What Happens to a Dream Destroyed?

Episode

Students confront the devastating history of June 1, 1921, when the affluent African-American neighborhood of Greenwood, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was destroyed by deputized white mobs. Historians believe approximately 300 members of this community were murdered.

Curriculum Materials

Standards & Frameworks

These documents map the activites in this module to numerous national and state standards and frameworks.

Basic Lessons

These activities consist of viewing the episode and responding to the discussion prompts embedded in the episode.

Connections, Echoes, and Projections

These activities extend the themes of the story presented in the episode to other events and into the future. These resources and activities help students see how we can use an understanding of the past to make sense of more recent events and imagine a different future.

Timelining to Understand

These activities ask students to place the events discussed in the video in a larger historical context by working with a timeline of US history.

Opening Up the Textbook

These activities ask students to consider the implications of the dominant narrative by seeing how the story in the episode is (or isn’t) talked about in their textbooks.

The Conversation Continues

This activity consists of additional discussion prompts and resources that delve into the issues raised in the episode.

Into the Archives

These activities ask students to (1) generate their own questions and plan larger inquiries into the historical record regarding the stories presented in the video, and then (2) find, evaluate, and interpret historical documents to develop a research claim.

Creative Responses

These activities ask students to practice perspective taking and use creative expression (poetry, music, visual arts, media production, etc.) to deeply process the stories presented in the episode.

Additional Resources

These are additional resources that may be useful for teachers and students.