To answer this question correctly, students must identify the event depicted in a historical photograph and clearly explain why the event is historically significant. For the first question, successful students will identify this as an image taken in the aftermath of the Tulsa Greenwood Massacre. For Question 2, successful students might elaborate on one or more of the following:
- With nearly 300 murdered and thousands left homeless, the massacre was perhaps the largest single act of racial violence by White Americans against African Americans in United States history.
- The white mob was motivated, in part, by anger at the economic successes of the Black community in Tulsa, and the massacre represents the violent opposition African Americans faced when their success challenged white supremacy.
- The Tulsa city government’s support of the white mob and failure to intervene in the violence represents the complicity of American institutions in perpetuating the oppression of African Americans.
- The event was largely whitewashed from American history books until the turn of the 21st century, a significant silencing of past atrocities against African Americans.
Level: Proficient
Question 1
Student clearly and specifically identifies the event depicted in the photograph.
Question 2
Student clearly and specifically explains why the event was historically significant.
Level: Emergent
Question 1
Student provides correct information related to the event but does not clearly identify the significant event.
Question 2
Student correctly elaborates on the event but does not clearly explain why the event is historically significant.
Level: Basic
Question 1
Student does not correctly identify the event.
Question 2
Student does not provide a correct or relevant explanation for why the event was historically significant.
