Alumni Community Members Visit Site of the Tulsa Race Massacre

Two former Covenant House residents traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in August to lend their voices to the latest Covenant House International (CHI) project —  a public service announcement, intended to teach audiences about youth homelessness. The video will also offer a warm welcome to young people who walk through Covenant House doors in need of a night of safe sleep and other services. 

But the visit to Tulsa proved to be far more impactful than any of the trip’s attendees had imagined. Hannah Collier and Molly Bates, members of the Covenant House Alumni Community, and CHI staff member Jamel Thigpen carved out some time to visit the Greenwood Cultural Center, particularly the exhibit related to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. 

“As soon as I touched down in Oklahoma, I felt a sense of urgency,” said Hannah. “This became a historic pilgrimage to a place where people’s lives have impacted your own.”

The Greenwood Cultural Center, as its website proclaims: 

stands as a monument to the scores of pioneers, trailblazers, entrepreneurs, professionals, politicos, and citizens who created a renowned and respected community despite formidable odds. The Center serves as a marker for the Tulsa community, chronicling where we have been, where we are, and where we are going, through historical offerings, events, and youth programming.

One such historical offering is the center’s exhibit about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a racially-motivated riot that occurred in the early morning hours of June 1, 1921, which completely burned down 35 city blocks of the Black community in the Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street. Initial reports had the death toll at 35, but historians have more recently said that number is closer to 300. 

This bit of troubled history is only the tip of the iceberg of what Jamel, Molly, and Hannah say they learned during the trip. The three of them recalled being greeted at the center’s entrance by an interactive billboard depicting two survivors of the massacre. 

“You have to scan this QR code to learn about their experiences directly from them,” said Jamel. “I couldn’t do it; because simply walking into the building I felt a rush of emotions come over me and I just couldn’t bring myself to scan that QR code.” 

“It really did something to me,” said Molly, adding that she became quiet and ‘really tuned in.’ “Their pain was turned into a powerful story. This really opened my eyes,” she said.  

As the trio walked further into the space, they noticed the walls were lined with newspaper clippings and photos of the victims. 

The Greenwood Cultural Center shares a space with the Terence Crutcher Foundation. 

“We stopped and spoke to the founder, Tiffany Crutcher, for a while. She started the foundation for her brother, Terence, who was killed by police,” said Jamel. 

In 2016, police officer Betty Shelby shot and killed Terence Crutcher. Following her twin brother’s murder, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher gave up her practice in Alabama and moved back home to Tulsa to fight state-sanctioned violence, she said. 

Tiffany and Terence are direct descendants of a Tulsa Race Massacre survivor.

“As I dove into the museum more, I realized how well-off the residents of Greenwood were. They had their own town, complete with doctors, hospitals, pharmacies. They had everything they needed in one area,” said Jamel. 

“There was also a room dedicated to all of the survivors. That room was tough,” he added. “All of the survivors were six and younger. They were babies when their entire families were massacred. That’s when I immediately made the connection to our work at Covenant House.” 

Hannah noticed the connection, too. “A lot of stories at Covenant House are similar in that many of our youth can probably say their parents were killed or that their childhood was marred with a heinous act that led them to Covenant House,” she said.  

Jamel, who leads the year-old Covenant House Alumni Community, said this trip reinvigorated him and reminded him of the group’s purpose, and of the Covenant House mission. 

“Learning more about the massacre was a harsh reminder of the hatred that exists for most of our young people just because they are Black,” he said. Across the United States and Canada, 56% of our youth at Covenant House are Black, and nearly 90% are people of color.

“I see myself in them,” Jamel added. “And my purpose is to have whatever our young people are experiencing be as comfortable as possible, because it already isn’t. That’s why I do the work I do with youth and alumni — to help them learn how to navigate through it.”