How to Book a Guided Tour of the 1921 Massacre Sites

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre stands as one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in American history. Over the course of 18 hours, a thriving Black community known as Greenwoodoften called Black Wall Streetwas systematically destroyed by a white mob. Hundreds of Black residents were killed, thousands were left homeless, and generations of wealth were erased. For decades, this tragedy was suppressed from public memory, omitted from textbooks, and silenced by institutional indifference.

Today, guided tours of the 1921 Massacre sites serve as vital acts of remembrance, education, and reconciliation. These tours do more than recount eventsthey honor the lives lost, preserve the stories of survivors and descendants, and confront the enduring legacy of racial injustice. Booking a guided tour is not merely a logistical act; it is a moral one. It signifies a commitment to truth, historical accountability, and the ongoing pursuit of justice.

As interest in truthful historical narratives grows, so does demand for authentic, well-researched, and respectfully curated experiences. Whether you are a student, educator, historian, or simply a person seeking to understand Americas complex past, participating in a guided tour of the 1921 Massacre sites offers a profound and transformative encounter with history.

This guide provides a comprehensive, step-by-step roadmap to help you book a meaningful and respectful guided tour. You will learn how to identify credible providers, prepare for your visit, engage ethically with the material, and contribute to the preservation of this history. This is not a tourist attractionit is a sacred space of memory. Approach it with care.

Step-by-Step Guide

Research the Historical Context Before Booking

Before you begin searching for tour operators, invest time in understanding the basic facts of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Familiarize yourself with key locations: the Greenwood District, the Tulsa Tribune building, the intersection of Greenwood and Archer, the site of the former Tulsa Club, and the Tulsa Convention Center, which now sits atop the former site of the Black hospital. Learn about survivors like 107-year-old Hughes Van Ellis and the descendants who have fought for recognition and reparations.

Understand that the massacre was not an isolated riot but a coordinated attack fueled by racial hatred, economic envy, and state-sanctioned violence. The National Guard was deployed not to protect Black residents, but to disarm them. Bodies were buried in mass graves. Homes and businesses were burned. Insurance claims were denied. The trauma echoes today in generational wealth gaps and systemic inequities.

This foundational knowledge ensures you can ask informed questions during your tour and recognize when a provider is offering superficial or inaccurate narratives. Avoid operators who reduce the massacre to a conflict or civil unrest. Accurate language matters. Use terms like massacre, attack, destruction, and systemic violence.

Identify Reputable Tour Providers

Not all tour companies are created equal. Some are run by community historians and descendants of survivors; others are commercial ventures with minimal historical rigor. Prioritize organizations with direct ties to Tulsas Black community.

Start with the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum. Both maintain curated lists of approved guides and tour operators. The Greenwood Cultural Center also offers official walking tours led by trained docents, many of whom are descendants of massacre survivors.

Look for providers who:

• Employ local Black historians or community members as guides
• Collaborate with the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park Foundation
• Include survivor testimonies, archival photographs, and primary documents in their narratives
• Do not charge excessive feesmany tours are donation-based or offered at low cost to ensure accessibility
• Have clear mission statements centered on education, remembrance, and justice

Be wary of companies that market the tour as dark tourism or use sensationalist language. Authentic providers treat the sites with reverence, not spectacle.

Check Availability and Schedule

Guided tours of the 1921 Massacre sites are often limited in capacity due to the emotional weight of the subject matter and the small size of the groups needed for meaningful engagement. Most official tours operate on a reservation-only basis.

Visit the websites of the Greenwood Cultural Center, the Tulsa Historical Society, and the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park to view their tour calendars. Many offer weekly scheduled tours on weekends, with additional options during the spring and summer months. Some providers offer private tours for schools, religious groups, or organizations upon request.

Booking typically opens 3060 days in advance. Due to high demandespecially around the May 31June 1 anniversary datesit is critical to reserve early. Set calendar reminders and check for waitlists if a preferred date is sold out.

Some tours require advance registration through online forms rather than direct booking portals. Be prepared to provide your name, contact information, group size, and sometimes a brief statement about your purpose for visiting.

Prepare for the Tour Experience

Guided tours of the 1921 Massacre sites are emotionally intense. They are not designed for casual sightseeing. Prepare yourself mentally and physically.

Wear comfortable walking shoesmany tours involve traversing uneven sidewalks, gravel paths, and urban terrain. Dress modestly and respectfully. Avoid wearing clothing with offensive slogans, logos, or symbols. Many participants choose to wear black or neutral colors as a sign of mourning and solidarity.

