and we want them to talk about our history, events, who the people are in those events, what is the context around those events, if they were racist individuals.”

How the Tulsa Race Massacre has — or has not — been taught in Oklahoma schools

Since 1921, Oklahoma’s track record of educating about the Tulsa Race Massacre has been spotty, at best. Generations of Oklahomans graduated from high school without ever learning about the event, which is widely considered one of America’s worst incidents of racial violence.

Shortly before the massacre’s 100-year anniversary, the state incorporated the Tulsa Race Massacre as a mandatory subject in Oklahoma history and U.S. history academic standards. A curriculum on the success of the Greenwood district, known as Black Wall Street, and the 1921 attack was made available to schools by the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and the Oklahoma History Center.

But as the state prepared to honor the massacre’s centennial in 2021, Oklahoma passed a law limiting discussions of race and gender in classrooms. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 1775, despite urging from the massacre centennial commission to reject it.

The law prohibits schools from teaching that a person bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by others of the same race or sex and that individuals should feel discomfort or guilt over their race or sex, among other topics.

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Since then, Walters heightened rhetoric around education on race and gender. His administration had the word “diverse” cut from computer science standards, called for 190 books with LGBTQ+ themes to be reviewed for “demented ideologies” and is seeking to revoke the certification of a former Norman teacher who openly objected to HB 1775.

"We will not allow the indoctrination of Oklahoma students here in the state of Oklahoma," Walters said in a January video posted to social media.

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters responds on Tulsa Race Massacre after comments in Norman