Randy Krehbiel talks about his new book "Tulsa 2021"

The Tulsa Press Club, the Tulsa World and Fulton Street Books & Coffee present a conversation with Randy Krehbiel, the author of the new book "Tulsa, 2021: A Massacre's Centennial and a Nation's Reckoning," a follow up to his book "Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre."

The event is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, at Fulton Street Books & Coffee, 21 N. Greenwood Ave. It is free and open to the public.

Randy will be in conversation with Tulsa World Editor Jason Collington and Quraysh Ali Lansana, an author and an applied professor of English/creative writing & media studies at the University of Tulsa, where he also serves as director of the African American Studies program and the TU Media Lab.

About the book: In 2021, as the centennial of one of the nation’s worst race massacres approached, citizens of Tulsa faced the prospect with hope and dread. Hope that the anniversary would show Tulsa had changed since that day in 1921 when a white mob left the city’s thriving African American Greenwood neighborhood a smoldering ruin. Dread that Tulsa’s faults would be exposed as never before, magnified rather than mitigated.

The anniversary -- in the wake of COVID-19, a combustible presidential visit, and a nationwide explosion of racial tension -- was even more fraught than expected.

An account of a city under inordinate pressure, "Tulsa, 2021" offers a deeply informed, behind-the-scenes view of how Tulsans and Americans met that moment of crisis, and what the experience can tell us about racial politics today.

Following up on his book "Tulsa, 1921," Randy Krehbiel brings a reporter’s eye and an insider’s understanding to the story of a city contending with racial and urban stresses that are both unique to Oklahoma and indicative of larger trends. The conflicts are not split entirely along racial lines, but often revolve around the power of political messaging to shape public opinion. Krehbiel’s detailed picture of Tulsa in 2021 reveals how politics, unacknowledged racism, and fear destroyed or damaged promising relationships between white Republican leaders and Black, mostly Democratic Tulsans.

In 1921, factions fought to control the narrative of the Tulsa Race Massacre. As "Tulsa, 2021" demonstrates, the struggle continues to this day.

The book is published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

About Randy Krehbiel: He has reported for the Tulsa World for 45 years, starting in 1979. He covers political and governmental affairs in Oklahoma and the United States. "Tulsa, 2021" is his third book after "Tulsa, 1921" and "Tulsa’s Daily World: The Story of a Newspaper and Its Town."

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Fulton Street Books & Coffee, 21 North Greenwood Avenue, Tulsa, United States