Restorative Justice Archaeology: Searching for Life in Landscapes of Trauma

This book brings to light the power of Restorative Justice Archaeology (RJA) to shift the focus of traumatic histories beyond single story narratives of death and violence to use archaeology as a means to uncover legacies of resilience and survivance in the present day. Using the Historic Greenwood District in Tulsa, OK as a case study for how RJA projects can foster an environment of collective healing, readers will explore how the cultural landscape of Greenwood has changed over the course of the last century in the wake of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. This book explores not only my complicated journey to becoming an Black woman archaeologist, but also the other RJA projects that connect to or have inspired our work in Tulsa. The book is tentatively titled “Restorative Justice Archaeology: Searching for Life in Landscapes of Trauma” and serves as the anchor for a more in-depth reading in connection to my National Geographic Live show entitled “Greenwood: A Century of Resilience” and a new undergraduate course in development that is tentatively titled “Fragments that Heal: Archaeology, Historical Trauma, and Multivocal Storytelling in Historic Greenwood”

New Non-Profit Organization Launching in October 2023

The mission of the Greenwood Diaspora Project is to support the dreams of educators, students, and descendants across the Greenwood Diaspora. At the epicenter of our diaspora, lies the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the legacy of community resilience that has allowed the people and spirit of Greenwood to survive for generations. People who reside in Greenwood today and those scattered across this diaspora but call Greenwood home, are part of this same legacy of resilience. Together we provide partial scholarships to ensure that educators, students, and families from Greenwood have the freedom to live out their educational dreams. Dreams of achieving a graduate degree, blazing a trail in a non-traditional field, and implementing innovative curriculum design can be made real for more people in North Tulsa with our support. Inspired by the work of Eddie Faye Gates, Mary Jones Parrish, Mabel B. Little, Dorothy DeWitty, Debra Robinson and many others who worked behind the scenes in Greenwood to record, teach, protect, and share the stories of Greenwood for the next generation, we hope to carry on Greenwood’s legacy of excellence in education and reconnect the Greenwood Diaspora in a shared mission of love.