According to Deadline, LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Entertainment production company is set to produce a documentary on Black Wall Street and the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, with Bad Rap’s Salima Koroma directing. This year marks the 99th anniversary of the massacre, and for those who aren’t familiar with it (or who missed HBO’s Watchmen, in which it played a crucial role), it involved a group of white rioters on the ground and in airplanes completely destroying 35 blocks of a large and wealthy Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma referred to as Black Wall Street. Deadline says 36 deaths were reported at the time, but modern estimates put it closer to 300.
This announcement comes as protestors are filling the streets in cities all over the country to demonstrate against racial injustice and police violence, a fact that is obviously not lost on Koroma, who tweeted about how “the fabric of this country is soaked in racism and today, 99 years later, we’re still fighting for change.” Deadline’s story doesn’t mention a potential release window, but next year seems like a safe bet given the timing of the 100th anniversary.
Also, this is the second production about Black Wall Street to be unveiled today, with Surviving R. Kelly executive producer dream hampton announcing a Cineflix miniseries this morning about Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum’s search for the mass graves containing the 300 Black people who were killed by white mobs in the massacre.
Looking for ways to advocate for black lives? Check out this list of resources by our sister site Lifehacker for ways to get involved