Bring a notebook and pen. Some guides encourage participants to reflect and journal during or after the tour. You may also want to bring a water bottle and sunscreen, especially during summer months when outdoor tours extend for several hours.

Do not bring children under 12 unless the tour explicitly states it is family-friendly. The content includes graphic descriptions of violence, lynching, and destruction. Even adults may find the material overwhelming. Consider your emotional readiness and that of your companions.

Confirm Logistics and Meeting Points

Most tours begin at the Greenwood Cultural Center at 227 North Greenwood Avenue, Tulsa, OK. Some may start at the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park or the site of the former Tulsa Tribune building. Always confirm your meeting point in writing after booking.

Public parking is available near the Cultural Center, but spaces are limited. Consider using ride-sharing services or public transit. The Tulsa Transit system offers routes that connect major downtown landmarks.

Arrive 1520 minutes early. Tours often begin promptly, and late arrivals may miss critical context. If you are traveling from out of town, plan to arrive the day before to acclimate and rest.

Engage Respectfully During the Tour

During the tour, silence your phone. Do not take selfies at memorial sites or graves. Avoid interrupting the guide with casual questions or comments. This is not a museum exhibitit is a memorial landscape.

Listen deeply. The guides are often descendants of survivors or community elders who have spent decades preserving these stories. Their voices carry generational grief and resilience.

If you are moved to tears, that is valid. If you feel anger, that is valid. If you feel silence, that is valid. There is no prescribed emotional response. What matters is presence and humility.

Do not ask the guide to explain why it happened as if it were a mystery. The reasons are well-documented: white supremacy, economic jealousy, media incitement, and state complicity. The guides role is not to justify but to bear witness.

Follow Up After the Tour

After your tour, take time to reflect. Write down your thoughts. Share your experience with othersbut only if you are ready. Do not use social media to broadcast your visit as a bucket list item. If you post, do so with context, respect, and a call to action: support reparations, donate to survivor funds, advocate for inclusive education.

Consider sending a thank-you note to the tour provider. Many are nonprofit organizations that rely on community support. A brief message of appreciation can mean a great deal.

Finally, commit to ongoing learning. Read books like The Ground Breaking by Scott Ellsworth, watch documentaries such as Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten, and follow organizations like the Tulsa Reparations Coalition and the Black Wall Street Times.

Best Practices

Center Black Voices and Perspectives

The most ethical and accurate tours are led by Black historians, educators, and descendants. When booking, ask: Who is leading this tour? and Are they connected to the Greenwood community? Avoid providers who hire non-Black guides without community partnerships. Authenticity lies in lineage, not just expertise.

Support Black-owned businesses. Many tour operators are small, community-based nonprofits. Your fee supports their work in education, memorialization, and advocacy.

Use Accurate Language

Language shapes perception. Never refer to the event as a riot. A riot implies mutual violence. This was a massacrea one-sided assault on a defenseless community. Use terms like:

• 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
• Destruction of Black Wall Street
• White mob violence
• Systemic erasure
• State-sanctioned violence

Correct others when they use inaccurate language. Silence is complicity.

Respect Sacred Spaces

Many sites are unmarked or minimally memorialized. The mass graves discovered in 2020 near Oaklawn Cemetery are still under investigation. Do not trespass. Do not dig. Do not photograph without permission. Some locations are not open to the public out of respect for the dead and ongoing forensic work.

When visiting John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, walk slowly. Read the plaques. Sit on the benches. Let the space hold you.

Do Not Perform Allyship

Allyship is not a performance. Do not wear a T-shirt that says I Stand With Tulsa to take photos. Do not post a video of yourself crying while standing in front of a memorial. These actions center you, not the victims.

True solidarity means listening, learning, and actinglong after the tour ends. Donate to the Tulsa Reparations Coalition. Advocate for the inclusion of the massacre in state curricula. Support Black-owned businesses in Greenwood today.

Be Aware of Your Privilege

If you are white, acknowledge your position. You may have never learned about this history in school. That is not your faultbut it is your responsibility to change. If you are a person of color from outside the U.S., recognize that this violence is part of a global pattern of racial terror.

Do not speak over Black guides. Do not assume you know better. Do not try to fix the pain. Your role is to witness, not to rescue.

Support Ongoing Efforts for Justice

Book a tour not as a one-time experience, but as a step in a longer journey. The fight for reparations continues. Survivors and descendants are still seeking justice in courts and legislatures. Your visit can be a catalyst for action.

