A Deep Conversation With Meg Sutherland About The Victory of Greenwood Project

Jeff sits down with Meg Sutherland as she shares deeply about her inner journey through the process of creation of The Victory of Greenwood project and what it all means to her personally.  She also speaks very compellingly about her own evolution through this process.To learn more about The Victory of Greenwood project and the book, visithttps://thevictoryofgreenwood.comMeg Sutherland is a communications and marketing professional with over 15 years of experience. Much of her focus has been on helping area non-profits that provide assistance for women, children and minorities. Most recently, she co-founded Spark Collaborative which supports creative projects with some element of social responsibility. The most recent of these is the Victory of Greenwood where she performs extensive research, editing and grant writing.Her pro-bono work has included providing public relations services to TulsaNow and as a storyteller for Code for Tulsa (a local brigade of Code for America). She was also instrumental in the creation of Tulsa Little Jam, a video and podcast series showcasing area musicians and performers, which launched in Tulsa in 2018.  Meg graduated, cum laude, from Langston University in 1996 with a B.A. in Psychology. She has two adult sons and resides in Tulsa, OK.The Victory of Greenwood​ endeavors to tell the story of Greenwood from the perspective of the heroes and entrepreneurs who built Greenwood and then rebuilt it after its destruction. Historians have published many books and articles about the days surrounding the 1921 Race Massacre, but Tulsa knows very little about the founding of Greenwood. We as a city know even less about Greenwood's reconstruction. Against all odds, the neighborhood was built again, better than before, and became known as “Black Wall Street”.The name Victory of Greenwood is attributed to Timantha Norman, executive editor of the Tulsa Star. She and her staff have been wonderful joint partners throughout the process of writing this article series and book and we're grateful for their collaboration.We began publishing a series of articles in the fall of 2019 with the goal of sharing Greenwood's story from the perspective of its founders and significant historical figures. The project will cover Greenwood’s early history, the 1921 massacre, Greenwood's rebuilding, and its prosperity through the late 1960s, focusing on the neighborhood’s great nationwide legacy. Every day that we work on this project, we uncover a piece of history that Tulsa has not seen for decades-in some cases for over a century.The article series will be published as a book in May, 2021. We are producing a series of events, a video series, a podcast and a web-based interactive timeline and archive, and will be contributors to the collections/exhibits housed at the Greenwood Rising Museum.We have listened to our city’s conversation about the massacre and about Greenwood’s history and legacy for the past 20 years and we believe that it is incomplete. This project, for us, is an attempt to tell the story of Greenwood’s triumphs so that as a city we might learn from and be inspired by the people who rebuilt the neighborhood in spite of the tremendous challenges they faced.Greenwood’s history is incredibly rich, multifaceted, and fascinating. By learning the individual human experiences of Greenwood residents, Tulsa can begin to come together as a community promoting growth, cooperation, equity and respect for all its citizens. Perhaps other communities will look to Tulsa’s efforts and be moved to strive for their own growth and reconciliation. The Victory of Greenwood continues.