Service to honor churches
BY World's own Service
May 31, 2000
1/20/13 at 8:46 AM
A public service honoring churches that were burned during the 1921 Tulsa Race
Riot will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 419 N. Elgin Ave.
The keynote speaker will be John Hope Franklin, a critically acclaimed historian
who is a former Tulsan. Franklin is the James B. Duke professor of history emeritus at
Duke University.
The event will cap a day of reconciliation and commemoration services marking the
May 31-June 1, 1921, riot in which at least 40 people died and thousands were left
homeless.
According to the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, 20 churches in the all-black Greenwood
district were burned during the violence. Twelve of those congregations, including
Mount Zion, rebuilt and remain active.
Survivors are among those expected to participate in Sunday's service, which will
be followed by a tree-planting ceremony and reception at the Greenwood Cultural
Center.
Sunday's event is sponsored by the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, the Greenwood
Cultural Center, Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry and churches of the Greenwood district.
