Through support of John Legend’s Show Me Campaign, the National Writing Project, and the U.S. Department of Education, Writing the Past, Changing the Future: A Century of Learning the 1921 Race Massacre is a one year wide-scale youth-driven inquiry project for middle school and high school students in Oklahoma. With leadership from classroom teachers and the OSU Writing Project, Oklahoma youth will learn about the 1921 Race Massacre in Tulsa, OK, and then spend time leading the creation of digital artifacts such as Ted Talks, Podcasts, Expeditions, and Digital Stories to document their experiences in learning about this historic event.

Student leaders from participating schools will collaborate to create and host a youth symposium in spring of 2020 for students to share their inquiry projects that highlight their collaborative inquiry projects. Student populations from several school districts throughout Oklahoma, integrating up to 200 students from diverse backgrounds, will thrive within opportunities to learn from one another about social justice, critical thinking, collaborative inquiry, and digital composition in digital spaces.

Students will create a digital repository of their digital artifacts as a testament to their learning and for citizens of Oklahoma and beyond to learn more about the impact of the 1921 Race Massacre on the world.