America has a long history of lectures-as-entertainment. Ever since colonial days, orators and authors crisscrossed the country bringing drama, literature, and knowledge to city people and townspeople alike, performing in churches, auditoriums, and taverns, often drawing large crowds of people who were starved for news and stories of the world outside their often mundane and provincial lives. The National Geographic Society continues that proud tradition with its "Nat Geo Live!" speaker series. I had no idea it was thing until we moved to metro Tampa. The Straz Center is Tampa's biggest performing arts venue complex, and it hosts a "Nat Geo Live!" series annually. To my knowledge, there were no such events in metro Atlanta.
We had the pleasure - kind of a strange word choice based on the subject but I can't think of another - of attending the last of the series a few weeks ago. Dr. Alicia Odewale, an archaeologist and educator whose field of expertise is the African diaspora, spoke on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, otherwise known as the Greenwood or Black Wall Street Massacre. The Tulsa Riot is one of the most shameful events in American history, an orgy of racial violence that occurred on May 31 and June 1 in which the thriving black community of Greenwood was literally levelled by white mobs incensed by probably false accusations that a black teenaged boy had somehow sexually assaulted or molested a white teenaged girl. A hundred years later, the true number of casualties is still not known. The death toll may be as high as 300. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for. In the immediate aftermath of the riot, National Guardsman interned Greenwood's remaining residents in camps for weeks and charged black citizens for crimes, but no white was ever charged. For decades, the massacre was intentionally and officially covered up. Odewale, herself a Tulsa native, never learned about it in school and heard almost no talk about it, even though she had relatives who went missing during the event.
In recent years, great strides have been made to capture the stories of survivors and to discover what actually happened. Dr. Odewale is one of the archaeologists and historians leading the efforts, despite continued roadblocks, and even death threats, meant to put an end to the search for truth and quest for some sort of healing. Her presentation was excellent, informative, educational, and, yet in spite of the subject matter and its inherent sadness, positive and uplifting.
I look forward to more Nat Geo Live! events in the future. Look for them in your city. The program's website is https://www.nationalgeographic.org/society/projects/ng-live/
For more information about Dr. Odewale and her work, https://aliciadodewale.com/
