05/31/2026
Why do we know so much about the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and so little about those who carried it out?
That question is at the heart of the work of Aaron Schoenfeldt, our 2025–27 Duane H. King Postdoctoral Fellow at the Helmerich Center for American Research. A cultural anthropologist from Northwestern University, Aaron's research examines what he calls "non-knowledge," the silence that white communities have inherited across generations in the wake of one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in American history.
Tulsa isn't just the backdrop to his work. It's a central actor.
We're honored to support scholarship that confronts the hard truths our city carries, and to provide a space where that history is studied, preserved, and never forgotten.
🔗 Learn more about the Helmerich Center via the link in bio.
Greenwood Cultural Center, A view of downtown Tulsa from the Greenwood Cultural Center on Greenwood Avenue, 1994, Photograph, Gift of Eddie Faye Gates, Gilcrease, Accession No. 4327.11070
