ENID, Okla. — A program on the Greenwood District’s Black Wall Street area in Tulsa will be presented at the Northwestern Oklahoma State University Enid campus Nov. 14, thanks to a free seminar offered by Teaching American History.
Northwestern’s Department of Social Sciences will play host to the program from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. in Room 124. Lunch will be provided for attendees, courtesy of Teaching American History.
“Our goal when hosting these professional development workshops is to bring opportunities to attend events conducted by national organizations to Northwest Oklahoma and Southern Kansas,” said Jana Brown Pittman, instructor of history at Northwestern and organizer of the event. “We want to make the experience of gaining a deeper understanding of our history and government, as well as gathering resources for their classrooms more convenient for our educators.”
The seminar, led by Dr. Donna Devlin, will focus on Tulsa’s Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street, that developed in the midst of the Jim Crow Era following the American Civil War and during the early 20th century.
Devlin was raised on her family’s farm near Jewell County, Kansas. She earned bachelor of arts and education degrees from Fort Hays University in 2006, completed her Master of Arts in American History degree from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, in 2012 and finished her Doctorate of Philosophy in History from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2023. Devlin served 11 years in the Kansas public school system teaching social studies and currently works as an assistant professor of history at Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas.
Teaching American History provides more than 150 one day seminars per year at no cost to the host or the teachers. The Nov. 14 program will be conducted as a discussion, utilizing primary source documents as the only readings, with Devlin facilitating the conversation instead of lecturing or presenting. Registrants will receive the readings prior to the seminar and are highly encouraged to read all the documents in advance and come ready with questions. Teachers will receive a letter of attendance at the conclusion of the seminar.
“Teaching about the Greenwood District’s Black Wall Street is a requirement in the Oklahoma social studies standards for Oklahoma history,” Pittman said. “However, the topic is also part of U.S. History and can serve as a case study for economic courses as well. This workshop will help teachers understand the history and gather primary source materials that they can use in lesson plans for U.S. history, Oklahoma history and even economics courses.”
To register for this free event, visit: teachingamericanhistory.org/seminar/the-black-wall-street-men-and-women-entrepreneurship.
For more information about the Northwestern Department of Social Sciences visit: www.www.nwosu.edu/school-of-arts-and-sciences/social-sciences or contact Dr. Eric Schmaltz, department chair and professor of history, at ejschmaltz@nwosu.edu or call (580) 327-8526.
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