After your tour, consider:

• Signing petitions for reparations
• Donating to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Fund
• Writing to your state representatives to support HB 1120 or similar legislation
• Hosting a community discussion about what you learned

Teach Others Ethically

If you are an educator, use your experience to shape curriculum. Do not reduce the massacre to a single lesson. Integrate it into broader discussions of race, capitalism, media, and justice. Use primary sources: newspaper clippings from 1921, oral histories, court documents.

If you are a parent, talk to your children in age-appropriate ways. There are childrens books like The Day the World Broke by Dr. Karlos K. Hill that offer gentle entry points.

Never share graphic images without context. The trauma of the massacre is not for viral consumption.

Tools and Resources

Official Websites and Digital Archives

Before booking a tour, explore these authoritative digital resources to deepen your understanding:

• Tulsa Historical Society & Museum tulsahistory.org Offers digitized photographs, newspaper articles, and oral histories.
• Greenwood Cultural Center greenwoodculturalcenter.com Provides tour schedules, educational materials, and event calendars.
• John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park jhfrp.org Features interactive maps, memorial plaques, and historical timelines.
• Oklahoma Historical Society okhistory.org Houses official state records, including coroners reports and military logs from 1921.
• 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission tulsamassacre100.org The official site for the 100th anniversary commemoration, with curated educational resources.

Books and Documentaries

Supplement your tour with these essential works:

• The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth The definitive modern account of the massacre and its aftermath.
• Black Wall Street: From Prosperity to Pain by Hannibal B. Johnson A detailed history of Greenwoods rise and fall.
• Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten (2021) A PBS documentary featuring interviews with survivors and descendants.
• 1921: The Tulsa Race Massacre A National Geographic documentary with drone footage of the massacre sites.
• They Came in Search of Blood by Dr. Karlos K. Hill A scholarly analysis of racial terror and memory.

Mobile Applications and Interactive Maps

Several apps enhance the physical tour experience:

• Greenwood Tour App Available on iOS and Android, this app provides GPS-triggered audio narratives as you walk through the district. Includes survivor testimonies and archival photos.
• 1921 Tulsa Massacre Interactive Map Hosted by the Tulsa Historical Society, this web-based map overlays 1921 property lines with modern streets, showing exactly where homes, churches, and businesses once stood.
• Reconciliation Park AR Experience Augmented reality markers at the park allow visitors to view 3D reconstructions of buildings destroyed in 1921.

Donation and Support Platforms

Support the ongoing work of preservation and justice through these channels:

• Tulsa Reparations Coalition Accepts direct donations to fund legal efforts for reparations.
• 1921 Survivors Fund Managed by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, this fund supports living survivors and their families.
• Greenwood Rising History Center A new museum opening in 2024, funded by community donations, that will house the largest collection of 1921 artifacts in the world.

Local Partnerships and Volunteer Opportunities

Consider volunteering with:

• Greenwood Rising Assist with exhibits, educational programs, or archival digitization.
• Tulsa Urban League Support economic development initiatives in the Greenwood district today.
• Black Wall Street Legacy Project Help record oral histories from current residents with generational ties to the area.

Real Examples

Example 1: A College Professors Journey

Dr. Lena Mitchell, a history professor from Chicago, booked a guided tour after her students asked why the massacre was not covered in their U.S. history textbook. She reserved a private tour through the Greenwood Cultural Center for her class of 12 students.

Her guide, Ms. Marjorie Bell, was the granddaughter of a survivor who lost her home and pharmacy during the massacre. Ms. Bell led the group through the streets, stopping at the site of the former Lincoln High School, where Black children were taught by teachers who later became community leaders.

Dr. Mitchell later developed a semester-long course titled Memory, Silence, and Justice: Reconstructing the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Her syllabus included survivor testimonies, archival footage, and a field trip to Tulsa. Her students wrote letters to the Oklahoma State Board of Education advocating for curriculum reform.

Example 2: A Familys First Visit

The Johnson familyparents and their 14-year-old daughtertraveled from Atlanta to Tulsa after watching a documentary on the massacre. They booked a morning tour through the Tulsa Historical Society.

The guide, Mr. Calvin Reed, a retired teacher and descendant of a massacre survivor, began the tour by asking each person to state their name and why they came. The daughter, Maya, said, I want to know what happened to people who look like me.

