Houston Rockets superstar Russell Westbrook is set to executive produce the latest TV series to mark the upcoming 100th anniversary of the infamous Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Westbrook has partnered with Blackfin, the unscripted producer behind ID’s I Am Homicide and History’s Brothers in Arms, on the docuseries Terror in Tulsa: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, to be directed and produced by Stanley Nelson.
The project will chronicle a deadly massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, between May 31 and June 1, 1921, where over 300 African Americans were killed and thousands more were displaced as the once-prosperous Greenwood District, called Black Wall Street by locals, was set ablaze.
Before Westbrook played for the Houston Rockets, he was with the Oklahoma City Thunder for 11 seasons, where he first learned of the Black Wall Street tragedy. “It’s upsetting that the atrocities that transpired then are still so relevant today. It’s important we uncover the buried stories of African Americans in this country. We must amplify them now more than ever if we want to create change moving forward,” Westbrook said in a statement.
As the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre is marked amid nationwide protests over the killing of a George Floyd while being arrested by four former Minneapolis police officers, rival
TV projects to chronicle the 1921 tragedy have emerged. Fellow NBA star LeBron James’ production company, SpringHill Entertainment, will make its own documentary about Black Wall Street and its violent demise, with Salima Koroma to direct.
“In April, @limacake (Koroma) pitched us her vision to direct a documentary about Black Wall Street and The Tulsa Riot of 1921 – one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. We knew we had to empower her to tell that story,” SpringHill said June 1 via its Twitter account.
And Dream Hampton, executive producer of Surviving R. Kelly, will direct Black Wall Street, a limited documentary series about the Tulsa Race Massacre for Cineflix Productions.
Besides the Terror in Tulsa project for Blackfin and Westbrook, Stanley Nelson is also set to direct the feature documentary Attica, about the 1971 prison rebellion in upstate New York, for Showtime.