Oklahoma restricted how race can be taught. So these Black teachers stepped up

NOVEMBER 22, 2023 12:48 PM ET
HEARD ON ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
Adrian Florido



Using a plastic skull, archaeologist Alicia Odewale teaches a lesson about Tulsa's ongoing search for mass graves containing victims of the city's 1921 race massacre. She taught it at Black History Saturdays, a free private program designed for students to learn unvarnished lessons in African American history that teachers say a new law targeting race education has made harder to honestly teach.
Michael Noble Jr. for NPR

TULSA, Okla. — The schoolchildren arrived at the community center's cafeteria on a Saturday morning, their parents in tow. Some adults came without children, because they, too, wanted to learn the African American history that a new law has made many Oklahoma schoolteachers too afraid to teach.

Kristi Williams, a leader and activist in Tulsa's Black community, led them in the pledge they recite each time they gather for a day of lessons.

"We will remember the humanity, glory and suffering of our ancestors," they said in unison, "and honor the struggle of our elders."

Williams started offering these lessons early this year, after the state law — adopted by Republican legislators in 2021 — placed restrictions on how race and gender can be taught in Oklahoma's public schools.

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