At the site of the former Tulsa Tribune building, Mr. Reed read aloud the inflammatory headline from May 31, 1921: Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator. He explained how that single article incited a mob of over 1,000 white men.

That evening, Maya wrote in her journal: I thought history was about dates and names. Now I know its about pain. And silence. The family donated $500 to the Survivors Fund before leaving.

Example 3: A Journalists Investigative Visit

Journalist Jamal Carter, writing for a national magazine, spent three days in Tulsa researching the massacre. He booked multiple tours with different providers to compare narratives. He met with descendants, reviewed court records, and visited unmarked burial sites with forensic anthropologists.

His article, The Land Still Remembers, published in The Atlantic, included first-hand accounts from survivors, maps of destroyed businesses, and interviews with city officials who still resisted acknowledging state culpability.

His reporting contributed to renewed public pressure for reparations and led to the discovery of three additional mass graves.

Example 4: A High School Class from Oklahoma City

A group of 30 students from an Oklahoma City high school, many of whom had never heard of the massacre, participated in a two-day educational program organized by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Day one included a guided walking tour of Greenwood. Day two featured a panel with three survivors and a descendant who is now a city council member. The students were required to write a reflection paper and present their findings to their school board.

As a result, the school board voted to include the massacre in its 10th-grade curriculum for the next academic year.

FAQs

Can I book a tour if Im not from the United States?

Yes. International visitors are welcome. Many tours offer materials in multiple languages, and guides are experienced in working with global audiences. Be sure to check tour times and availability well in advance, as international visitors often book months ahead.

Are children allowed on guided tours?

Some tours are designed for families and children aged 12 and older. Others are intended for adults only due to the graphic nature of the content. Always check the tour description or contact the provider directly. For younger children, consider visiting the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, which has age-appropriate exhibits.

How long do guided tours last?

Most walking tours last between 2 and 4 hours. Some include a visit to the Greenwood Cultural Center or the Tulsa Historical Society, extending the experience to 5 hours. Private tours can be customized for length.

Is there a fee to book a tour?

Many official tours operate on a donation basis. Suggested contributions range from $10 to $30 per person. Private group tours may have set fees, typically between $50 and $100 per person. All funds support preservation, education, and survivor support.

What if I cant visit Tulsa in person?

Virtual tours are available through the Tulsa Historical Society and Greenwood Cultural Center. These include live-streamed walkthroughs with Q&A sessions, archival video, and digital exhibits. Some organizations also offer downloadable educational kits for classrooms and community groups.

Can I bring a camera or record audio?

Photography is permitted in public areas, but not at memorial sites or unmarked graves. Audio recording requires prior permission from the guide. Always ask before recording. The goal is to honor, not exploit.

Is the tour wheelchair accessible?

Most tour routes are accessible, though some sidewalks are uneven. Contact the tour provider in advance to arrange accommodations. The Greenwood Cultural Center and John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park are fully ADA-compliant.

What should I do if I feel overwhelmed during the tour?

It is normal to feel emotional. Inform your guide. They are trained to support visitors through difficult moments. Take a break. Sit down. Breathe. You are not expected to be strongyou are expected to be present.

How can I support the community after my visit?

Donate to the Tulsa Reparations Coalition. Buy from Black-owned businesses in Greenwood. Advocate for curriculum reform in your school district. Read and share books by Black authors on the subject. Silence is not an option.

Why isnt this taught in schools?

For decades, the massacre was deliberately erased from textbooks and public records. State officials suppressed evidence, and media outlets refused to report the truth. It was not until the 1990s that efforts began to reintroduce the history into education. Even today, some states still omit it. Your visit helps change that.

Conclusion

Booking a guided tour of the 1921 Massacre sites is not an excursion. It is an act of reclamation. It is a refusal to let history be buried beneath silence and denial. The streets of Greenwood still hold the echoes of screams, the scorch marks of fire, and the fingerprints of resilience.

When you walk these grounds, you stand on sacred soil. You are not a tourist. You are a witness. You are a student. You are a steward of memory.

The guides who lead these tours are not entertainers. They are archivists of pain, keepers of truth, and guardians of legacy. Their work is not funded by corporations or government grants aloneit is sustained by the quiet determination of those who refuse to let their ancestors be forgotten.

As you plan your visit, remember: the goal is not to consume history, but to carry it forward. Let your tour be the beginning of a lifelong commitment to justice. Let your questions spark change. Let your silence become a voice. Let your presence be a promise.

Book your tour. Listen deeply. Act boldly. The land remembers. So must we.