By Three years ago today, athletes and coaches representing every sports program at the University of Tulsa laced up their sneakers, but not for practice or a competition.
The large group of several hundred departed campus for a unity walk, trekking roughly 4 miles toward downtown and ending in the Greenwood District near the historic site of Black Wall Street.
“I thought our student-athletes did one of the best jobs in the country in the past year calling attention to and creating awareness of a lot of the issues that happened right here in our city and started conversations and were really pioneers and leaders in that,” Athletic Director Rick Dickson said.
“This is kind of the second phase … not just creating awareness — it’s about activating and showing people the step forward, about coming together as a community, as different people, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, all of us together.”
Upon arrival, the teams met with the Rev. Robert Turner from Vernon AME Church, the only Black-owned structure that remains on Greenwood Avenue from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Turner shared the history of the community with the players and coaches while emphasizing the importance of resiliency.
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