Greenwood Rising

Greenwood Rising exists to educate the people about tulsa's historic Greenwood district, the black wall street mindset, and america's hard racial history to inspire them to work toward social justice and racial reconciliation at home and beyond. This mission is accomplished first and foremost by engaging visitors in an interactive, thought provoking, and historically factual experience involving pictures, videos, artifacts, etc. Docents lead guests on tours through the history center and guests are provided with pamphlets that ask challenging questions to evoke thoughtful actions which guests are encouraged to communicate via the commitment wall. Since opening its doors on august 4th, 2021, Greenwood Rising has welcomed nearly 60,000 visitors from around the globe.

Greenwood Rising has partnered with tulsa public schools ("tps") to curate curriculum for school field trips and began hosting tours for all tps eighth graders during each school year. This collaboration covers both pedagogy and the curriculum taught in class before the field trips, the curriculum based tours given to students during each visit, as well as logistics including scheduling, transportation, lunches provided, etc. Although the current program focuses on tps eighth grade students, Greenwood Rising looks forward to welcoming other school districts from the area in the coming years.

Greenwood Rising launched a new digital guide on bloomberg connects, the free arts and cultural app created by bloomberg philanthropies. The bloomberg connects app, available for download from google play or the app store, makes Greenwood Rising accessible for either onsite or offsite visits through photo, audio and video features offering insights into the history of black wall street, the 1921 tulsa race massacre, and the continued road to reconciliation. Users of the app access virtual reality experiences that showcase what black wall street was like before the 1921 massacre. Users have access to Greenwood Rising exhibits like the virtual barbershop and meet the early entrepreneurs in historic Greenwood through oral and written histories.

Greenwood Rising partnered with the Oklahoma center for community and justice to host local high school students in the youth leadership forum for community transformation. This program seeks to create space for young people to talk openly and honestly about their communities and work collaboratively to create change in those communities. The primary social impact of creating this space is increased self and social awareness of the participants, creating global citizens. The innovation of this program exists in its approach to student social-emotional learning through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Greenwood Rising also partnered with the Oklahoma city national memorial & museum to provide tulsa and Oklahoma city-based ninth grade students with transportation and admission to visit both museums in one day. Students experience the powerful stories each provides, including the resilience of the human spirit and the senselessness of violence, and then virtually come together to debrief their experiences.