Discussion Series At OSU Tulsa Analyses The Impact Of Urban Renewal On Greenwood District

Urban renewal changed Tulsa in many ways over the last several decades and left a lingering legacy.

Victor Luckerson the author of "Built from the Fire" joined News On 6 at 4 to talk about the impact made on the Greenwood District.

Tatum Guinn: You're speaking at OSU Tulsa tomorrow (Thursday) as part of the deep Greenwood discussion series and featuring the historic photography of Don Thompson. If people go tomorrow, what kind of discussion can they expect?

Luckerson: You know, we're really going to be diving deep into what really happened during urban renewal. This was a series of policies that transformed all of Tulsa in the 1960s and 70s. But really impacted black Towson, in an extreme way. Greenwood itself had hundreds of businesses destroyed during that time period, taken out by bulldozers, by federal, state and local policy. And I think it's important for us as a city to really try to understand what happened during that time period, as opposed to getting a really in-depth and nuanced understanding, both from the policy and the personal perspective of how that policy played out.

Guinn: And and one of those ways that people will be able to at least get a visual idea of really is by looking at the work of Don Thompson, he took on-the-ground photos of the Greenwood district during this time. How do you plan on incorporating those photos into tomorrow's discussion?

Luckerson: Well, you know, I'm somebody who communicates through words, but I think that Don's ability to make through images is even more powerful in this case, you know, to be able to see the folks who are impacted by these policies in the flesh through his images, I think is essential. And so when people come to this event, they're going to be able to hear from both of us talking about what happened in that time. And Don's gonna be able to talk about how he was able to go out into the streets of Greenwood during that time to capture these people and he knows more about their stories than just what's in those still photos. So you could do a find a lot more about the people's narratives that we've you know, we've seen these images around the city a lot in the last few years. But Don's going to really dive into who those people were in those pictures.

Guinn: That'll be great. So again, this free event free I want to emphasize that is tomorrow night at seven at the OSU Tulsa Auditorium.