KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A performance in Kansas City, Missouri, is telling the story of Black Wall Street in Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood.
The sprawling, self-sufficient community was burned to the ground and bombed by a white mob just over a century ago.
On Saturday night, the cast of "Deep Greenwood — Hidden Truth of Black Wall Street" will take audiences back 100 years to one of the country's darkest and most covered-up moments in history.
It's a story many Americans never heard. Playwright Mia Walter wants to change that.
"It's a great feeling knowing that something you have been researching for years and putting all your heart into to make sure that people see the full story is actually coming to light," she said.
She started her research in 2012 and used historic court documents and interviews to piece together the full picture of what really happened for her play.
"I was in Tulsa when I had descendants there, and they came to me at the end when we had our talk-back and they said, 'Mia, do not stop. Do not stop. You tell the truth about what really happened, please don't stop,'" she said.
Actor and singer Shirley Murdock says the entire cast has a responsibility to tell this story.
"Happy to finally get to know what the truth is. You know, sometimes in our history things are edited out," Murdock said. "We don't get the full brunt of what happened. But you can't fix what you don't face."
Actor Dion Burns agrees, and hopes to earmark this painful chapter in American history for future generations.
"A lot of history is suppressed," Burns said. "If we got it early on, and we understood what made this country up from the beginning, we could probably figure out how to make it better."
Click this link below to find tickets.
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